Gent-Wevelgem 2025, another of the Flanders Classics, will be held on Sunday 30 March. Now in its 77th year as a men's race, it holds an important place in the Flandrien Classics calendar.
A WorldTour event, it is the second part of 'Flemish Holy Week' and is sandwiched between the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday and Dwars door Vlaanderen the following Wednesday, all leading up to the Tour of Flanders.
The official name of the race is Gent-Wevelgem – in Flanders Fields, a reference to the First World War.
Both the men's and women's events travel through the area known as Flanders Fields, a symbolic and historic site forever associated with the Great War. Nowadays, the men's race doesn't start in Gent, but at the Menin Gate in Ypres, and often passes Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest burial ground for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any conflict. The women's race starts in Ieper and is around 160km.
A variety of riders can flourish at Gent-Wevelgem due to the relatively balanced parcours. However, the race's marquee cobbled climb, the Kemmelberg, is severe enough to cause major splits in the action and features twice in the women's race and three times in the men's. Wind nearly always plays a factor due to the long, exposed flat sections.
