Jasper Philipsen says Alpecin Deceuninck will be fully prepared and ready to deal with the favourite tag during the Spring Classics next season after the team’s early season dominance last time out.
The Belgium team won all three of the opening Monuments through Mathieu van der Poel and Philipsen himself. Van der Poel won Paris-Roubaix for a second time after winning the Tour of Flanders once more in only his fourth race day of the season. Meanwhile, Philipsen kickstarted the squad’s fine early season run with victory at Milan-San Remo.
Philipsen has gradually begun to build an identity for himself as far more than just a sprinter. His two consecutive second places at Roubaix behind his teammate only helped to continue to build that narrative.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly at Alpecin-Deceuninck’s winter training camp in Spain, Philipsen said that the Classics have begun to have equal importance for him on an individual basis alongside the Tour de France and targeting the green sprinters jersey.
"During the season we’re looking more towards the Classics races for me now and also training for these specific races regularly," he explained. "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.
"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."
"I was really happy with how it all went," he explained as he reflected back on 2024. "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."
Philipsen joked that it was a relief to be in Dénia on the Costa Blanca once more after foul winter weather had begun to take hold back home in Belgium. The 26-year-old has spent a large amount of training time on Zwift but was relishing the opportunity to be out on the road once more with his teammates in the south of Spain.
"It’s a bit of an evolution coming here," he said. "I think one team started it, then others followed and eventually the whole bunch was here. Every year you see more and more people coming down here and you see more and more amateurs and younger riders too. Some of the guys stay here for months now in order to prepare for the new season."
"In Belgium it’s always raining so I usually just go on Zwift," he added. "If it’s a shorter ride and I don’t want to go out on the road then I use it then as well. I don’t really like to train just on rollers so this helps make it more interactive and just more fun. It’s a cool alternative to have."
