Lidl-Trek DS believes that junior world champion Albert Philipsen could succeed Jonas Vingegaard as next Danish Tour de France winner

With two victories and as many second places in the final general classification of the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard could already be considered a legend of the race. In addition, the Visma | Lease a Bike leader is also on the way to become the greatest Danish cyclist of all time despite still being only 27 years old.

However, many are starting to think about who could be his successor. On the Bagerstop podcast, Lidl-Trek Future sports director Sebastian Andersen and Christian Moberg discussed which rider they think could become the next Danish star, racing on French roads and hopefully wearing the yellow jersey. The name that came up was Albert Philipsen, signed in the last cycling market by Lidl-Trek, one of the best teams in the peloton.

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"My bet is on the great new Danish talent, Albert Withen Philipsen, who will be a WorldTour rider next year. He is 18 years old, and in 2030 he will be 24, old enough to take on a leading role," says Andersen, although he acknowledges that there are some uncertainties.

"His body is not yet fully developed. It could be that this is an ideal scenario, but if his physique develops into something heavier, the picture would change," he explains. "This is based on the fact that he won the Ain Bugey Valromey Tour, which is like the Tour de France for juniors, where he pretty much outclassed everyone," Andersen adds. "Hopefully that progression in the mountains will continue. It doesn't seem an unrealistic scenario," he concludes.

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Philipsen's extraordinary track record at 18 years of age

Philipsen is an all-rounder, he has been world junior MTB champion twice, and finished fifth at the junior World Championships. All that while becoming national champion in the disciplines several times.

On the road, he also has an interesting track record. He crossed the finish line in fifth position at the Glasgow 2023 World Championships, a year in which he was European time trial champion. He also won both races at the Danish championships.

In 2024, he won again the time trial at the nationals of his country, he won the Ain Bugey Valromey Tour as Andersen and Moberg comment, taking two stages and the points classification, he won the overall of the Course de la Paix Juniors with a victory in the time trial, finished fourth in the Paris-Roubaix Juniors and 6th in the time trial of the Zurich World Championships. He was unable to compete with Lorenzo Finn in the road race due to a crash, but he was in the lead at the time.

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