"It was a fun battle" - Jasper Philipsen enjoyed the opening stage of Renewi Tour which he won

Jasper Philipsen knew that the arrival of the opening stage of the Renewi Tour in Ardooie was very technical but luckily, he had the great support from his teammates who navigated him through the trickly local circuits as the Belgian explains in the interview after the stage.

In the final kilometre, Philipsen chose the wheel of Arnaud De Lie. That turned out to be the right choice: "It was a fun battle. Arnaud had Jasper De Buyst in front of him, and I had Jonas Rickaert who did a super good job. Before that I also had some experienced guys riding for me. Then it is nice that I can finish it off like this."

The Alpecin-Deceuninck leader still had to avoid the evasive De Buyst, but then sprinted to victory with the power. "I had to make quick decisions, today went well. It was quite a technical sprint and the finish has also changed a bit here. Positioning is very important in this regard," he says.

Philipsen is not thinking about the final victory in the Renewi Tour. "I haven't been on a time trial bike since the Tour de France, so that will be very difficult," he laughs.