Jasper Philipsen faces Milano-Sanremo 2024 in a very different way than the great sprinters of a decade ago. Long gone are the days when riders like Erik Zabel or Oscar Freire dominated the race. The Belgian is aware that the main asset of Alpecin-Deceuninck is not him, it is Mathieu van der Poel, but that does not stop him from dreaming of winning.
"I will try to survive the attacks on Cipressa and Poggio and see how far I can go. I have few options but I'll try to have a chance," Philipsen told CyclingPro.net yesterday during the team presentations. "There can only be one winner and if I'm at the right time in the right place, why not." The Belgian will be a protected rider, and hopefully for him a sprint scenario would come to be where he'd be able to fight for the win.
Obviously, he had to be asked about the chances of Van der Poel, who is going into the race without having raced a single race in 2024. Logically, he thinks his teammate has a chance of winning:
"Everyone knows that Mathieu prepares everything very well, he is a champion, of course he can win." However the presence of van der Poel could provide Philipsen with a position where he can then benefit from the work behind - as was the case at last year's Paris-Roubaix.
🇧🇪 Jasper Philipsen isn't sure in which team he'll ride next year. 🗣️ "I said to my manager that the next 4/5 years will be my strongest, so I hope to find a team in which I can give it my all. It's possible I stay with Alpecin, but other teams are interested as well." (HLN)
