'Maybe I forgot a little bit how to sprint' - Jasper Philipsen upbeat despite near-miss in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) heads to Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday looking to get back on his top game in bunch sprints after he suffered a rare but narrow defeat in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.

The most prolifically successful WorldTour racer of 2023 with 19 wins, Philipsen conquered Milano-San Remo and took three Tour de France stages in 2024, as well as winning a top Belgian one-day race last spring, the Classic Brugge-De Panne. 

However, while both he and his team performed very well through most of Nieuwsblad, he came up just short in the closing kilometres, claiming third behind surprise winner Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and up-and-coming Frenchman Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep).

"I had to come from a bit too far back," he told Sporza.be afterwards, adding he had followed Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) for a long time in the dash for the line because he thought he would be fresher.

But when push came to shove, he added, "I didn't really have my sprint legs. Maybe I forgot a little bit how to win a sprint."

Philipsen took some time in 2023 and 2024 to get his first victory of the season, with his earliest wins coming in Tirreno-Adriatico both years. 

However, after some near-misses in UAE, he and his team did everything right in Omloop on Saturday, creating a very dangerous split with 40 kilometres to go which left both the other top Belgian contenders, van Aert and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) on the wrong side of the divide - and Philipsen ahead. 

The bunch came back together, but the Belgian sprinter then stayed well ahead all the way over the final cobbled challenges of the day, the daunting Mur de Geraardsbergen and Bosberg, and he said afterwards he would have signed beforehand for a podium finish in such a challenging race.

"Can I live with my 3rd place?" he said. "Certainly. If you had said this beforehand, I would have been satisfied.

"Of course you hope to win a sprint, but I wasn't strong enough at the end. I felt that Soren was the strongest. You have to accept that." 

Curiously enough, if Philipsen did win Kuurne, he would be producing an identical set of results to compatriot van Aert last year in the Opening Weekend, with third in Nieuwsblad followed by victory in Kuurne.

Whether history does repeat itself, albeit for a different top Belgian contender, will only become clear on Sunday evening.

“I just have to figure out again how to win a sprint”,  Philipsen told Nieuwsblad after Saturday evening, although he also confirmed his overall satisfaction with how he had managed to get over the toughest climbs in Omloop as well.

“Maybe it is something mental. A switch that I have to turn. I have to find the urge to win again.”