Jasper Philipsen

Jasper Philipsen (born 2 March 1998) is a Belgian professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Specialising as a sprinter, he has won eleven stages in the Tour de France and six in the Vuelta a España, and the points classification in the 2023 Tour de France.

Career Early years From 2010, Philipsen rode for the Royal Balen BC team. In 2015, he became national junior time trial champion. Later that year, he finished eighth at the European championships in the same discipline and sixth at the world championships. One year on, Philipsen won the Guido Reybrouck Classic and E3 Harelbeke for juniors, and successfully defended his national time trial title. In addition, in the same year he finished fifth in Paris-Roubaix for juniors and 11th in the Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten. Philipsen made the cut for both the time trial and the road race at the world championships in Doha. Upon the time trial, in which he set the 18th fastest time, he was hospitalised with exhaustion and overheating. Although Philipsen appeared to have convalesced, he didn't make the road race three days later.

On 1 April 2017, Philipsen secured his first UCI victory as an elite rider, for the BMC Development Team team. In the second stage of the Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux, he beat fellow-Belgian Milan Menten and Dutchman Maarten van Trijp in the bunch sprint. The day after, courtesy to a fifth place in the individual time trial, he snatched the leader's jersey from Chris Lawless. In the final stage, he finished fourth, taking not only the overall classification, but also the points ranking and youth classification. After finishing second in both the Tour of Flanders U23 and the ZLM Tour, he won a stage in the Baby Giro in June. In the points ranking, he kept one point ahead of Neilson Powless. In July, he won the second stage in the Tour of Alsace, after which he rode the hopefuls road races at both the European and national level. In the fifth stage of the Olympia's Tour, he beat Patrick van der Duin and Fabio Jakobsen in the bunch sprint. In October, he won Paris–Tours Espoirs.

Professional career In 2018, Philipsen became professional at Hagens Berman Axeon. He took several victories that year, including the overall classification of the Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux and a stage in the Baby Giro. In October, he was offered a contract with UAE Team Emirates. Through this team, he made the switch to the World Tour.

Philipsen made the startlist for the 2019 Tour de France. He participated in the 2020 Vuelta a España, where he won stage 15. He participated in his second Tour de France in 2021 and while he did not win any stages he had many promising results including making the stage podium a half dozen times. He rode in the 2021 Vuelta a España where he won two stages. He also wore the points ranking jersey in several stages, vying with Fabio Jakobsen for the jersey, before abandoned halfway through due to a mild fever.

Early in the 2022 season he won the points ranking and two stages of the UAE Tour. He then won the points ranking and a stage in the Tour of Turkey and a stage in the Tour of Belgium.

He entered the 2022 Tour de France with the team pursuing stage wins for both Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel. Philipsen initially thought he had won stage 4, but Wout Van Aert turned out to have taken the peloton by surprise, attacking as the yellow jersey. After the Alps he got a chance to win stage 15 after the final breakaway rider had been run down during the final kilometre. He managed to outpace previous stage winners Van Aert and Mads Pedersen, taking the team's first win of the race. His second stage win came on the final day in Paris, winning the sprint by a convincing margin.

In March 2023, he won his second World Tour one-day race: the Classic Brugge–De Panne, outsprinting Olav Kooij and Yves Lampaert only a week after winning two stages of Tirreno–Adriatico. Two weeks later, he won Scheldeprijs for the second time. Five days later, he outkicked Wout Van Aert to take second at Paris–Roubaix. This was his first podium in a Monument. At the Tour de France, he won stages 3, 4, 7 and 11, all of which were sprint finishes. This led him to ultimately win the points classification by over 100 points to second placed Mads Pedersen. Philipsen went on to win nine more races in the season, leading to a total of 19 victories.

Philipsen began his 2024 season in a similar fashion, winning one stage and finishing second in another at Tirreno–Adriatico. He then won his first Monument: Milan–San Remo in a sprint finish, ahead of Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar. Four days later, he defended his title at the Classic Brugge–De Panne, and again had a repeat of last year at Paris–Roubaix, where he again placed second to teammate Mathieu van der Poel. After three second-place finishes in a row on sprint stages, Philipsen won stage 10 of the 2024 Tour de France, his first of the Tour. He went on to also win stages 13 and 16.

Philipsen began 2025 by racing the UAE Tour, finishing in second on the first stage and third on another. He finished third in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad behind Søren Wærenskjold and Paul Magnier before securing his first victory of the season at the Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne ahead of Olav Kooij, winning the race on his 27th birthday.

Philipsen won the opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France, meaning that he also got to wear the yellow jersey for the first time. During the intermediate sprint on stage 3, Philipsen was involved in a high speed crash, as a result of Bryan Coquard colliding with him, which forced him to abandon the race. It was later revealed that he suffered a displaced collarbone fracture which would require surgery and broken ribs. Philipsen underwent successful surgery at AZ Herentals in Belgium, the same night of the crash.

Riding style Sports journalists occasionally compare Jasper Philipsen to Tom Boonen, as both hail from the same region in Flanders and are routinely qualified as sprinters, specialising in classics.

Philipsen is one of the most prolific cyclists of his generation. By 2022, several international specialized media considered him to be the best active sprinter in the world.

