Alpecin-Deceuninck

This is the page about Alpecin-Deceuninck. It's a Belgian cycling team that competes both on the road and in cyclo-cross. Mathieu van der Poel is the star of the team, and for the women's team, it's Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado. IDLProCycling.com collects all the news about Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Built around Van der Poel, excelling on the road and in cyclo-cross

Alpecin-Fenix is a unique cycling team. Unlike most teams that focus exclusively on road cycling or cyclo-cross, Alpecin-Fenix participates in both. From September to February, the cyclists typically engage in cyclo-cross, while in the summer and spring, they participate in road races. The team was initially known as Corendon-Circus, but Alpecin and Fenix became the main sponsors in 2020.

The team is known for its talent scouting. The riders are generally very young and often move on from Alpecin-Fenix to larger teams in the WorldTour. One of the most famous riders is Mathieu van der Poel, who epitomizes the team's approach. The Dutchman spends half of the year in cyclo-cross and the other half on the road. He has been quite successful in both disciplines, almost single-handedly responsible for a significant portion of Alpecin-Fenix's wins. These include the Cyclo-cross World Championships, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix. Van der Poel and his team also compete in mountain biking.

The team strengthens overall and enters the WorldTour as Alpecin-Deceuninck

In the 2020 season, Alpecin-Fenix, as a ProContinental team, won the UCI Europe Tour for the first time in its history, earning them entries into all major WorldTour races for 2021. Christoph and Philip Roodhooft decided to invest more with additional sponsors to build a stronger team, still centered around Van der Poel. This strategy paid off, as the team, bolstered by Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen, and Van der Poel, finished 2021 with an impressive 33 victories. It was the highest number of wins ever for a ProContinental team. As expected, they once again won the UCI Europe Tour, securing entries for all major races in 2022.

The year 2022 was a highly successful season for the team. After uncertainty about his ability to race in the spring, Van der Poel started with a third place in Milan-San Remo. He then went on to win both Dwars door and the Tour of Flanders for the second time. The Dutchman then headed to the Giro, where he immediately captured the pink jersey in Budapest. For the rest of the Giro, he was a key contender, while teammates Stefano Oldani and Dries De Bondt also secured stage wins for the team.

Then the focus shifted to the Tour de France, where Van der Poel was a shadow of himself and left after a week and a half like a thief in the night. Jasper Philipsen saved the day with two stage victories, as Jay Vine also managed to do in the Vuelta. For Van der Poel, the World Championship cycling in Australia was the main goal, but everything went wrong that could go wrong there: VDP was arrested the night before the race after an argument with two teenage girls who were bothering him, and he dropped out after thirty kilometers. At the World Gravel Championships in Veneto, Gianni Vermeersch still won a rainbow jersey for the team.

Not only Van der Poel can win

In 2023, Van der Poel is still the main man within the team. Representing Alpecin-Deceuninck, he wins Paris-Roubaix, the World Championship, and Milan-San Remo. He had not won these classics or the World Championship before. Although these are great victories for the Dutchman, it is Philipsen who secures the most wins for the team. This year, he wins an impressive nineteen times, thereby contributing the most to the team's 35 victories this season. Especially in the Tour de France, the fast Belgian was in top form. Here he won four stages and also took home the green jersey. Kaden Groves also brought many victories to the team this year. Particularly in the Tour of Spain, he excelled with three stage wins and victory in the points classification.