Jan Bakelants curious to see how new riders at Alpecin-Deceuninck perform: "They always manage to get the most out of them, more than you would expect"

Jan Bakelants is very impressed with the team that Alpecin-Deceuninck has on paper for 2024. According to the former rider, Mathieu van der Poel has an even stronger support, with Jasper Philipsen of course as co-leader.

In conversation with HLN, Bakelants says that he thinks the transfer policy of Christop and Philip Roodhooft is clever. For example, the team said goodbye to Dries De Bondt, Alexander Krieger, Jakub Mareczko, Stefano Oldani and Lionel Taminiaux, but succeeded with Lars Boven, Stan Van Tricht and Juri Hollmann, three promising riders away from Jumbo-Visma, Soudal-Quick Step and Movistar. In addition, talented Timo Kielich, Axel Laurance, Henri Uhlig and Luca Vergallito are transferred from the development team.

"The team retains the leaders," Bakelants notes, referring to Van der Poel, Philipsen and also sprinter Kaden Groves. They ensured the big victories in 2023, with Van der Poel as winner in Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships and Philipsen with four stage victories and the green jersey in the Tour. Strong and especially young riders are now joining them. "Young riders who were not immediately known as the top riders but still have a lot of room for progression. And where they always manage to get the most out of them, more than you would expect. Laurance is the under-23 world champion. And Kielich was already half professional and won a nice stage in the Tour de Wallonie."

In short: Van der Poel and Philipsen do not have to worry about their big goals in 2024. Bakelants mentions one wild card. "Keep an eye on that Vergalitto. Pawn of the Zwift Academy platform, who possibly owns a similar engine to Jay Vine. I saw his climbing times on Strava on the mountains around Livigno: that boy has quality. The question of course is how skilled he is to ride in a peloton. That wasn't great with Vine, but he quickly got over it."