Jasper Philipsen sees no room for romanticism at Tour de France: "Everybody wants to see Mark Cavendish win a 35th stage... We will do our best to beat him”
Cycling
Whilst the fight for the Maillot Jaune at the 2024 Tour de France is set to be one of the mouth watering in a long while, the battle for sprint wins also has plenty of intriguing stories to follow.
Last year, Jasper Philipsen proved himself the dominant sprint force, winning four stages and taking a comprehensive win in the Green Jersey points classification. Up against the Belgian sprint phenomenon this year, will be the sentimental crowd favourite, Mark Cavendish, who in his final Tour de France, has one last chance to take a record breaking 35th Tour stage win.
"Everyone wants to see Mark win a 35th stage. I've always been a big fan of Mark Cavendish and it would be a historic moment if he can reach it," Philipsen admits in quotes collected by Cycling Weekly ahead of the Grand Depart of the 2024 Tour de France in Florence, this coming Saturday. “He will be good and there [in contention] for sure."
Nevertheless, Philipsen sees no room for romanticism at the 2024 Tour de France. The Belgian is ice cold and ruthless on the bike and the Alpecin-Deceuninck sprinter makes no bones about the fact the he is travelling to France (via Italy) to win, and win as much as possible. "It’s not that I am going to be giving away a sprint," he explains. "We will try to do our best and try and beat him.”
As mentioned, Philipsen was dominant twelve months ago, the unrivalled best sprinter in the world. This time around however, he's not quite in such electric form. “Because the other guys are super and not slow. We also focused a lot on the Classics – we had success in Milan-Sanremo – and we weren’t focusing a lot on sprinting," he assesses undeterred. “I am expecting from myself that I’ll be sprinting faster during the Tour de France which should be the obvious goal. But of course other guys will also expect the same.”
Philipsen (R) will have a superstar leadout from Mathieu van der Poel (L)
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Are you MrMauMau 2.0? Nothing you are saying is really relevant. Vaguely connected, but irrelevant. The conversation is whether Schreiber impeded Brand or not.
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...Dariusz08-11-2026
- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- What a race! I didn't expect Vanthourenhout to collapse like that, and Wyseure did take the fight to Nys, but there was no doubt at the end. I also wonder what Aubin Sparfel would be capable of were he to race in the elites now. In the U23 ranks he is making good work of Giel Lejeune, who himself is among the better riders in the elites, and a top 10 contender in the big races (3rd at Kleebergcross, 8th at Berencross and 5th at Heerderstrand). In the French Cup, Sparfel is significantly better than Romain Debord (8th at Koppenbergcross and 10th at the Euros) and Rémi Lelandais (12th at Koppenbergcross and 19th at the Euros).Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
Loading
1 Comments