Juan Sebastian Molano gave UAE Team Emirates their 20th victory of the 2025 season, surviving a crash-filled finale in the 2025 Classic Brugge-De Panne that claimed many of the pre-race favourites before surging to the win with 400 metres to go.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) closed down the gap but couldn't quite get past before the line and had to settle for second. Estonian Madis Mihkels sprinted in for third.
"I'm very happy for me and for my family, for my team," Molano said. "After the last corner, I was in a good position after the small road. I looked at 500 meters and took the corner really, really fast, and then I started to sprint.
"It was really long, but I looked behind, and no one was following me, so I went full gas for the final."
There were three massive crashes in the final 4km, and Molano narrowly avoided hitting the tarmac.
"This finale is really, really dangerous, really fast," Molano said. "I saw three crashes, one touched me in the leg, [then there was another on the] right, left."
The crashes were a huge blow for many of the top sprinters, with Milan, Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Dylan Groenwegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) among the survivors who weren't quick enough to react when Molano launched his move.
Others saw the rest of their Spring Classics campaign potentially impacted including Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike).
How it unfolded
There was sunshine and only a light breeze for the start of the 195.6-kilometre Classic Brugge-De Panne.
António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was the highest-profile rider to make the day's early breakaway, going clear in the opening kilometres with Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders - Baloise), Michiel Lambrecht (Wagner Bazin WB), Joren Bloem and Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets).
The peloton, led by Lidl-Trek for Jonathan Milan, Soudal-Quickstep for Tim Merlier and Visma-Lease a Bike for Olav Kooij, kept the escapees to a maximum gap of 2:30 before entering the three 42.9km closing circuits.
On the first lap, the bunch chipped away at the breakaway's advantage, bringing it under the two-minute mark with 120km to go.
The gap continued to fall on the penultimate lap, with the peloton closing to almost one minute behind the well-oiled paceline of the breakaway with 50km to go. A crash from Daniel Skerl (Bahrain Victorious) hardly slowed the peloton, which came through the line at the bell with a 1:10 gap to close to the five escapees.
While the gap fell under a minute, it kept bouncing around that bark as Morgado motivated his breakaway companions to keep working.
Soudal-Quickstep had faith in Merlier, and Lidl-Trek were equally in it for Milan, driving the pace to bring the breakaway back. However, the five leaders continued to cooperate and hold off the chasers.
Then Jayco-AlUla came through for Dylan Groenewegen along with Israel-Premier Tech, bringing the gap down to 38 seconds with 26km remaining. But it wasn't time to make the catch yet, and as Jayco-AlUla stepped off the gas and no other team came through, the gap went out to 45 seconds a kilometre later.
Inside the final 20km, Soudal-Quickstep came back to the front and upped the pace, but the five breakaway riders were still cooperating and holding 33 seconds until De Vries attacked with 15km remaining.
Morgado tried to bridge across, thought twice, went back to the other three and kept pulling. Bloem was under no obligation to do any further work with a teammate up the road, leaving Morgado to try to close the gap with just Vercouillie and Lambrecht.
While De Vries maintained his lead on the peloton and even extended it, the chasers were steadily losing ground on the long, straight road through De Moeren.
With 10km still to race and wind not too much of a factor, Soudal-Quickstep led the chase and could see the four pursuers ahead and De Vries off in the distance. The four were caught with 8.9km to go.
De Vries powered on toward the finish line, holding 15 seconds with 5km to go and a technical run-in in the favour of a solo rider. A crash in the peloton took out Tudor's man Alberto Dainese and numerous other riders.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe led the peloton for Sam Welsford heading into the final 4km, bringing De Vries' advantage to just 10 seconds before another crash involving three Intermarché-Wanty riders further disrupted proceedings.
De Vries was finally reeled in with 2.4km to go appearing to have a puncture, and as the bunch swept past another massive crash took down riders from Cofidis, Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Lotto, including Arnaud De Lie and Arnaud Démare.
Picnic-PostNl stepped off the gas over concerns for Fabio Jakobsen, and another massive crash threw the entire finale into utter chaos. Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) was down. Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) was down, Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) was down.
Sebastian Molano jumped with 400 metres to go ahead of a very reduced peloton, but Milan was still there and used his massive power to draw alongside for a photo finish. The jury soon ruled that Molano was the winner.
Results
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