A puncture at the worst possible time and poor position in the bunch sprint left Jasper Philipsen without a result in Gent-Wevelgem and frustrated after Alpecin-Deceuninck threw all of their riders into a futile chase of winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
Philipsen finished a distant 44th in the peloton which only managed to half the 90-second advantage that Pedersen had in the final 20 kilometres, and he was annoyed that other teams didn't put more into the pursuit.
"It is a pity that Quick-Step or something did not add an extra man [to the chase] because I saw that they did a lead-out with three men," Philipsen told Sporza.be after Soudal-Quickstep's Tim Merlier won the sprint for second. "I had no one left. We used up everyone because at that moment you have to gamble on the victory. I would rather win the race than come second."
Philipsen was unable to match Pedersen's attack on the 'plugstreets' with 72 kilometres to go because he had suffered a puncture just before the move.
"I got a flat tyre at an unfortunate moment, but if you see how far out Pedersen went - really, hats off," Philipsen said. "It was still super far, with a lot of headwind. That he does it all by himself is a crazy achievement.
"I would have liked to have been there and maybe we would have had a completely different race. But that wasn't the case."
Philipsen said he believed the race could still come down to a bunch sprint with more cooperation.
"The speed was there. You know that there are always a lot of guys who have teammates with them to try to come back. After the last time up the Kemmel, it is still 30 kilometres to the finish. Then you know that a lot can still come together."
By the time the peloton reached the finish, Pedersen had celebrated his victory 49 seconds earlier, and Philipsen wasn't involved in the sprint for the podium.
"At the end of such a long race, my best legs were gone," he said. "I would have liked to sprint for a podium place, but I got a bit boxed in on the left side. Then I let it go. That is a bit of a shame, but the victory was not in the cards today. And that was what we came here for."
Philipsen won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne at the beginning of the month, but a crash in Nokere Koerse ruined his race for Milan-San Remo, and he finished anonymously in Brugge-De Panne, too.
Still, he felt optimistic for his upcoming races, in particular Paris-Roubaix, where he will race as the 2023 champion.
"There are fewer and fewer chances: today another one is gone. But next Wednesday [Dwars door Vlaanderen] I will be there again. Hopefully, we can achieve a good result then. I hope the same is true in Paris-Roubaix, of course. You always need a bit of luck there, but it is a race that suits me very well. I am looking forward to it."
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