"It was a sh*t situation" - Jasper Philipsen explodes out of contention at Paris-Roubaix 2025

After finishing runner-up at the 2023 and 2024 editions of Paris-Roubaix, Jasper Philipsen looked well placed to be in the podium mix again in 2025. Sadly for the Belgian however, in the final portion of the race, everything went wrong and he eventually crossed the line 11th, more than four and a half minutes down on his race-winning teammate Mathieu van der Poel.

In perhaps an early sign that it wasn't Philipsen's day, the Belgian sprinter was one of the big name riders caught up in a crash on the very first sector of cobbles. “It was super tense, and I slid out. It was a sh*t situation,” he explained afterwards in a post-race interview with Sporza. “In the end, I managed to get back into the race and survive the selection. I made it into the front with the best riders, but from there it was mostly about hanging on.”

Impressively though, Philipsen looked like he had completely turned things around and at one point was part of a three-man lead group alongside Van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar that seemed to have the podium locked up. As the pace accelerated though, with Van der Poel and Pogacar attempting to drop the other, Philipsen eventually paid a heavy price for his efforts alongside the two superstars, and sunk like a stone.

“I also had some back pain after the crash — especially up front with those two (Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar ed.). I could feel myself gradually running empty,” he admits. “They had power to spare. When they attacked, I couldn’t follow. I wasn’t the strongest in that group — and that showed.”

“This is a race where everything gets laid bare. The strongest riders end up at the front. I’m happy I was part of the finale, but against those superstar champions, I just wasn’t good enough,” Philipsen concludes. “The race opened up really early, and I hit my limit pretty quickly. That kind of scenario doesn’t suit me. With a bigger group, I could’ve conserved more energy, but in the end, it turned into a struggle.”