The 2023 Classic Brugge–De Panne was a Belgian road cycling one-day race that took place on 23 March 2023. It was the 6th edition of

Classic Brugge–De Panne The Classic Brugge–De Panne is a road cycling race in Belgium in late March. Since 2018 it is raced over two days with a men's race on Wednesday and a women's race on Thursday. Both races start in Bruges and finish in the seaside resort of De Pa ...

and the 8th event of the

2023 UCI Women's World Tour The 2023 UCI Women's World Tour is a competition that includes twenty-seven road cycling events throughout the 2023 women's cycling season. It is the eighth edition of the UCI Women's World Tour, the ranking system launched by the Union Cyclis ...

. The race was won by British rider

Pfeiffer Georgi Pfeiffer Zara Georgi (born 27 September 2000) is an English professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . She won the 2021 British National Road Race Championships. In 2017 she won the Gent–Wevelgem junior race ...

of after a solo attack with around 7 kilometres to go.

Summary

The race is considered to be a "sprinters classic", and four of the five editions of the race have been won in a bunch sprint. Sprinters including defending champion Elisa Balsamo,

Lorena Wiebes Lorena Wiebes (born 17 March 1999) is a Dutch racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . She rode for in the women's team time trial event at the 2018 UCI Road World Championships. She won the gold medal in road cycling a ...

Chiara Consonni Chiara Consonni (born 24 June 1999) is an Italian racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's World Team . She rode for in the women's team time trial event at the 2018 UCI Road World Championships. Her older brother Simone Consonni i ...

and

Charlotte Kool Charlotte Kool (born 6 May 1999) is a Dutch professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's World Tour Team . In October 2020, she rode in the 2020 Three Days of Bruges–De Panne race in Belgium. Major results ;2016 : 2nd Roa ...

were thought to be contenders for the win. With a route similar to the previous editions of the race, the long race started in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

and finished in

De Panne De Panne (; french: La Panne ) is a town and a municipality located on the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. There it borders France, making it the westernmost town in Belgium. It is one of the most popular resort town dest ...

, after two laps of a finishing circuit. As in common in the Classic Brugge–De Panne, the race was affected by crosswinds throughout. Around 45 kilometres into the race, a large crash in the peloton on narrow roads prior to the finishing circuits led to the race being neutralised for seven minutes to allow recovery and assessment of injured riders. After entering the finishing circuit, a group got away from the peloton at

De Moeren Veurne (; french: Furnes, italic=no, ) is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Veurne proper and the settlements of , , , , , Houtem, , , Wulveringem, and . History Origins up ...

. This group included favourites such as Elisa Balsamo of Trek–Segafredo, Lorena Wiebes of

SD Worx SD Worx () is a professional cycling team based in the Netherlands, which competes in elite road bicycle racing events such as the UCI Women's World Tour. Between 2012 and 2020, the team's title sponsors were the Dutch equipment rental company ...

and Charlotte Kool of Team DSM, as well as Kool's teammates

and

Megan Jastrab Megan Jastrab (born January 29, 2002) is an American professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . In September 2019, Jastrab won the women's junior road race at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire ...

. The crosswinds made it difficult to chase, with the leading group growing their gap from 17 to 40 seconds. On the final pass through De Moeren, Georgi and Jastrab split the front group, leaving just six riders. Entering

, both Jastrab and Georgi realised they needed to attack the group of sprinters if they wanted to win - with Georgi successfully escaping with around 7 kilometres to go. Sprinters in the chase group did not wish to waste energy in light of the final sprint, so Georgi's gap quickly grew. Pfeiffer Georgi crossed the line to win her first World Tour race, 1 minute 10 seconds ahead of the chase group. In the sprint for second place, Balsamo beat Wiebes, with Jastrab coming fourth. The peloton arrived over 4 minutes behind Georgi.

Summary

Result

References

External links