Jasper Philipsen is one of the fastest sprinters on the circuit right now. Born in the cycling heartlands of Belgium, he’s often overshadowed by Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert in his home country, but his palmarès speaks for itself.
At just 26 years old, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider has won stages at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, and rode to a stunning second place at Paris-Roubaix in 2023, and won his first Monument, Milan-San Remo, this season.
The Belgian will go to next year's Tour as a strong contender for the green jersey. Before the race gets underway, here are 21 things you probably didn’t know about Jasper Philipsen.
1. His first sport was football, which he played often as a child.
2. As a youngster, he had a strong winning mentality. "It was always the same when I was young and playing football. When a game didn’t go how I wanted it to be going, I would be crying on the pitch," he said.
3. He had a BMX accident when he was 12 years old. His subsequent injuries made it difficult to continue playing football, so he turned his focus to cycling.
4. He joined his first team, Balen BC, in 2010.
5. Philipsen was the first person in his family to race bikes. "It was a learning process for all of us," he told Cyclingnews. "They would come and watch me race as a kid."
6. He was born in the same town as former world champion Tom Boonen - Mol, Belgium - which has a population of fewer than 40,000 inhabitants.
7. Boonen, understandably, was Philipsen's hero growing up, and he used to wear a replica of the Quick-Step rider's world champion jersey as a child. During the final years of Boonen's career, Philipsen would accompany him on training rides back home.
8. Like many Belgian riders, Philipsen has tried his hand at cyclo-cross. When he was 16, he raced the Zilvermeercross in his birthplace of Mol, and finished 31st - fourth from last.
9. In 2015, he won his first national title, triumphing in the individual time trial at the Belgian Junior National Championships. He successfully defended his title the following year.
10. Philipsen suffered exhaustion in the junior individual time trial at the 2016 World Championships in Doha, and as a result, did not start the road race three days later.
11. He turned pro in 2018 with Hagens Berman Axeon, the development team run by Axel Merckx, son of cycling great Eddy.
12. The Belgian has his own fan club, which has been supporting him with banners at races since 2016. The club now counts over 100 members.
13. He was not able to celebrate his first WorldTour victory, which came at the Tour Down Under in 2019. Initially second in the bunch sprint, Philipsen was declared the victor after Caleb Ewan was relegated.
14. At the 2023 Tour de France, the sprinter mistakenly celebrated when he crossed the line second on stage four, not knowing that Wout van Aert had broken away. "It will make for funny images in the end," he said afterwards.
15. His Alpecin-Deceuninck team call him Jasper 'The Disaster' Philipsen, due to his clumsiness.
16. His favourite one-day race is Paris-Roubaix, where he finished runner-up in 2023, beating Van Aert in a sprint.
17. He likes hip hop music, and warms up to Spotify's RapCaviar playlist.
18. He has won stages at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, but has never raced the Giro d'Italia.
19. Philipsen's girlfriend is 22 year-old Melanie Peetermans.
20. The race he has competed in the most is Scheldeprjs, the unofficial sprinter's World Championships, which he has won twice - in 2021 and 2023.
21. At the 2022 UAE Tour, the pace in the peloton was so calm that Philipsen stepped off his bike and jogged for a few meters through the desert.
