"Maybe I forgot a little bit how to win a sprint" - Jasper Philipsen's wait for victory goes on after 3rd at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Jasper Philipsen's wait for a win in 2025 goes on. The Belgian leader of Alpecin-Deceuninck headed into the final kilometre of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a favourite to win the reduced bunch sprint. In the end though, he didn't have the sprinting legs required, finishing 3rd behind Soren Waerenskjold and Paul Magnier.

Despite the seeming disappointment at missing out on the win though, Philipsen insists a podium finish at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is nothing to be too downhearted about. "Can I live with my 3rd place? Certainly," he told reporters in his post-race interview afterwards. "If you had said this beforehand, I would have been satisfied."

"Of course you hope to win a sprint, but I wasn't strong enough at the end. I felt that Soren was the strongest. You have to accept that," he concludes honestly, admitting he initially chose to try and follow Wout van Aert's wheel. "I was with him for a long time, because I thought he would still have fresh legs. But I had to come from a bit too far. And I didn't really have my sprint legs. Maybe I forgot a little bit how to win a sprint."