Brabantse Pijl 2026 Preview: The Punchy Overijse Double-Header That Bridges Cobbles and Ardennes
With Paris-Roubaix still to be settled on April 12, attention in the peloton is already beginning to turn to the calendar's most distinctive transition race. De Brabantse Pijl returns on Friday April 17 with its familiar Overijse double-header, women racing first and the men closing the day on a finale of Druivenstreek laps that has historically produced a who's-who of eventual Ardennes winners. Organisers have now confirmed their final team list, and the 2026 edition looks primed to do what this race does best: reveal who has kept their form from the cobbles and who has arrived early for the hills.
The men's course has once again been drawn around the repeated local circuit into Overijse, with Hertstraat, Moskesstraat, Holstheide and the awkward S-Bocht each ticked off several times in the closing hour. On paper it is neither as hard as the Tour of Flanders nor as selective as Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but the rhythm — constant accelerations on short, kicking climbs, positioning battles on narrow lanes, a finish that rarely comes down to the pure sprinters — makes it one of the hardest races of the season to read. A bad day here has ended more than one rider's Ardennes campaign before it has even started.
The biggest storyline is the presence, or absence, of Tadej Pogačar. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader is still expected to make Paris-Roubaix his final cobbled target and has not historically used Brabantse Pijl as an Ardennes opener. That leaves the race wide open for a group of punchy all-rounders who thrive on exactly this terrain. Mattias Skjelmose, defending Amstel Gold Race champion, has confirmed Brabantse Pijl as his competitive opener for the hills campaign, and Lidl-Trek will build the day around him.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are likely to bring a dual leadership. With Remco Evenepoel unlikely to race so soon after his gruelling Flanders debut podium, the German team should lean on Maxim Van Gils, a rider purpose-built for Overijse's finale and who was already inside the top ten here last year. Soudal Quick-Step will throw numbers at the problem with Ilan Van Wilder and a reorganised classics unit, while Ineos Grenadiers should once again give Tom Pidcock a protected role on roads that suit his sharp finishing kick better than anywhere else between Roubaix and Liège.
The women's race, now firmly established as a mid-April destination on the Women's WorldTour, rolls out of Lennik in the morning and covers 125.7km before hitting the same Overijse circuit as the men. It is a route that has historically produced attacking racing in the last 40km rather than a bunch finish, and this year's start list suggests more of the same. Puck Pieterse has targeted Brabantse Pijl as a rehearsal for her Ardennes triple, and Fenix-Deceuninck are building the week around her.
She will not have it easy. Demi Vollering is expected to use the race as a final fine-tuning opportunity ahead of the Flèche Wallonne Femmes, and FDJ-SUEZ will want a reaction from their leader after a Flanders that slipped through her fingers. Kasia Niewiadoma, Elisa Longo Borghini and a quietly improving Cédrine Kerbaol round out a list of genuine contenders deep enough to ensure the finale rarely settles before the final kilometre.
The double-header format — women's race followed by men's, same finish line, same Overijse crowds — is a large part of the race's growing appeal, and 2026 will see the biggest live broadcast window yet for both editions. Flemish broadcaster Sporza will cover the women's finale live into the men's build-up, with international feeds picking up from the start of the men's closing circuit. In a spring calendar increasingly dominated by single marquee events, Brabantse Pijl's twin-bill remains one of cycling's most sensible experiments in showcasing both races as equals.
For most of the favourites, results here are less about the trophy than about confirming the legs are where they need to be. Amstel follows on the 19th, Flèche Wallonne on the 22nd, Liège-Bastogne-Liège on the 26th. Nobody wins the spring on an Overijse circuit — but on April 17, plenty of riders can lose it.