Training with Mathieu van der Poel key for Jasper Philipsen's Opening Weekend success: "It was fun to do the preparation together with him"

Jasper Philipsen is a very versatile rider, one of the best sprinters in the world but simultaneously in 2024 he won Milano-Sanremo and then went on to finish for the second consecutive time second at Paris-Roubaix. During the spring, he focuses on the classics and he praises Mathieu van der Poel for helping him get to fine form into the Opening Weekend where he had the best results.

"I trained a lot of hours with Mathieu van der Poel in Spain. Mathieu kept pushing me: 'Make sure you're there at ten o'clock', 'Make sure you're ready', 'Don't dare be two minutes late.' He also often wanted to do extra kilometers," Philipsen shared with Het Laatste Nieuws. "That works. I need people to motivate me. It was fun to do the preparation together with him. Jonas Rickaert was also often there."

Philipsen has proven himself in the past, but his form entering Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was nothing but impressive as he kept up with the best over the day's climbs and where Alpecin took initiative early on to split the peloton. A second place came out of that race, but at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne the team did a perfect leadout to set him up for victory. As the big spring classics begin, the Belgian team begins to show it's true colours finally - until recently, it had been placing last when it cames to UCI points scored out of all World Tour outfits.

This is already a trend, but it is a purposeful plan, as confirmed by team boss Christoph Roodhooft: "In recent years, our best form always came later. We assume that our planning is still good and that we are not peaking too early now. The most important thing is of course yet to come, but I am happy that the opening weekend was also successful for once. We have been here for years without a result and now it is a top weekend."