"To do what we did for two years in a row was really quite special" - Jasper Philipsen targeting more Paris-Roubaix success in 2025

For the last two years in succession, Alpecin-Deceuninck duo Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen have finished one-two on the French cobbles at Paris-Roubaix. With the 2025 season nearing, Philipsen is already preparing for more Classics success in the coming year.

"I was really happy with how it all went," the 26-year-old Belgian reflected of his 2024 Classics campaign in conversation with Cycling Weekly. "To do what we did [at Paris-Roubaix] for two years in a row was really quite special. Next year all eyes will be on us but we will be ready. It would be great for us to win again at Roubaix but I will just be happy if I’m good and maybe win another Classic. It’s really hard to just specifically target one because it means you need to be really 100% perfect and there’s many circumstances that can get in the way."

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Alongside his second successive second place at Paris-Roubaix behind team leader Van der Poel, Philipsen also secured the first Monument victory of his own career in 2024, outsprinting Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogacar to take the win at Milano-Sanremo. More success also came for the Belgian at the Tour de France. Although a second Green Jersey didn't transpire, Philipsen did secure three stage wins, proving his newfound versatility as a rider.

"During the season we’re looking more towards the Classics races for me now and also training for these specific races regularly. Going to the Tour de France I’ll then look to try and improve more in the sprints and focus on that but I think what we did last year went quite well so we will try to do more or less the same for me and try to have a successful spring campaign," Philipsen says, previewing what's to come for him in 2025. "I’ll always be a sprinter and the sprints will be my strength, but it’s not going to be the main focus for the first part of the year for me."

"We’re still figuring out the details of my program but there will be no Tour Down Under or anything like that," he added. "Last year went really well so we don’t need to adapt too many things. We’ll switch my training after the Classics and start to tailor things towards sprinting again but it’s more or less a similar approach."

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