"I thought this was a big race and that first place was important" - Alpecin boss lashes out at rivals harshly following Gent Wevelgem

The fallout from Gent Wevelgem 2025 has seen a war of words between Alpecin-Deceuninck and the rest of the peloton, mostly because of a perceived lack of intent from Alpecin's rivals in the chase of lone leader Mads Pedersen towards the finale.

In his post-race interview, Alpecin-Deceuninck's leader, Jasper Philipsen vented his frustrations, singling out Soudal - Quick-Step as a team to blame. "Maybe it was a shame that Soudal-Quick Step didn't add another rider to the chase because, in the end, they still did a lead-out for Tim Merlier with just three riders," the Belgian fumed. "I had no one left because everyone had been used up. I’d rather take a gamble and win than settle for second."

Philipsen's team boss, Christoph Roodhooft joined in with his sprinter's frustration when speaking to the media in his own post-race interview. "We tried to ride for the first place, but it was naive to think that first place was important..." lamented Roodhooft in conversation with Wieler Revue among others. "Only three teams were riding. I thought this was a big race and that first place was important. I saw Uno-X Mobility and one person from Soudal - Quick-Step. One, while we put everyone in and ultimately left Jasper to his fate. If everyone had ridden like that, we would still have been riding for first place."

Sadly for Alpecin-Deceuninck, the chase down of Pedersen was not the only incident of frustration on a disappointing day at Gent Wevelgem. "First we had a puncture with Gianni Vermeersch," Roodhooft recalled. "Then there was no neutral car behind him and he ended up in the very last group with the dropped riders. Too bad, because I think there was enough room for a neutral car. That was the first annoyance of the day."

"Philipsen got a flat tire there and had to continue on Robbe Ghys' bike. We couldn't continue because of a crash, so he had to continue on Robbe's bike for a long time..." he adds with more frustration in his conclusion. "We knew that Lidl-Trek would take control of the race, and they did. But Jasper rode along to Wevelgem, right? He had a really good day. We were there, but we were constantly chasing the facts. That wasn't pleasant. Jasper was boxed in during the sprint, but he was also completely on his own. Jasper had been busy trying to win that race, right?"