Jasper Philipsen motivated for Sunday's Roubaix despite defeat at Scheldeprijs: "I'm satisfied with the sprint I rode, that was important to me"

For Jasper Philipsen, second place was the highest achievable in Schoten. At Scheldeprijs, sometimes dubbed as the unofficial sprinters championships, he had to accept defeat from the hands of his rival Tim Merlier.

"It was a very nice duel, but I didn't have the speed to win. I'm satisfied with the sprint I rode, that was important to me," said the sprinter of Alpecin-Deceuninck afterwards at the microphone of WielerFlits. "I was able to do everything I should have done, so I could start on time. But Tim came out with more speed and deservedly won."

"The crash thinned out the peloton, and I hope everyone is okay," Philipsen shares his concerns. "After that, I was only with Rickaert. He is very experienced, but it wasn’t ideal, because we lost more than half of the team in that crash. I hope it’s not too bad," he expressed concers for his teammates as well as opponents.

We will see both Merlier and Philipsen on the course of Paris-Roubaix this Sunday. Philipsen finished second in Roubaix last year behind teammate Mathieu van der Poel. A feat he'd like to repeat. "We have shown in the past editions that we can do well there, and we hope to do that again this year," said Philipsen. "There is also luck involved, but we want to take control of the race early and achieve a good result."