Alpecin-Deceuninck renew with Jasper Philipsen ahead of Tour de France return
Cycling
Jasper Philipsen was at the end of his contract and had the interest of many teams in the peloton. It was certainly not an easy task for Alpecin-Deceuninck to keep their prime sprinter, but the Belgian has renewed with the team until as long as 2028 - the same length as Mathieu van der Poel's contract.
"Mathieu has been committed to the team, so if I choose to change teams, it would mean losing an important teammate," Philipsen said in a recent interview. "He would like it if I stayed. But he also realizes that that is a choice that every rider has to make for himself. It is certainly not the case that he is putting pressure on me to stay." Van der Poel's presence in the team is a key aspect for Philipsen.
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The World Champion was a key part of Philipsen success as a sprinter at the 2023 Tour de France and proved to be a perfect leadout rider; whilst his presence and support in the spring classics saw Philipsen win Milano-Sanremo this year and now finish twice second to van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix.
Philipsen is the main favourite to win the points classification at the Tour de France, specially after the storming success that was last year's edition. "Of course you have a certain focus, but it does have an impact on you. Especially if there is decompression after a certain victory," he said. "You can't really enjoy it for long, because the next day you have to fight for points again You must maintain that focus constantly until the goal is effectively achieved."
Philipsen will have the chance to become national champion this weekend in his home country, and at the Tour he will be able to count on the support of a dedicated leadout including van der Poel but also the likes of Soren Kragh Andersen and under-23 World Champion Axel Laurance.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024