He drew some criticism for his riding style during the 2023 Tour de France, as he appeared to interfere with other riders on several stages. This criticism reemerged during the 2024 Tour, as he was relegated to the back of the peloton for interfering with Wout van Aert in a bunch sprint; costing him green jersey points as he had originally finished second. During his first race of his 2025 season, he was relegated for deviating from his line yet again, this time during a second-place finish in the UAE Tour.

Major results

2015 1st Time trial, National Junior Road Championships 2nd Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten 3rd Guido Reybrouck Classic 4th La Philippe Gilbert Juniors 4th Paris–Roubaix Juniors 5th Overall Trophée Centre Morbihan 2016 1st Time trial, National Junior Road Championships 1st E3 Harelbeke Juniors 1st Guido Reybrouck Classic 3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne Juniors 5th Paris–Roubaix Juniors 10th Overall Grand Prix Rüebliland 2017 1st Overall Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux 1st Points classification 1st Young rider classification 1st Stage 2 1st Paris–Tours Espoirs Giro Ciclistico d'Italia 1st Points classification 1st Stage 4 1st Stage 2 Tour Alsace 1st Stage 5 Olympia's Tour 2nd Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften 2nd ZLM Tour 4th Berner Rundfahrt 2018 (1 pro win) 1st Overall Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1 & 2 1st Gylne Gutuer 1st Stage 4 Tour of Utah 1st Stage 3 Giro Ciclistico d'Italia 3rd Three Days of Bruges–De Panne 4th Tour de l'Eurométropole 4th Paris–Roubaix Espoirs 5th Dorpenomloop Rucphen 6th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 7th Grand Prix d'Isbergues 8th Primus Classic 9th Lillehammer GP 2019 (1) 1st Stage 5 Tour Down Under 2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies 2nd Heistse Pijl 3rd Nokere Koerse 3rd Elfstedenronde 3rd Brussels Cycling Classic 5th Dwars door het Hageland 6th Overall Tour of Belgium 9th Scheldeprijs 2020 (3) 1st Stage 15 Vuelta a España 1st Stage 1 BinckBank Tour 1st Stage 3 Tour du Limousin 1st Sprints classification, Tour Down Under 5th Scheldeprijs 5th Brussels Cycling Classic 9th Druivenkoers Overijse 2021 (9)

1st Eschborn–Frankfurt 1st Scheldeprijs 1st Grand Prix de Denain 1st Paris–Chauny Vuelta a España 1st Stages 2 & 5 Held after Stages 2–3, 5–7 Tour of Turkey 1st Points classification 1st Stages 6 & 7 2nd Classic Brugge–De Panne 2022 (9) 1st Omloop van het Houtland 1st Paris–Bourges Tour de France 1st Stages 15 & 21 UAE Tour 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1 & 5 Tour of Turkey 1st Points classification 1st Stage 3 1st Stage 4 Danmark Rundt 2nd Münsterland Giro 2nd Gooikse Pijl 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 4th Druivenkoers Overijse 6th Hamburg Cyclassics 6th Rund um Köln 6th Grand Prix de Wallonie 8th Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Stage 2 8th Scheldeprijs 2023 (19)

1st Classic Brugge–De Panne 1st Scheldeprijs 1st Elfstedenronde 1st Gooikse Pijl 1st Paris–Chauny 1st Visit Friesland Elfsteden Race Tour de France 1st Points classification 1st Stages 3, 4, 7 & 11 Tour of Turkey 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1, 2, 4 & 8 Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Stages 3 & 7 1st Stage 1 Renewi Tour 1st Stage 1 Tour of Belgium 2nd Paris–Roubaix 4th Dwars door Vlaanderen 2024 (9) 1st Milan–San Remo 1st Classic Brugge–De Panne 1st Münsterland Giro Tour de France 1st Stages 10, 13 & 16 1st Stage 2 Tirreno–Adriatico 2nd Road race, National Road Championships 2nd Paris–Roubaix 2nd Scheldeprijs 3rd Paris–Tours 3rd Nokere Koerse 3rd Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen 4th Road race, UEC European Road Championships 4th Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Points classification 1st Stage 3 4th Gent–Wevelgem 4th Binche–Chimay–Binche 6th Overall Renewi Tour 1st Points classification 1st Stage 4 7th Hamburg Cyclassics 2025 (7) 1st Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne 1st Münsterland Giro Tour de France 1st Stage 1 Held after Stage 1 Held after Stages 1–2 Vuelta a España 1st Stages 1, 8 & 19 Held after Stage 1 Held after Stages 1–2 2nd Scheldeprijs 2nd Elfstedenronde 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 4th Hamburg Cyclassics 8th Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Stage 2 9th Dwars door het Hageland 2026 (10) 1st Overall Renewi Tour 1st Points classification 1st Stages 2, 4 & 5 1st Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Points classification 1st Stage 5 1st Gent–Wevelgem 1st Copenhagen Sprint 1st Nokere Koerse 1st Stage 17 Tour de France 2nd Tour of Bruges 8th Dwars door Vlaanderen 8th Scheldeprijs

Grand Tour general classification results timeline Grand Tour 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Giro d'Italia — — — — — — — — Tour de France DNF — 109 91 97 128 DNF 135 Vuelta a España — 85 DNF — — — — —

Classics results timeline

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish

Honours and awards CyclingNews: Best Sprinter in the World: 2021, 2022, 2023 Most Victories in 1 Season: 19 in 2023 Flandrien of the Year – Best Professional Cyclist: 2023