20/01/2024

"Had no patience to wait to be the best cyclist" - Jasper Philipsen opens up on his departure from UAE Team Emirates

The most dominant sprinting force in the peloton, Jasper Philipsen took more wins in 2023 than anyone else. The man closest to him in the victory tally was his former teammate, Tadej Pogacar.

It's easy to forget now, given how successful Philipsen has been with Alpecin-Deceuninck and the brilliant relationship he's built up with Mathieu van der Poel, but a few years back, the Belgian was actually on UAE Team Emirates.

Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel spotted training side-by-side

“I think they're now a bigger deal than they were back then,” Philipsen says of UAE Team Emirates in conversation with Cycling Weekly. “Of course, being in a major WorldTour team also brings pressure as a young guy. I had no patience to wait to be the best cyclist that I could be, I was always impatient for that. I wanted to be where I am now already from the start, but it's not that easy. So I think the pressure was what I put on myself back then."

The emergence of Pogacar also signalled a change in mentality for the team as they switched to becoming more GC based in their approach to races. "There was stress and impatience from myself to become the cyclist that I wanted to be,” Philipsen explains. "So that was the biggest reason why I left UAE. They were clearly going to be a GC team with [Tadej] Pogačar. Tadej developed and had a bigger growth and improvement than me at the start. He was immediately there, racing at the highest level. I was there at a good level but not the highest."

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It's fair to say, the choice to leave has more than paid off for Philipsen. Since joining Alpecin-Deceuninck he's only gone from strength to strength. "With my personal ambition, it was better to move onto Alpecin-Deceuninck," he admits.

"They focus more on the sprint's and Classics, and that's something I've always suited. Of course, there's Mathieu van der Poel on the team too, but the team cannot rely on one guy," he concludes. "I'm happy to be on a team with him, I think we compliment each other well.”