Nothing but great news for Alpecin-Deceuninck, Philipsen and Van der Poel: "Mathieu's loyalty is very beautiful"

Just a few days after his victory in Milan-San Remo, Jasper Philipsen is already resuming his Belgian classics campaign. While Mathieu van der Poel is waiting until the E3 Saxo Classic to race again, Philipsen, as the defending champion, showed up on Wednesday for the Classic Brugge-De Panne. He spoke to the press before the start of the race there.

Alpecin-Deceuninck has seen nothing but fantastic news these past few days. On Saturday, Philipsen won Milan-San Remo after a fine effort from Van der Poel, who then announced a significant five-year contract extension with the team on Monday. "It's very nice that Mathieu has extended his contract and shown such loyalty to the team and to bike sponsor Canyon. That's a very nice combination."

At the start of the Classic Brugge-De Panne, Philipsen mentioned he was still on a high after La Primavera. "It was a very beautiful race to win, really a dream come true for me on Saturday. Maybe I'm still living on a cloud, but now it's race time again," he said, keeping himself alert. "We've kept the celebrations relatively calm, with an eye on the upcoming races. That won't be a problem. This will be a somewhat calmer race. I don't expect as much chaos as last year. But that's not bad for me, knowing what's still to come."

Philipsen motivated for remaining classics

The final kilometers in De Panne will certainly be tumultuous, with an A-list of sprinters at the starting line. "A sprint will be inevitable. We also have a strong team lining up at the start. Whether it's a World Championship for sprinters, I don't know. They call the Scheldeprijs that too, but this race, being a WorldTour event, is still somewhat more prestigious. It's definitely a higher category, so many of the fast guys will be motivated." This includes Tim Merlier, the most successful sprinter to date. "Tim has made a good impression, he will be one of the men to beat," Philipsen says of his former teammate.