Introducing Jasper Philipsen - The peloton's leading sprinter and Tour de France green jersey winner

Jasper Philipsen is a Belgian professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI World Tour team Alpecin–Deceuninck. Since the Tour de France 2023 he is recognized as one of the fastest sprinters in the world.

Name: Jasper Philipsen

Birthday: March 2, 1998

Birthplace: Mol, Belgium

Turned Pro: 2018

Height: 1.76m

You can read about Philipsen at all times by clicking here. Philipsen was born on March 2, 1998, in Mol, Flanders, Belgium. Philipsen is a sprinter and has won several stages in the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, alongside many others. He's become one of the most successful sprinters of the 2020's quickly and was the winner of the 2023 Tour de France's points classification.

Philipsen began his cycling career in 2010 with the Royal Balen BC team. In 2015, he became the national junior time trial champion. Later that year, he finished eighth at the European championships in the same discipline and sixth at the world championships. In 2016, Philipsen won the Guido Reybrouck Classic and E3 Harelbeke for juniors, and successfully defended his national time trial title. In addition, that year he finished fifth in Paris-Roubaix for juniors and 11th in the Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten.

Philipsen turned professional in 2018 with Hagens Berman Axeon. He took several victories that year, including the overall classification of the Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux and a stage in the Baby Giro, as well as a stage at the Tour of Utah. His talent was undeniable and UAE Team Emirates signed the Belgian on a two-year contract in 2019. He immediately succeeded by winning at the Tour Down Under. However that was his only win of the season, at the time he put on good performances throughout the year and made his Tour de France debut but could not raise his arms.

In 2020 Philipsen won stages at the Tour du Limousin and BinckBank Tour before racing the Vuelta a Espana. There, he took his first Grand Tour win on the 15th day of racing. He was then a target for many teams to sign a quality sprinter and Alpecin-Fenix (to be called later Alpecin-Deceuninck) won that race. In 2021 Philipsen debuted his new colours in what proved to be an extremely successful signing.

Philipsen won two stages at the Vuelta a Espana and Tour of Turkey, Scheldeprijs, and four consecutive races towards the end of the year which included the Eschborn-Frankfurt classic. He finished on the podium of Tour de France stages on six different sprints but could not take a win, however he displayed tremendous positioning skills and consistency. In 2022 he'd turn this consistency into wins. He won at the UAE Tour, Tour of Turkey and Baloise Belgium Tour before returning to the Tour de France.

At the Grand Boucle he managed to win two stages including the sprint into the iconic Champs-Élysées. Philipsen was to then win three more times before calling it a season. Into 2023 he was already a top sprinter, but this year he took yet another step and became the undeniable best sprinter in the peloton. This was the year he took a whole 19 pro wins, some with the assistance of new leadout man Mathieu van der Poel. Tirreno-Adriatico, Classic Brugge-De Panne, Scheldeprijs, Elfstedenronde Brugge and Baloise Belgium Tour came before a career-marking performance. He's also finished second at Paris-Roubaix behind van der Poel.

At the Tour de France, the biggest race of all for the sprinters, Philipsen was unstoppable. The Belgian won four stages and finished second in two more - besides winning a peloton sprint behind a breakaway win. He won the green jersey with utter dominance, as in the bunch sprints he was impossible to dislodge, reminding Peter Sagan's abilities from previous years. After the Tour de France he would still go on to win eight more races/stages and was one of the stars of the 2023 season without a doubt.