'I am not yet good enough to compete with the best' – Jasper Philipsen on Alpecin's lacklustre Opening Weekend

The highest-profile Classics name absent from the Belgian cobbled curtain-raiser at Opening Weekend was undoubtedly Mathieu van der Poel, with the Dutch superstar opting to start his 2024 road season with a Milan-San Remo defence in three weeks instead.

That meant it was left up to Alpecin-Deceuninck's star sprinter Jasper Philipsen to lead the Belgian squad at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

Things didn't go entirely to plan in Van der Poel's absence, however, with Gianni Vermeersch's 18th place at Omloop the best result of the weekend for the team, with Philipsen having finished in 66th and 92nd.

Of course, there was more to the story than a pair of numbers on the results sheet. Philipsen's first outing of the season on Saturday saw him make the front group after Visma-Lease a Bike blew the race apart 130km from the line.

However, he'd fade as the kilometres ticked by, eventually closing out the day four minutes down on winner Jan Tratnik, saying that "the barrel was empty" the next morning.

"I felt OK, and I was happy with my first feelings," he told WielerFlits. "But at the end, the barrel was empty. That was to be expected after a tough altitude camp, though.

"I still need Tirreno-Adriatico to reach my top level. We worked hard at camp and that will come to fruition in the coming weeks."

Ahead of the weekend, Philipsen stated his ambition to win a major Classic at some point this spring.

Last season he enjoyed his best Classics campaign yet, winning both the Classic Brugge-De Panne and Scheldeprijs while also finishing fourth at the Dwars door Vlaanderen. He also followed Van der Poel into the Paris-Roubaix velodrome to complete an Alpecin-Deceuninck one-two.

Philipsen began 2023 in much the same way as he has started this season – a 33rd and a DNF at Opening Weekend – before going on to claim two wins at Tirreno and then hitting flying form in March and April.

Whether he'll follow that rise once again is yet to be seen, but at least on Sunday he could feel hard done by after being held up by a major crash ahead of the closing sprint among the chase group.

"Of course, I would have liked to sprint, but I'm glad I didn't fall," he told WielerFlits later. "A rider fell in front of me, he flew into the barrier and his bike was catapulted back into the peloton. I was completely stationary and just about managed to stay upright.

"In the end, it wasn't about victory, because the three in front were really outstanding today. At the moment I am not yet good enough to compete with the best, but that can only improve. I would have liked to test my sprint again, but a sprint for place four is always different from sprinting for victory."

Team boss Christoph Roodhooft said that he is "not 100% satisfied, but not dissatisfied either", noting the similar results last February before the big wins came later in the spring.

"Starting here is not easy, we know that for sure since last year. But we cannot be dissatisfied with yesterday as we had three riders in the front echelon," he said.

"Today, we were just not good enough when those 16 drove away. But I saw a decent race for two days. Not more, but also not less.

"It's certainly better than last year. It's not good, but we have confidence that things will turn out OK. For the time being, I am going home with a rather positive feeling."