A Closer Look: Brugge-De Panne. Sprinter showdown in a sprinter's classic

The Minerva Classic Brugge-De Panne will be the first race of the final block of cobbled classics and it is set to be one for the sprinters. It is a race with a lot of history and a lot of recent changes to it's format, which currently consists in a flat race in West Vlaanderen.

In the past it used to be a race for the cobbled classics, but nowadays the sprinters are the ones that take advantage of this race. With a new route that favours the faster riders, it's a race that has turned into a frequent goal for the sprinters, those who don't like to ride over cobblestones the most that is.

The peloton will head towards De Panne where it will ride through 3 laps of a final circuit around the nearby towns. The finale, which is expected to be in a sprint, will be technical before entering the final kilometer. Nevertheless, a bunch sprint will be very hard to avoid, and it should be a showdown with plenty fireworks to decide the race winner.

The startlist includes the likes of Sam Bennett, Nils Politt, Mark Cavendish, Arnaud de Lie, Florian Vermeersch, Biniam Ghirmay, Simone Consonni, Max Walscheid, Arnaud Démare, Rudy Barbier, Olav Kooij, Max Kanter, Dylan Groenewegen, Cees Bol, Alberto Dainese, Jasper Stuyven, Pascal Ackermann, Tim Merlier, Nacer Bouhanni, Amaury Capiot, Kristoffer Halvorsen, Niccolò Bonifazio and Timothy Dupont.