Jasper Philipsen on first win of the year: "I almost didn't have to sprint anymore because of Mathieu's lead-out"

Jasper Philipsen started his season late at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, however it didn't take too long for him to succeed as he won today's stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.

"My teammate Gianni Vermeersch already told us in the meeting this morning that it could possibly turn out to be echelons. It no longer looked like it was going to happen, but Jumbo-Visma was very strong and still threw it aside," the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider said in a post-race interview. "I was a bit too far behind, but I was able to grab Filippo Ganna's wheel. He completely closed the gap to the first group, although in the end everything came together again."

Philipsen was in the leading group when the peloton split towards the end together with Mathieu van der Poel and he was not shy of hitting the wind at the time. However as the peloton came back together some kilometers later there were questions on whether too many matches had been burnt. As it turned out, that wasn't the case.

The Belgian team put in a very strong leadout, with Mathieu van der Poel himself sprinting all the way until the point where the finish line was visible. With most main sprinters struggling for positioning, Philipsen had a comfortable win, beating Phil Bauhaus who was the only rider who managed to stay in his wheel.

"It's always nice to win, especially after such a team effort as today. Oscar Riesebeek worked all day at the front and at the end I almost didn't have to sprint anymore because of Mathieu's lead-out. The start of the season did not go as we had hoped, but it is still early in the year. I knew we had to stay calm and then the victories would come naturally," Philipsen concluded. He should have another opportunity to fight for a win later in the week on the final day, before he targets Milano-Sanremo.