Three WorldTour rebrands for 2026: In Flanders Fields, Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes and Ronde van Brugge

The mechanics are straightforward enough. Two of road cycling’s most recognisable titles are being traded. Gent-Wevelgem is to be known in 2026 as In Flanders Fields: From Middelkerke to Wevelgem, and the Critérium du Dauphiné becomes the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes. A third switch completes the set, with Classic Brugge - De Panne evolving into Ronde van Brugge. 

In Flanders Fields now runs the way it feels it should: from Middelkerke to Wevelgem. Gent dropped out of the route years ago, and the race found its true shape again in the open. This is a classic written by North Sea crosswinds, by narrow lanes that still carry the memory of trenches, by the Plugstreets, and by the Kemmelberg, always waiting to tilt the day.

Middelkerke is where you start listening to the wind. Wevelgem is still the finish. And In Flanders Fields keeps the day tied to the landscape it moves through. Gent-Wevelgem (since 2016 officially: Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields), raced since 1934, has never needed much selling. If people call it a wind classic, it is because that is what it is, and what riders keep finding out again and again.

The most recent winner was Mads Pedersen, who took the 2025 edition. The all-time wins record sits at three, shared by several riders. Pedersen now belongs in that group, alongside names like Eddy Merckx and Peter Sagan.

In the press release after signing the ten year agreement with the Middelkerke council on the new naming rights, Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel said, "One thing is certain: the Great War will always remain deeply intertwined with this race. This race is steeped in world history, giving it a truly unmatched identity in the world of cycling. That is something we will keep building on."

Then there is the former Dauphiné. For a lot of fans, dropping both Critérium and Dauphiné will feel like losing a name that has been around forever, tied to a newspaper and a corner of France, and to that familiar slot on the calendar before the Tour. 

But the new title, Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes, is at least honest about what the race has become: a week long lap of the region, with the Vercors and the Chartreuse one day, then Galibier air the next. 

Organiser ASO framed it as a simple alignment of label and reality: “This name change reflects the geographical identity that the race has acquired over more than ten years."

Strip away the branding, and the function stays exactly the same. Since a long time, it has been the clearest rehearsal for July. Tadej Pogačar underlined that in 2025, winning the race that used to be the Dauphiné, before taking another Tour victory. 

The record is still three overall wins, a number that tells you how hard it is to come back year after year and finish the job, matched by only a handful of riders, including Chris Froome and Bernard Hinault.

Finally, another rebrand in the 2026 calendar is Classic Brugge - De Panne. It no longer ends in De Panne. The race starts and finishes in Bruges now, with the belfry never far from view. The feel is still West Flanders with long straight farm roads, and the constant chance of echelons. Historically, it began in 1977 as the Three Days of De Panne stage race, before modernising into today’s sprinter focused format. 

The most recent winner was Juan Sebastián Molano in 2025, while the most wins record belongs to Eric Vanderaerden with five victories.

Alongside the new name, the finale will also change in 2026. The dangerous seaside approach has made way for tighter streets and a scrappier fight for position on the edge of town. The same sprinters and rouleurs will chase it, only with different questions to answer in the last few kilometres.

There will, of course, be grumbles at first. There always are. Omloop Het Volk still lives inside Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and E3 has carried more surnames than a soap opera character while everyone keeps calling it E3.

In the end, time will tell whether the new names are embraced, ignored, or simply end up living alongside their predecessors.