Jasper Philipsen follows up Omloop podium with Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne title

The Opening Weekend of the Spring Classics concluded on Sunday with the 1.Pro-rated Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. If Saturday’s 40-rider sprint at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was a surprise, with Wout van Aert placing outside the top-10, KBK’s climax was more to form, a bunch sprint where Jasper Philipsen won on his 27th birthday. His first triumph of the season comes a day after an Omloop podium.

Last Season

In the 2024 K-B-K, Wout van Aert escaped with Tim Wellens and Oier Lazcano and beat them to the line. Visma-LAB had two former K-B-K winners returning, as van Aert and Tiejs Benoot will be the main Dutch Bees. Wellens, Matej Mohorič and Red Bull duo Lazcano and Tratnik brought the resistance.

The Course

Awaiting the riders were nine cobbled sectors and five climbs, most of them cobbled. The last climb crested with 34 km to go.

The Canadian contingent was the same as at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Israel-Premier Tech duo Guillaume Boivin and Riley Pickrell and Q36.5’s Nickolas Zukowsky. Zuk was the only Canuck to finish Omloop.

A breakaway of seven bounced over the first half of the 196.9-km route, with a 3:20 gap held by the midway point. A few counterattacks flared out and were extinguished, but all the action streamlined the peloton, jettisoning Søren Wærenskjold, the Omloop victor. With the fugitives within 1:30, a handful of riders tried more bridging moves.

With 58 km remaining and the reinforced breakaway within hailing distance, van Aert made a dig, Red Bull’s new man Roger Adrià on his wheel.

Van Aert and Adrià were hauled back and the breakaway, now a nontet, beat on. Wellens, one of the riders who had bridged to the fugitive group, attempted to skip clear of his breakmates, but only managed to chip off a few fellows. The gap stayed at around a half minute for an hour. Finally, the escape was absorbed just before the first passage of the finish line with 12 km remaining.

Wary of the traffic furniture, the multicoloured serpent slithered through the streets of Kuurne. Uno-X, Lidl-Trek, Soudal-QuickStep, EF Education-EasyPost, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Visma-Lease a Bike were all prominent. A single-rider crash hardly interrupted the pace.

Kaden Groves, a fine sprinter in his own right, led out Jasper Philipsen, who stayed on the right-hand barrier and held off Olav Kooij for the day’s flowers.

Next Saturday is the Race of the White Roads, Strade Bianche.

2025 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
1) Jasper Philipsen (Belgium/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4:26:30
2) Olav Kooij (The Netherlands/Visma-Lease a Bike) s.t.
3) Hugo Hofstetter (France/Israel-Premier Tech) s.t.