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).
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
