Van der Poel and Philipsen win, but do so purely thanks to Alpecin-Deceuninck's brilliance: "They are so motivated"

After crashing hard on stage 3 of the Tour de France, Philipsen’s road back to form wasn’t easy. Along with Van der Poel, who also abandoned the Tour he regained his morale and his legs under the Spanish sun. Just two days before the Vuelta started, he was surprisingly added to the team. And a day before Van der Poel took a win at the Renewi Tour, Philipsen was officially presented as the team’s lead sprinter. “We’re mainly targeting a stage win,” he said cautiously at Thursday’s team presentation. “And if that works out after such a limited preparation, I’ll already be very happy.”

That goal was achieved on day one. Philipsen latched onto another unparalleled lead-out from his team and won the stage by multiple bike lengths. After wearing yellow in the Tour, he now claimed red in the Vuelta. “Winning always feels great, especially when the red jersey comes with it. It’s a nice reward,” he said proudly in his flash interview. He also knew there was no time to waste. “This Vuelta was a big goal, but I knew I’d only get one shot. There aren’t many chances for a sprinter like me.”

Anyone who heard Philipsen speak so cautiously before the Vuelta probably couldn’t believe their eyes watching how confidently he finished things off on Saturday. Because even though Lidl-Trek helped with the chase and Visma | Lease a Bike dominated the final kilometers, it was Alpecin-Deceuninck, with four riders at the front, who hit the final kilometer first, delivering another textbook sprint performance on cycling’s biggest stage. “I only had to start sprinting with 175 meters to go,” Philipsen said, full of praise for his lead-out team, especially Jonas Rickaert and final man Edward Planckaert.

“Jasper wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence at the start,” sports director Frederik Willems explained. “But we had analyzed the finish and knew we wanted to lead from the front. It still has to come together on the day, but this one was straight out of the playbook. Everyone nailed it.” Willems also highlighted how far Philipsen had come since his crash in the Tour. Only his 4th place finish at the ADAC Cyclassics in Hamburg gave the team any real confirmation that his form was coming around. “We wanted to give it a shot, especially since Jasper hadn’t raced much this year. Just being in the mix was important.”

It turned out to be a good choice to draft the sprint bomb, despite the fact that Philipsen may only get one or two more chances in the rest of the Vuelta. 'We have no idea yet if he will finish the Vuelta, for that we will have to follow his feeling on each rest day. Waiting 21 days for Madrid is a long time, also because the points classification will be tough. You can take 50 points twice on days 1 and 21, but we'll look at that day by day as well,' Willems said of a mainly mountainous Tour of Spain ahead. "I'm going to suffer a lot and not play a significant role for many days," Philipsen said.

Still, it all gets a lot easier when you already have two prizes in the bag: the stage win and the red jersey. “My form wasn’t great the last few weeks, so my confidence was low,” Philipsen admitted. “But the team around me really helped lift my spirits. They radiated strength and belief and that helped me today. This was 100% a team victory. Jonas and Edward are in incredible shape and knew exactly how to time the lead-out. I just had to do my job, which might’ve looked easy on TV, but trust me, it wasn’t. That lead-out made all the difference.”

So the question remains: how is it that Alpecin-Deceuninck always delivers on the biggest stage? Whether it’s for Philipsen, Groves, or Van der Poel, the team seems to thrive on winning at the highest level. “I think it’s mainly about trust and knowing exactly what your sprinter can do and what he needs,” said team director Willems. “You build everything around that. Plus, they know what’s coming. Jonas and Edward were perfect today because they know their roles and trust each other. They’ve been riding together for a long time, so when they ride together again, it just clicks automatically.”

Philipsen echoed the same sentiment about the team’s consistency and high morale in big moments. “The focus becomes laser-sharp around a single goal, and everyone wants to deliver on it as best they can. That takes a lot of prep and the right mindset, but when we get it right, it’s incredibly rewarding. It’s just fun to ride with a team that’s all in. Their motivation helps bring out the best in me.” As for the red jersey, which he’ll likely lose after Sunday’s mountain stage? Philipsen isn’t bothered. “It was the same in the Tour, I’ll still enjoy every second of it.”

Bram van der Ploeg ( Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])