{"id":26190,"date":"2026-02-27T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/26190\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T08:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:47:08","slug":"kuurne-brussels-kuurne-2026-the-opening-weekend-dessert-almost-always-tastes-good-especially-with-van-der-poel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/26190\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026 | The Opening Weekend \u201cdessert\u201d almost always tastes good \u2014 especially with Van der Poel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening Weekend in Belgium is a fixture, with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne\u2013Brussels\u2013Kuurne<\/a> forming a classic one-two. In recent years, though, the spotlight has increasingly shifted to Saturday\u2019s WorldTour race, with Kuurne on Sunday often treated as the dessert. Here at IDLProCycling.com, we explain the recipe for this year\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n

Why is Kuurne\u2013Brussels\u2013Kuurne usually so much fun? Because if you want to win it without a sprint, you have to start very early \u2014 and quite a few of those missions have succeeded in recent seasons. Think of the Visma-dominated years of 2023 and 2024, when Tiesj Benoot and Wout van Aert took victory.<\/p>\n

Of course, there have also been bunch sprints \u2014 Kuurne does end that way fairly often. Pure power sprinters like Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen are on the palmar\u00e8s, and last year Jasper Philipsen struck again, ahead of Olav Kooij.<\/p>\n

The race dynamics, the weather and the strength of the start list<\/a> ensure a different story every year. What will happen on Sunday? Let\u2019s dive in.Latest winners Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne<\/p>\n

2025 Jasper Philipsen
2024 Wout van Aert
2023 Tiesj Benoot
2022 Fabio Jakobsen
2021 Mads Pedersen
2020 Kasper Asgreen
2019 Bob Jungels
2018 Dylan Groenewegen
2017 Peter Sagan
2016 Jasper Stuyven<\/p>\n

Course, weather and times Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026<\/p>\n

Kuurne\u2013Brussels\u2013Kuurne starts on Sunday from the Grote Markt in Kortrijk, Kuurne\u2019s southern neighbour. From there, the riders head towards Harelbeke before turning right for obstacle number one of the day: the Tiegemberg. Don\u2019t expect fireworks here \u2014 it comes after just over 16 kilometres of racing. The real battle is for later.<\/p>\n

After the Volkegemberg and Lepelstraat, the legs will be properly warmed up. After 66 kilometres (of 194.9 in total), the climbs come thick and fast. Via Bossenaarsstraat, Berg ten Houte and La Houppe, the peloton hurtles towards the halfway point.<\/p>\n

The seventh climb of the day is often the trigger for the bigger names without sprint ambitions to start pushing on. Hameau des Papins (preceded by an uncategorised rise) sits 100 kilometres from the finish.<\/p>\n

Via Le Bourliquet and Mont Saint-Laurent, we move on to hills that are more familiar to Flemish fans: the Kruisberg, Hotond, C\u00f4te du Trieu and the Kluisberg. The top of that final climb comes with 60 kilometres remaining. After that, only the unpaved Beerbosstraat still awaits.<\/p>\n

From there, it\u2019s time for the big chainring \u2014 and with a fairly stiff wind expected from the south-west, it\u2019s worth noting that with 50 kilometres to go the riders turn right after Celles and ride back towards Kuurne with the wind on a diagonal tail.<\/p>\n

One small note: after 180 kilometres, the peloton passes the finish line in Kuurne for the first time, before completing one extra local circuit of 14 kilometres before the final run-in. Kortrijk is also visited once more through the centre as part of that closing loop. What will the outcome be after that?<\/p>\n

\"kuurne-brussel-kuurne-2026\"\/<\/p>\n

Weather
After a few pleasant days in the Netherlands and Belgium, the temperature drops again over the weekend to just above double figures on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday it turns a touch colder still, with \u201cfeels like\u201d temperatures around 7\u20139\u00b0C. In the afternoon, the chance of rain also rises to around 35%. Add a wind that will fluctuate between force 2, 3 and 4 from the south-southwest, and you\u2019ve got classic early-spring weather.<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 12:10 PM
Finish: approximately 5 PM<\/p>\n

Favorites Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026<\/p>\n

To Van der Poel or not to Mathieu van der Poel? That is the big Sunday question. The Dutchman will decide after Saturday\u2019s Omloop whether he will also start on Sunday \u2014 and if he does, Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech immediately have the top favourite on board.<\/p>\n

The Belgian squad also have Jasper Philipsen as Plan B, should Van der Poel fail to go solo (or escape with a small group) in the hardest phase and stay away. Philipsen could, of course, also be part of the move and still sprint. So that\u2019s Plan B and Plan C.<\/p>\n

The challengers we first look for are \u201cclassic\u201d types: riders who want to anticipate a bunch sprint, or those who can sprint with climbing legs. That brings us to the familiar names: Matej Mohori\u010d (Bahrain Victorious), Kasper Asgreen (EF Education\u2013EasyPost) and the Lidl\u2013Trek duo Toms Skuji\u0146\u0161 and Jakob S\u00f6derqvist.<\/p>\n

Continue down that line and you can\u2019t ignore riders like Iv\u00e1n Garc\u00eda Cortina (Movistar), Laurence Pithie, brothers Tim and Mick van Dijke (Red Bull), Dylan van Baarle (Soudal Quick-Step), Christophe Laporte, Axel Zingle (Visma | Lease a Bike) and the UAE block of Tim Wellens, Nils Politt and Florian Vermeersch.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Milan (Lidl\u2013Trek), Biniam Girmay (NSN), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Milan Fretin (Cofidis) have all already won one or more sprints this season and will be hungry for sprint success in Kuurne.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"stefan-kung\"\/<\/p>\n

Stefan K\u00fcng<\/p>\n

Plenty of other fast men are still waiting for their first win, but have the quality to change that quickly. Think Jordi Meeus (Red Bull), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto\u2013Intermarch\u00e9), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) and Aaron Gate (Astana).<\/p>\n

Among the younger riders \u2014 and there is always one who can break through, as in previous years \u2014 we are definitely noting Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL), Noah Hobbs (EF) and newly minted sprinter Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor). If the winner isn\u2019t among all these names? Then we can safely say Sunday will deliver a surprise!<\/p>\n

Who are the favorites for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026, according to IDLProCycling.com?<\/p>\n

Top favorites: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step)
Outsiders: Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Biniam Girmay (NSN), Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9).
Long shots:Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets), Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Jordi Meeus (Red Bull), Phil Bauhaus, Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL), Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost), Toms Skujins, Jakob S\u00f6derqvist (Lidl-Trek),Laurence Pithie, Tim and Mick van Dijke (Red Bull), Dylan van Baarle (Soudal Quick-Step), Christophe Laporte, Axel Zingle (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tim Wellens, Nils Politt and Florian Vermeersch (UAE), Stefan K\u00fcng, Rick Pluimers (Tudor) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X).<\/p>\n

TV broadcast Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026<\/p>\n

Eurosport: 14.30
Sporza: 14:30
HBO Max: 14.30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opening Weekend in Belgium is a fixture, with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne\u2013Brussels\u2013Kuurne forming a classic one-two. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,2813,16937,14800,16936],"class_list":{"0":"post-26190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-brussels","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-idl-productions","12":"tag-kuurne-brussels-kuurne","13":"tag-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}