Jasper Philipsen will again target the Classics in the spring of 2026 and especially Paris-Roubaix, to prove he is far more than just a world-class sprinter.
Philipsen has 58 victories in his palmarès, many of them in sprints, but he is Belgian and Flandrian at heart and fell in love with cycling as a boy while watching the Classics.
He won Milan-San Remo in 2024 despite Tadej Pogačar’s attacks and was second at Paris-Roubaix in 2023 and 2024, behind teammate Mathieu van der Poel. He has won the flatter but demanding Classic Brugge-De Panne and Scheldeprijs twice and won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne this year.
“In 2026 we’ll follow the same plan: I want to be a Classics rider in the first part of the season and focus my training around that,” he confirmed.
Philipsen and Van der Poel are competitive even in training but are loyal in races, using their different skills and strengths to take on Pogačar and their other Classics rivals. Van der Poel has won three consecutive editions of Paris-Roubaix, with Philipsen always there as the team’s Plan B and sprint option.
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