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

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."

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.