Jasper Philipsen eyes Paris-Tours Elite after victory in Paris-Bourges - "Ten wins would be nice, But Paris-Tours is still tougher than this"

Jasper Philipsen was able to add one more victory to his achievement list as the season nears its conclusion. He won the Paris-Bourges after a thrilling sprint on Thursday.

It was his second last professional race before he officially ends the season with Paris-Tours on Sunday. "Ten wins would be nice," said Philipsen in the post-race interview. He continues, "But Paris-Tours is still tougher than this. I still have the speed in my legs, but it remains to be seen whether my condition at this stage of the season is sufficient to be able to compete for a win there as well."

He describes his experience with Paris-Bourges. "The conditions, both the wide roads in the finale and the beautiful weather, lent themselves to a bunch sprint today," Philipsen said. "In the early stages, our team had to do the work alone, but little by little, we got more support from other teams. In the mountain zone, Groupama-FDJ still tried to force something, but the sprinters' teams still kept it well under control."

It was not easy to win, especially against an experienced and top sprinter like Arnaud Demare, but he somehow managed to outpace everyone and cross the finish line. "Because we started here with mostly real hard riders, with no real lead-out, the teammates used their strengths in the finale to drop me off in a good position. The wheel of Arnaud Demare, who had a strong train, was ideal. I took full advantage of that in the last few hundred meters to get my ninth of the season,” concluded Philipsen.