'I get emotional thinking about Paris-Roubaix' – Jasper Philipsen puts sprinting aside for another shot at the 2026 cobbled Classics

ROUBAIX, FRANCE - APRIL 13: (L-R) Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and UAE Team Emirates - XRG, Jasper Philipsen of Belgium and Mathieu Van Der Poel of Netherlands and Team Alpecin - Deceuninck compete in the breakaway passing through a cobblestones sector during the 122nd Paris - Roubaix 2025 a 259.2km one day race from Compiegne to Roubaix / #UCIWT / on April 13, 2025 in Roubaix, France. (Photo by Bernard Papon - Pool/Getty Images).

Jasper Philipsen will again target the Classics in the spring of 2026 and especially Paris-Roubaix, to prove he is far more than just a world-class sprinter.

Philipsen has 58 victories in his palmarès, many of them in sprints, but he is Belgian and Flandrian at heart and fell in love with cycling as a boy while watching the Classics.