PRESS CONFERENCE Jasper Philipsen | Maillot Jaune the goal but Milan & Merlier respected: "A genuine opportunity and it's not like I’ll have many more in future"

Probably the most successful Tour de France sprinter of the 2020s, Jasper Philipsen is back once again in 2025 to lead the stage hunting charge of the Alpecin-Deceuninck team. With Mathieu van der Poel alongside, Philipsen was part of the team's pre-race press conference, where CyclingUpToDate were on hand to get the superstar duo's thoughts ahead of the upcoming Grand Tour.

With nine stage wins over the last three editions of the Tour de France, and a Green Jersey win too from the 2023 Tour, Philipsen has proven himself to consistently be the man to beat in the bunch sprints. With just such a sprint on stage 1 expected to give the sprinters a rare opportunity to don the Maillot Jaune in 2025, Philipsen will be looking for a strong start to the Tour, especially given a somewhat disappointing season so far.

A: I don’t think I’ve won much this year at all, to be honest. It’s been a season with a lot of ups and downs for me personally. But I’m not stressed about it. I think I’m just on track. The shape is good. I had a setback when I crashed during the classics, but over the past few weeks I’ve worked hard to get into the best shape possible. That’s what counts now — not the races earlier in the year.

A: It’s difficult to say. They’re both really strong and really fast. I think both of them have a big chance to win the first stage, and also the other flat stages that are coming. We’ll see how it plays out.

A: My shape is really good. We prepared just like we did last year — maybe even better. I feel better than I did at the start of last year’s Tour. That’s important, because our biggest chances are in the first week. Later on, in the second and third weeks, there won’t be many opportunities for us.
Of course, the yellow jersey is our goal. This is probably my first real shot at it. I remember when the Tour started in Brussels — I was still really young then. Now, it’s a genuine opportunity. And it’s not like I’ll have many more in the future. So yeah, Saturday is a very important day.
But if it doesn’t work out on Saturday, there will still be other chances. I don’t want to ruin my Tour just because I didn’t win on Day 1. The Tour is three weeks long — there’s plenty still to come. But of course, Saturday would be the nicest one to win.

A: It’s going to be a hard stage. There are also a lot of GC contenders who are really good in the classics, so they’ll be fighting for positioning and maybe even a few seconds already. Like I said, it’s going to be nervous. There are many riders who could win that kind of stage.

A: If it’s a bunch sprint, we’ll go for me. I’ve proven myself not just at the Tour but also in other races. On punchier days, we can both play a role depending on how the race goes.

A: Yeah, it’s very different from the usual calm final day. It opens up the race. The GC guys will need to stay focused. For us, we’re already always focused for Stage 21, so it doesn’t change that much.