"It's been a while" - Jasper Philipsen returns to winning ways at Baloise Belgium Tour

Jasper Philipsen finally did it and won the second stage of Baloise Belgium Tour. For the star sprinter, it's only his second triumph of this season, first since over three months ago at the Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne.

"It's been a while, huh," he winked after the finish. "So I'm really happy with this victory. It gives me a lot of courage and confidence. I'm already happy that it's happened once this week."

The Alpecin-Deceuninck leader also thanked his teammates for the swift lead-out. "Yes, Jonas (Rickaert, ed.) was really strong today. We're all starting to get through it a bit after our difficult training camp, I think. Oscar Riesebeek was also super good today, for example."

While Philipsen was delivered perfectly, there was a danger he wouldn't even get to open his sprint. The train almost got boxed in at a critical point. "We started on the right, that's always a risk, but suddenly everything opened up and I was able to do a nice sprint."

Alpecin-Deceuninck was active throughout the day. At fifty kilometers to go, Philipsen's teammates blew the race open one of cobbled sectors: "The course lent itself to making the race a bit tough," Philipsen explains. "Certainly that cobblestone section with 6 kilometers to go was tough. It's always fun to open up the race and put the competition under pressure."

It's a sweet revenge after nearly crashing in yesterday's sprint. "I don't really know what happened," he reflected. "I don't think I would have been able to stay upright like that a second time. It was a bad assessment, but I'm glad it turned out well."