In Flanders Fields 2026 | Mads Pedersen hunting a fourth, Mathieu van der Poel still searching for a first

The reason for the name change? “The race has not started in Ghent for years, so at some point it is only logical that the investing cities want to see their investment reflected. Now that we have signed a ten-year contract with Middelkerke, it was time to make the change,” Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel explained.

Anyone glancing at the race’s honour roll will quickly spot a pattern: only major names win here. Greg Van Avermaet, Peter Sagan, Alexander Kristoff, Wout van Aert, Biniam Girmay and Christophe Laporte are all on the list, to name just a few.

Last year, Mads Pedersen won for the third time, after riding a large part of the finale solo. The year before, the Dane from Lidl-Trek beat Mathieu van der Poel in a two-up sprint.

2025 Mads Pedersen
2024 Mads Pedersen
2023 Christophe Laporte
2022 Biniam Girmay
2021 Wout van Aert
2020 Mads Pedersen
2019 Alexander Kristoff
2018 Peter Sagan
2017 Greg Van Avermaet
2016 Peter Sagan

For the next ten years, the race will start in Middelkerke, meaning Gent-Wevelgem is officially no longer Gent-Wevelgem. In truth, that had already been the case for quite some time: first Deinze hosted the start, and since 2020 that honour had gone to Ypres.

It is also a fitting start location, because Gent-Wevelgem was already widely known as the race of “Flanders Fields”, a reference to the battlefields in the region during the First World War. From 2026, that becomes the event’s official name as well.

Middelkerke and Ypres are roughly 40 kilometres apart, so the organisers have had to make some tweaks to the route. From Middelkerke, the riders head in a kind of S-bend along the coast before setting course for Veurne.

Just after passing that point, the race reaches the famous De Moeren. With a north-westerly wind forecast, there is every chance the peloton will already be in pieces there — if it has not split before then.

The riders then head into the Heuvelland, where climbs such as the Monteberg, Baneberg and Scherpenberg feature, and of course the Kemmelberg cannot be missed. That climb, the defining symbol of this race, must be tackled three times and always plays a major role in shaping the outcome.

The Plugstreets — Hill 63, Christmas Truce and The Catacombs — also return to the route, where Pedersen made the difference last year. At the time, Olav Kooij and Jasper Philipsen were still in contention on those gravel sectors, but a crash and a puncture respectively knocked them back.

After the final ascent of the Kemmelberg — with 34.3 kilometres still to go — it is full gas all the way to Wevelgem, where we usually see either a reduced group or a peloton sprinting for victory. Or will we get a repeat of last year, when Pedersen arrived solo?

Weather
For this race, the first thing you look at is the wind, and that is expected to come from the north-west. That means a tail-crosswind in De Moeren. The forecast is only force 2 on the Beaufort scale, but on the exposed Flemish roads that can still be enough to cause damage. It will feel chilly throughout the day, although the riders do appear set to stay dry.

Times
Start: 11 AM local time
Finish: around 4:35 PM local time

In Flanders Fields promises to be a fascinating spectacle, given both the predicted wind and the start list. Big teams like Alpecin-Premier Tech, Lidl-Trek and Visma | Lease a Bike all have line-ups that cover both the attacking and sprint scenarios, but what exactly should we expect between Middelkerke and Wevelgem?

The key fact is that this is the only race in Flemish Cycling Week that Mathieu van der Poel has still not won. The same applies at Alpecin-Premier Tech for Jasper Philipsen, who has also yet to really make this race his own. So expect the Roodhooft brothers’ squad to do everything it can on Sunday to shape the race to its liking.

At Visma | Lease a Bike, Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan are both expected to return, after Van Aert chose to skip E3 Saxo Classic and Brennan was ill ahead of Milan-Sanremo. Their third leader is Christophe Laporte, who has already won this race in the past. They, too, are likely to leave their mark on the race.

The man who has owned Wevelgem in recent years, however, is Mads Pedersen. The Dane has already won here in a sprint, after a two-man move with Van der Poel, and last year he finished it off solo. At Lidl-Trek, he is backed by Czech powerhouse Mathias Vacek and sprinter Jonathan Milan, although Milan was not fully fresh either and therefore had to skip Sanremo.

From a collective perspective, you also have to look at teams like INEOS Grenadiers, with Filippo Ganna, Ben Turner, Magnus Sheffield and Joshua Tarling, and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe with brothers Mick and Tim van Dijke, Gianni Vermeersch, Laurence Pithie and Jordi Meeus. They all have cards to play in different race scenarios.

Looking at the faster men, the pure sprinters seem to be showing up less and less. Take Dylan Groenewegen, for example, who is opting for a French 1.1 race with Unibet Rose Rockets and will not be here. Who is on the start line? Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X), though those are more sprinters-plus than pure sprinters.

And that type of rider is exactly what Flanders always has plenty of. Matteo Trentin, Luca Mozzato, Laurenz Rex, Jasper Stuyven, Luke Lamperti, Arnaud De Lie, Jenno Berckmoes, Anthony Turgis, Mike Teunissen, Davide Ballerini and Lukas Kubis are all fast after a hard race.

If the race turns into a serious echelon battle or a small group slips clear, then riders like Jonas Abrahamsen, Florian Vermeersch and Matej Mohoric can also be expected at the front.

Top favorites: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
Outsiders: Wout van Aert, Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers)
Long shots: Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), Florian Vermeersch (UAE Emirates-XRG), Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché), Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), Jordi Meeus, Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step) and Matteo Trentin (Tudor)

In Flanders Fields can be watched for both the men’s and women’s races on HBO Max, Eurosport and Sporza, with the Belgian broadcaster starting its coverage from 10:30 AM. After a short break, Sporza will then stay live with the race for the rest of the afternoon. Eurosport and NOS are also broadcasting the Flemish classic live, from around 1:45 PM local time.