Alpecin-Deceuninck announces massive 2025 reinforcement, including two Cyclocross World Champions and a product of UAE's development programme
Cycling
Alpecin-Deceuninck has never been the biggest player on the transfer market. After all, with Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, they already have all the weapons needed to be in the center of action at all their in-season objectives.
With today's large transfer announcement, the Belgian team's started and quite possibly ended at the same time. According to the news, there will be (at the very least) six names racing in the WT team colours.
Johan Price-Pejtersen
The most prominent new face racing in Alpecin-Deceuninck colours in 2025 will be the three-time U23 world time trial champion Johan Price-Pejtersen. The 25-year-old Dane hasn't really managed to break through in his best discipline since turning pro with Bahrain and thus seeks fresh start with the Belgian team. His disqualification after winning the Danish ITT championships in particular resonated in media.
"Alpecin-Deceuninck has clearly established itself as a dominant force in cycling in recent years, with a strong winning culture and an uncompromising commitment to performance. It's exactly the kind of environment I want to be a part of," Price-Pejtersen claims.
Gal Glivar
The next name comes over from the newly-set up UAE Team Gen Z. Many expected Glivar to turn professional with the UAE team but in the end, the likes of Pablo Torres were picked over the 22-year-old Slovenian, who'll thus make WorldTour debut with Alpecin-Deceuninck instead. Glivar won Tour of Sharjah (2.2) and Giro del Belvedere at the start of 2024, but after that struggled to make the ends meet, finishing 2nd in a stage of Tour de l'Avenir and so on.
"I'm a rider with capacities for short, explosive climbs and I'm not slow in a small group sprint. My short-term goal is to make a smooth start in the WorldTour. My long-term goal is to win some big races and participate in the Tour de France," Glivar declares.
Fruits of work in the development team
The next four WorldTour debutants come from Alpecin's own development structure. Turning heads is the promotion of Tibor Del Grosso, the U23 Cyclocross World champion. With a strong campaign on road this year, Del Grosso has shown that he might on the way to become Mathieu van der Poel's successor.
Fourth name is Simon Dehairs, a man with a name the main sponsor Alpecin - essentially shampoo company - couldn't have wished for. If we dub Del Grosso the next MVDP, then Dehairs could well become the next Jasper Philipsen (or rather Tim Merlier). Dehairs had won five sprints in 2024 while finishing on podium against pros on several occasions (Veenendaal Classic, ZLM Tour). There's a large overload of sprinters in Alpecin, but there's always place for another - it seems.
Completing the new six are Emiel Verstrynge and Ramses Debruyne. Runner-up at the beforementioned U23 Cyclocross worlds, Verstrynge seems to be a promising climber with a decent turn of speed - a rider for harder hilly classics is exactly the area Alpecin hopes to fill up and Verstrynge could provide exactly that. Unlike the others, Debruyne isn't the most well-known name and as such we can most likely expect him to be at help of his more experienced teammates while waiting for his own chance.
This could've been everything, but Alpecin-Deceuninck also announced three new riders for it's development programme. One name in particular catches an eye. Italian junior Stefano Viezzi has become Junior Cyclocross World Champion last winter and should be a valuable addition to Alpecin's off-road programme while we can only imagine what he can do on road.
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