Philipsen somewhat anticipated Van der Poel's raid: "From experience, I know that when he says that..."

Scoring a perfect one-two in Paris-Roubaix is not something many teams have done. However, Alpecin-Deceuninck managed to do so on Sunday, with Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen occupying the top two steps of the podium in the Hell of the North for the second consecutive year. The Dutchman was pleased with this, but the Belgian certainly was as well.

As a sprinter, Philipsen is generally not a man who relishes second places, as we saw last Wednesday in the Scheldeprijs, for example. However, he makes an exception for Paris-Roubaix. "Now, I do like second places. This is a race that I really enjoy and that gives me a lot of motivation, so why would I not be able to win it at some point? However, it was clear that there was someone better here today, someone who also happened to be my teammate," laughs the Flame of Ham during his press conference.

"I didn't have my best legs, like maybe I did in Milan-San Remo. From the moment Mathieu attacked, I also took a defensive position. I was able to stay in the wheels for quite a long time, knowing that the strongest rider was up front with Mathieu," says the fast man of Alpecin-Deceuninck, who skipped last week's Tour of Flanders. "Flanders was a tough race and it's a competition that suits me less, so I tried to be at my best here. My top form may also be fading now as the end of spring approaches, but everyone has things like that at some point."

Philipsen on strength of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Van der Poel: "This is unique"

From the very start of the race - and especially as the cobblestones approached - Alpecin-Deceuninck had things under control. "We demonstrated the strength of our team, everyone was at a great level and committed to the plan. Our goal was to make the race hard and thereby thin out the peloton before the chicane, so we could reduce stress and put the others under pressure. Moreover, we knew that on the cobblestones, it's better to ride at the front, which we did very well. In the end, though, you also need the legs, but Mathieu clearly had that covered."

To what extent was Philipsen aware of this during the race? "Mathieu already mentioned that he had good legs. From experience, I know that when he says that, he really has good legs. When he launched his attack sixty kilometers from the finish, I knew it was going to be very difficult for the others to catch him. It's clear that he has been operating at an incredibly high level for a long time now."

Three Monuments, three victories. Sanremo for Philipsen, Flanders and Roubaix for Van der Poel. So what is the secret? "The management is what makes the team so good, but you also need luck. Of course, that comes with hard work and making the right choices, where our team has a lot of success. But on the other hand, we also need to know that we're not going to win Paris-Roubaix every year, this is quite unique," concludes the Belgian from Limburg.