Ronde van Brugge

Ronde van Brugge, in English the Tour of Bruges, is a men's one-day WorldTour bike race held in Belgium each March. It continues the Classic Brugge-De Panne, the one-day race run from Bruges to De Panne from 2018 to 2025, under a new name, with start and finish in Bruges from 2026. That race in turn replaced the Three Days of De Panne, a stage race first held in 1977.

The Tour of Bruges is a flat one-day WorldTour race for sprinters, held in late March on the roads around Bruges. It has carried that name since 2026. It continues the Classic Brugge-De Panne, which had itself replaced the Three Days of De Panne, a stage race first held on the Belgian coast in 1977.

The stage race at De Panne, 1977 to 2017

Nothing before 2026 was raced under the Tour of Bruges name. That history belongs to the two races it continues, which the organizer counts as one series: the 2025 Classic Brugge-De Panne was numbered the 49th edition.

The first Three Days of De Panne, Driedaagse De Panne in Dutch, ran from March 21 to 24, 1977, with five races in four days, and Roger Rosiers won it. From 1978 it lasted three days, usually Tuesday to Thursday of the week that ended with the Tour of Flanders. From 1994 to 2017 the format did not change: two road stages, then a last day split between a short road stage in the morning and a time trial in De Panne in the afternoon.

Eric Vanderaerden’s five wins in De Panne

Eric Vanderaerden won the Three Days of De Panne five times, in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1993. No other rider has won more than twice under any of the race’s names. Sean Kelly won in 1980 and then finished second three years running, in 1985 behind Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke and in 1986 and 1987 behind Vanderaerden.

The closing time trial also brought specialists against the clock onto the winners’ list, among them Viatcheslav Ekimov in 1996 and 2000 and David Millar in 2010.

Philippe Gilbert and the last stage race in 2017

The first stage usually went inland to the climbs of the Flemish Ardennes, and riders used the three days to prepare for the Tour of Flanders that Sunday. Alessandro Ballan in 2007, Alexander Kristoff in 2015 and Philippe Gilbert in 2017 won in De Panne and then won the Tour of Flanders the same week.

Gilbert’s was the last edition raced over three days. On the opening stage he attacked alone on the second ascent of the Muur van Geraardsbergen and rode the final 16 kilometers by himself to finish 17 seconds ahead of Luke Durbridge. He won the overall by 38 seconds after the time trial.

Why De Panne became a one-day race in 2018

The stage race ended because it lost its dates: for 2018 Dwars door Vlaanderen was moved to the Wednesday before the Tour of Flanders, in the week De Panne had held for 41 years. “We didn’t have any choice and actually in January we didn’t have a race anymore,” organizing committee president Bruno Dequeecker told Cyclingnews.

The organizers moved a week earlier and cut the event to one day, 202.4 kilometers from the Markt in Bruges to De Panne, with a women’s race the next day. Elia Viviani won the first one-day edition in a bunch sprint. The race kept the name Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne through 2020, joined the WorldTour in 2019, when Dylan Groenewegen won, and became the Classic Brugge-De Panne in 2021.

De Moeren and the crosswinds of Brugge-De Panne

In its last years the race finished with three laps around De Panne, and each lap crossed De Moeren. This is drained marshland on the French border, about two meters below sea level, with a concrete road of about four kilometers that is open to the wind. With a crosswind the peloton split into echelons there, and without one the sprinters arrived together. In 2022 there was no wind, and Tim Merlier beat Groenewegen by the width of a tire.

The pandemic moved the 2020 race to late October. The field was in three groups after 12 kilometers, and Mathieu van der Poel was blown into a ditch with 16 kilometers to go. Yves Lampaert attacked alone into a headwind seven kilometers from the finish and won, with his teammate Tim Declercq second.

In 2023 cold rain and crosswinds of 40 kilometers an hour broke the race up on De Moeren. On the third crossing only Lampaert, Olav Kooij and Frederik Frison could stay with Jasper Philipsen, who beat Kooij in the sprint. Philipsen won again in 2024, that time in a bunch sprint.

The move from De Panne to Bruges

Juan Sebastián Molano won the last race to De Panne in 2025, in a sprint from a bunch thinned by crashes. The run-in through the town had often been criticized as dangerous. The agreement between the organizing club, KVC Panne Sportief, and the town of De Panne expired with that edition. On June 11, 2025, the club, the events company Golazo and the city of Bruges announced the Tour of Bruges, Ronde van Brugge in Dutch, with a partnership that runs to at least 2031.

The 2026 course was two flat loops that started from the Markt in Bruges and finished on the Gulden-Vlieslaan, a wide avenue reached over 10 kilometers of roads without obstacles. The southern loop went through Torhout, Wingene and Beernem. The northern loop passed Damme and Dudzele, followed the Damse Vaart canal, used part of the 2021 world championship time trial course and crossed the cobbles of the Brieversweg. The first men’s edition covered 202.9 kilometers, and De Moeren was no longer on the route.

Dylan Groenewegen wins the first Tour of Bruges

The wind split the race anyway: on March 25, 2026, in rain and cold, echelons formed with about 80 kilometers to go, and Groenewegen was in the first group of 14. He punctured with 63 kilometers left and rode on the flat tire for several kilometers. With 31 kilometers to go a protester sat down on the cobbles in front of the peloton and jumped clear at the last moment, and Molano, the defending champion, crashed.

A reduced group reached the Gulden-Vlieslaan together, and Philipsen had to start his sprint 300 meters out; Groenewegen took his wheel and came past, with Max Kanter third. Philipsen was on the podium for the fifth time since 2018. The win was the first in the WorldTour for Unibet Rose Rockets, a ProTeam founded just over three years earlier, and Groenewegen’s second in the race, seven years after his first.

This is still Belgian one-day racing stripped to its essentials: exposed roads, nervous positioning, and a finale that rewards sprinters who can survive the stress before they unleash their speed. Tour of Bruges inherits the old Classic Brugge-De Panne slot, so the race keeps the familiar sprint tension even as the branding and route identity shift toward Bruges.