2025 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Race Preview
The details of this year's 2025 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne are falling into place. Find the latest route profiles and maps below, followed by our strategic preview of the race.
The roads of West Flanders will once again host one of cycling's most beloved semi-classics as the peloton rolls out of Kuurne for the traditional day-after-Omloop Het Nieuwsblad fixture. Known affectionately as the Sunny Sunday despite the weather rarely living up to that billing in early March, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne offers a slightly more forgiving profile than its Saturday counterpart while still demanding class and cunning from its eventual winner.
The 2025 edition follows its familiar route, looping south toward Brussels before turning back north through the Flemish countryside and finishing in the same market town where it began. The race does not feature the fearsome cobbled climbs of a monument, but a series of hellingen in the final hour, including the Oude Kwaremont, Kortekeer, and Taaienberg, will thin the bunch and set up a final that typically suits a punchy rider capable of both surviving the accelerations on the climbs and producing a powerful finish.
Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert will naturally draw enormous attention. Both riders have demonstrated in recent seasons that they treat this opening Flemish weekend as a serious target rather than a warm-up, and either man is capable of dictating the race entirely on their own terms. Van der Poel arrives as perhaps the most complete one-day rider in the world, while Van Aert will be eager to stamp his authority on a new season.
The fast finishers will be watching carefully too. If a larger group comes together over the final kilometres, riders like Mads Pedersen and Jasper Philipsen possess the outright speed to challenge for victory, and their teams will work to control any situation that threatens to whittle the front group down to a handful of pure puncheurs.
Expect tactics to play a significant role. Teams protecting a designated sprinter will attempt to neutralise attacks on the climbs, while those riding for a more explosive finisher will look to create separation before the final straight. The closing kilometres into Kuurne are not especially technical, which means the race is usually decided just before the town rather than within it.
Weather will be a factor to monitor. Cold and wet conditions tend to favour the hardier Flemish classics specialists who thrive in attrition-based racing, while a drier and milder day could produce a faster, more tactical contest with a larger group contesting the finish.
This race has a habit of throwing up results that resonate throughout the spring campaign. A win here sends a message to every rival that a rider has arrived at the classics in serious form, and the momentum it generates can carry all the way through to Roubaix in April. With a strong and competitive start list expected, the 2025 edition promises to be another compelling chapter in a race that has quietly built one of the most consistent records of quality in the Belgian calendar.
Get our full coverage of the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
