Belgian squad set for first season at cycling's top table
Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen lead Alpecin-Deceuninck into 2023(Image credit: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
It might be hard to believe, given their record of success in recent seasons, but Alpecin-Deceuninck are only just now a WorldTour team. The Belgian squad has been among the best in the world over the past three seasons and has been a staple at Grand Tours, major stage races and Classics for the past two.
Of course, much of that is down to the presence of one man – Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutch star has been racing with the team for nine seasons now across road and cyclo-cross, his ability and profile seeing them grow with him through the years.
Once again, he's the main draw in 2023, having won his second Tour of Flanders and worn the Giro d'Italia's pink jersey last season, even if his Tour de France and Road World Championships bids were derailed for varying reasons.
He'll make his season debut at the UAE Tour next month, but bigger goals lie beyond the early season 'warm up'. Milan-San Remo, where he finished third in 2022, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are the obvious spring targets.
There will be plenty of rivals lining up to face Van der Poel through the spring, though none will bring quite the same level of anticipation with them as Jumbo-Visma's Wout van Aert.
The pair have been facing off against one another through their whole careers so far, and so a full cobbled Classics campaign with the pair – hopefully – doing battle at full strength throughout will be something to savour.
A return to the Tour will be his big summer goal, having already ruled out another attempt at two Grand Tours in one season.
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Van der Poel already has a pink jersey and a yellow jersey hanging in his trophy room after taking early stage wins at both races in the past two years. With that in mind, the opening hilly stage in Bilbao this July looks like the perfect stage to repeat the trick ahead of more Giro-style stage hunting later on.
With no disrespect to his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates, the team's success will largely depend on how he fares, though he delivers big year after year and you can bet he'll do so again in 2023.
Sprinter Jasper Philipsen is the team's other top rider, even if the Belgian hasn't yet ascended to the same level of superstardom as Van der Poel. 2022 saw the 24-year-old enjoy the best season of his career to date, putting behind him a series of near-misses at the 2021 Tour de France to take two wins in July, including the big one in Paris.
With another nine wins added to his palmarès, the Belgian has firmly established himself among the top sprinters in the peloton, to the extent that he's topped our 'best sprinters of the year' ranking twice in a row now.
Philipsen is likely to give Milan-San Remo – the sprinters' Classic now rarely won by sprinters – another go this spring. The Tour de France will be his main aim for the season though. With possibly eight sprint stages on the menu, there will be plenty of chances for him to show his status among the world's best once more.
The team will be doing without another sprinter next season, with Tim Merlier having moved on to Soudal-QuickStep. The 30-year-old was inarguably the third part of the team's leadership triumvirate. In 2021 he scored their first Grand Tour win at the Giro d'Italia before winning again at that year's Tour de France.
Merlier will be missed, even if 2022 was a leaner year in terms of wins. So too will Australian climber Jay Vine, who has left to boost a much-strengthened UAE Team Emirates.
Vine spent two seasons at Alpecin-Deceuninck and heads into 2023 as undoubtedly the biggest success story of the Zwift Academy, having broken through with two stage wins at the Vuelta a España in August. The team may not be set up to support climbers and GC men, but still, it would've been interesting to see his progression with another year there, rather than switching to take up a role in the Pogačar support squad.
So then, there will be a reliable stream of wins, points, and prize money from Van der Poel and Philipsen in 2023. Elsewhere, the likes of sprinter Jakub Mareczko, Giro stage winners Stefano Oldani and Dries De Bondt, and Belgians Lionel Taminiaux and Gianni Vermeersch can be relied upon to pop up with results here and there.
The new additions
Can new surroundings inspire Søren Kragh Andersen to get back to his best? (Image credit: Getty Images)
A few questions do linger as the new season comes around, chief among them being: have Alpecin-Deceuninck upgraded their team as they move up into the WorldTour?
Well, the team have made a few major additions for 2023, even if none of them are quite full replacements for who they've lost.
After seven years at Team DSM, Søren Kragh Andersen seemed to have stalled somewhat in recent seasons. The Dane can count two stages of the Tour de France, Paris-Tours, and stages at Paris-Nice and the Tour de Suisse on his palmarès, though none of those big wins came in the past two years.
In fact, he has no wins in 2021 or 2022, with his highlights of the year just gone being fifth at Gent-Wevelgem and seventh at Milan-San Remo. Kragh Andersen clearly has the ability to perform with the best of them, and a change of scenery, support staff, and circumstances might be key to helping him get back to the form he showed from 2018 to 2020.
Australian sprinter Kaden Groves is who the team have looked towards to replace Merlier. The 24-year-old had taken a couple of years to break through after turning pro in 2020, but he announced himself in 2022 with wins at the Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta a España – beating Merlier at the latter race.
Groves is on board for the next two seasons after something of a surprising switch from the Aussie squad now known as Jayco-AlUla. His new team will be hoping to develop him as they've done with Philipsen. Lead-out man Ramon Sinkeldam has moved from Groupama-FDJ to help both fastmen.
Quinten Hermans is the other major addition, the Belgian moving on from Intermarche-Circus-Wanty. He was surprisingly left off the team's Tour de France squad last year after reportedly having already negotiated his move to Alpecin-Deceuninck following a breakthrough second place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the spring.
He was there or thereabouts in several other major races through 2022 – the Tour de Romandie, the Tour de Pologne, and the Bemer Cyclassics – but aside from a second career win on stage 4 of the Baloise Belgium Tour hasn't quite scored that big one yet.
2022 was only the second season cyclocrosser Hermans has raced over 40 days on the road. He's 27 years old but is far from a seasoned veteran. In that regard, he perhaps has room to develop and improve more than most riders of his age.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, joining in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.
Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering, and Remco Evenepoel. Their favourite races are the Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.
