Jasper Philipsen and Tibor del Grosso get opportunity to open their seasonal victory counter on cobbles
CyclingWednesday, 18 March 2026 at 01:00
The start of Alpecin-Premier Tech's 2026 has so far only seen Mathieu van der Poel take the spotlight with three with three WorldTour victories. The only other winner in Alpecin colours has been Henri Uhlig at Etoile des Besseges. Meanwhile, the Belgian team's key riders Jasper Philipsen, Kaden Groves or Tibor del Grosso were far off the Roodhooft brothers' expectations.
As for Groves, his closest upcoming appointment is the Milano-Sanremo, where he's expected to ride in service of Van der Poel and Philipsen, making it unlikely that we'll get to see the Australian raise his hands this week. But the situation is different for the other two men.
While Philipsen is set to race La Primavera this Saturday alongside Groves, the Belgian sprinter will have one extra opportunity to return to winning ways at the Danilith Nokere Koerse (1.Pro) this Wednesday. Taking place on a circuit around city of Nokere, the race traditionally suits versatile sprinters.
In absence of a three-time champion Tim Merlier, Philipsen will be the big favourite to win in the cobbled streers of Nokere despite his recent crash at Tirreno-Adriatico.
Philipsen will be accompanied by a strong team with some of the best classics' domestiques Edward Planckaert, Jonas Rickaert and Florian Sénéchal, while sprinters Gerben Thijssen and the young Sente Sentjens will be Alpecin's back-up options in a sprint. Oscar Riesebeek completes the roster in his season debut, delayed by an injury.
Alpecin-Premier Tech for Nokere Koerse 2026:
- Jasper Philipsen
- Edward Planckaert
- Jonas Rickaert
- Oscar Riesebeek
- Florian Sénéchal
- Sente Sentjens
- Gerben Thijssen
On Thursday, the attention will shift over the France where riders will take on the GP Denain (1.Pro), often dubbed as a "mini-Roubaix". For this race, Alpecin-Premier Tech have declared their "mini-VdP" Tibor del Grosso as a leader, whose secondary goal is to gain experience and improve on last year's 25th place.
The young Dutchman will be taken under the wing of French cobbles veteran Florian Sénéchal. Alpecin's alternatives into a sprint finale are Henri Uhlig and one of the Paris-Nice heroes Jensen Plowright. Tobias Bayer, Jonas Geens and Oscar Riesebeek complete the roster.
Alpecin-Premier Tech for GP Denain 2026:
- Tibor del Grosso
- Tobias Bayer
- Jonas Geens
- Jensen Plowright
- Oscar Riesebeek
- Florian Sénéchal
- Henri Uhlig
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- Team Visma lease a bike must structure their race the way that Alpecin-Premier Tech does it. Working it around the race outcome rather than the strongest rider. As I've said before, Alpecin-Premier Tech have the structure: Jasper Philipsen (bunch sprint) Kaden Groves (reduced bunch sprint) Mathieu van der Poel (small group sprint). It has worked to perfection. Visma must use a similar structure: Matthew Brennan (bunch sprint/reduced bunch sprint) Christophe Laporte (reduced bunch sprint/small group sprint) Wout van Aert (small group sprint) Mattias Jørgensen (solo). Though they lack van der Poel, they've got a broader spectrum of riders. Done properly, Visma can win their first monument since Liège 2020 by tactically outwitting Alpecin-Premier Tech and UAE. None of these 4 were at Sanremo last year and they are all big hitters on form.
Rafionain-Glas18-03-2026 - This is the best race of the season.The only one where Tadej faces his equal and you can flip a coin as to who wins.The TDF is all Tadej all the time.
Brucegel18-03-2026 - It's the Robin Hood sequel. The one where Robin Hood overcomes his qualms and decides to partner with the Sheriff of Nottinghammobk18-03-2026
- It's NOT on FloBikes in the USA! It's on HBO Max !!frieders318-03-2026
- You never know... maybe Jonas wanted to test his sprinting form out. From how he rode away from the rest on the other two stages it doesn't make sense that he'd not be able to drop Lenny on the final stage. Jonas was so dominant that he had the freedom to play with the race, just as Mathieu did in Tirreno. He could have been preparing for the situation where he has to sprint against Pogačar, in which case that aspect isn't going too well... Also, there is no way that Prudhomme wouldn't get a platform - he's the director of the biggest race in the world. That also means that he want to steer the discussion towards an interesting Tour. He wouldn't exactly say "Pogačar will dominate the Tour and it'll be boring, while the Giro, Vuelta and the classics will be heart-in-mouth races" now would he?Rafionain-Glas18-03-2026
- Good points but unfortunately Jasper's look of determination now is often caused by the desire to prove himself once more and return back to the top, which he's not doing a very good job of now. The way Jonathan Milan stormed that final was scary.Rafionain-Glas18-03-2026
- Dani (who finished 2nd at the '24 Giro) was part of the group favoured by the wind, and Georg (who won a stage of that Giro) made the split too. Kévin didn't and was at one point 1:45 behind. He did most of the pulling to close the gap. Red Bull's performance on that stage was nothing but impressive - if not for Jonas it'd have certainly been the most dominant team performance of the century. 5 riders from one team leaving the rest behind like it's a junior race.Rafionain-Glas18-03-2026
- Dani Martinez, the domestique for Remco beat him by 2 minutes and a nobody called Georg beat him for podium. How is that called a revival?abstractengineer17-03-2026
- It's a longshot, but I like underdogs.. I will bet my money on Tadej. If the finish were moved closer to the Poggio hilltop, Tadej will win hands down. That technical descent is a killer.FredMan17-03-2026
- There's no way that happens. If Del Toro does a nuclear leadout he's hard dropped. If he doesn't there's way more than 4 riders therevampa17-03-2026
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A busy and exciting week ahead with a series of one-day races. We’ll present our @Milano_Sanremo roster later this week, but today we already have four line-ups to share! ➡️ Tomorrow @NokereKoerse 🇧🇪, with Oscar Riesebeek making his return to competition (and his season debut)
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