Jasper Philipsen "should be able to race Milano-Sanremo" despite recent setbacks

Alpecin - Fenix are yet to see Mathieu van der Poel return to competition, and with that scenario on the table the responsibility will fall on Jasper Philipsen to lead the team at the upcoming Milano-Sanremo, the longest race in professional road cycling.

The team told Wielerflits that Jasper Philipsen "should be able to race in Milano-Sanremo next Saturday." The Belgian is set to lead the team in the first monument of the season as he will look for a conservative race where he can be capable of dealing a decisive blow in a bunch sprint. His start to the season was impressive, having taken two stage wins and the points classification at the UAE Tour. At Paris-Nice he was looking to replicate that, however crashed on the only pan-flat stage that was well suited to him. Although having finished well in the hilly stages one and three, he later came down with illness like many more at the French race and had to abandon before the start of stage six.

Philipsen has only raced La Classicissima once and that was in his neo-pro year at UAE Team Emirates in 2019, where he rode in support of Alexander Kristoff and Fernando Gaviria and finished a distant 150th place. However that means he is not riding into unfamiliar terrain, and despite not being known for his climbing capacity, he is within the group of sprinters who on normal circumstances would be able to resist the Poggio relatively well positioned.