The GP Lucien Van Impe returns on Thursday 20 August 2026, with the Women’s ProSeries race once again centred on Erpe-Mere in Belgium.
For UK viewers, the good news is that the race can be watched live and free online through Pickx Cycling.
The broadcast will be in Dutch, but there is no subscription required to access the stream.
The GP Lucien Van Impe has developed quickly from a small Belgian one-day race into a UCI 1.Pro event, and the 2026 edition continues that progression with another strong field on the familiar roads around Erpe-Mere.
For more on the course itself, ProCyclingUK’s GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 route guide looks at the circuit, key sections and where the race is most likely to be decided.
How to watch GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 in the UK
UK viewers can watch the race through:
The stream is free to access and does not require a conventional sports television subscription.
Commentary and on-screen presentation will be in Dutch, but the live pictures should still make it a useful option for British viewers wanting to follow the race.
Pickx has increasingly become an important free streaming destination for Belgian women’s racing. The same service is also showing the Egmont Cycling Race Women 2026 during the same late-summer block of Belgian one-day events.
For a wider overview of where women’s cycling is shown throughout the season, ProCyclingUK’s women’s cycling TV rights guide by country covers the main broadcasters and streaming services used in 2026.
What time does GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 start in the UK?
The race is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday 20 August.
UK viewers should expect the racing to begin at around lunchtime, with the decisive final part of the race taking place during the afternoon.
Because the precise finishing time will depend on race speed, weather and how aggressively the peloton approaches the circuits around Erpe-Mere, it is worth opening the Pickx stream before the projected final hour rather than waiting for a fixed finishing time.
What is the GP Lucien Van Impe?
The GP Lucien Van Impe is a women’s one-day race held around Erpe-Mere in East Flanders.
The current women’s event only joined the UCI international calendar in 2024, although its roots go back to a non-UCI edition held in 2023.
The race has progressed rapidly since then, moving from UCI 1.2 status to 1.1 and now reaching UCI Women’s ProSeries level for 2026.
That development is covered in more detail in ProCyclingUK’s history of the GP Lucien Van Impe, which also looks at the event’s connection to one of Belgium’s most famous climbers.
The race is named after Lucien Van Impe, Belgium’s 1976 Tour de France winner and one of the outstanding climbers of his generation.
Van Impe was born in Mere and won the Tour’s mountains classification six times during his career, making him one of the most important cycling figures associated with the region.
For readers new to the event, the beginner’s guide to GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 explains the race format, history and what makes the Erpe-Mere course distinctive.
What is the GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 route like?
Despite being named after one of the great Tour de France climbers, this is not a mountainous race.
Instead, the terrain is recognisably Belgian.
The course around Erpe-Mere contains repeated short rises, narrow roads and enough changes of direction to make positioning important throughout the race.
The climbing is more attritional than decisive.
Rather than one major ascent creating enormous gaps, the repeated circuits gradually wear riders down and give Classics specialists opportunities to attack.
That still leaves room for fast finishers.
The 2026 route guide explains how the balance between the short climbs and the relatively accessible finish can produce either a reduced sprint or a small attacking group.
That uncertainty is one of the race’s main tactical attractions.
Who won GP Lucien Van Impe last year?
Lorena Wiebes won the 2025 edition.
Wiebes entered as the clear favourite and confirmed that status by winning the sprint in Erpe-Mere.
The year before, Evy Kuijpers took her first professional victory at the race, outsprinting Anastasiya Kolesava after the pair reached the finish together.
ProCyclingUK covered that breakthrough in Evy Kuijpers’ 2024 GP Lucien Van Impe victory.
Those two results show the different ways this race can be won.
Kuijpers succeeded from a much smaller selection, while Wiebes demonstrated that the course is still manageable for one of the world’s best sprinters if the race is controlled.
That tension between attacks and the sprint should again shape the 2026 edition.
Why the 2026 race is worth watching
The promotion to 1.Pro status makes the 2026 GP Lucien Van Impe the most important edition yet.
It now sits immediately below Women’s WorldTour level and should attract stronger teams, deeper squads and more ranking points than in previous years.
That makes it more than simply another Belgian midweek race.
For WorldTour teams, it offers a valuable opportunity between larger stage races and late-summer one-day events.
For Continental and development squads, it provides a chance to race directly against some of the strongest women’s teams in the peloton.
That mix often produces aggressive racing because not every team arrives with the same objective.
Some will want a sprint.
Others have little reason to help control the race and will instead look for breakaways or late attacks.
GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 UK viewing details
Date: Thursday 20 August 2026
Race: GP Lucien Van Impe
Category: UCI Women’s ProSeries, 1.Pro
Location: Erpe-Mere, Belgium
UK live stream: Pickx Cycling
Cost: Free
Commentary: Dutch
The key point for UK viewers is simple: the GP Lucien Van Impe 2026 can be watched legally and free through Pickx Cycling, even though the commentary will not be in English.
With the race now promoted to ProSeries status, that free stream provides a particularly useful way to follow one of the Belgian women’s calendar’s fastest-rising events.
