{"id":20466,"date":"2026-06-11T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/20466\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:07:12","slug":"jasper-philipsen-makes-crucial-tour-de-france-preparation-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/20466\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasper Philipsen makes crucial Tour de France preparation change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/jasper-phillipsen\" title=\"Jasper Philipsen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jasper Philipsen<\/a> has made a clear deviation in his sprint to the Tour de France, but the move could be set to reward the Belgian fast man. Initially set to ride next week&#8217;s Tour de Suisse, he will instead reportedly take to the line for the <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/baloise-belgium-tour\" title=\"Baloise Belgium Tour\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baloise Belgium Tour<\/a>.It was initially reported that Philipsen would pair with Mathieu van der Poel in Switzerland as they prepare to spearhead Alpecin &#8211; Premier Tech&#8217;s pursuit of Tour de France stage victories this summer. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hln.be\/wielrennen\/jasper-philipsen-dan-toch-niet-in-ronde-van-zwitserland-wel-in-baloise-belgium-tour~a98ef736\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HLN reports<\/a> that Philipsen made the change over sprint opportunities.But Alpecin will have to wait before unleashing the <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/mathieu-van-der-poel-and-alpecin-premier-tech-hit-the-costa-blanca-to-prepare-for-tour-de-france-opening-ttt\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">versatile classics duo<\/a> on the peloton, and Philipsen instead faces the prospect of an early rendezvous with former teammate Tim Merlier and Mads Pedersen.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The change is certainly understandable. Tour de Suisse offers a maximum of two sprint opportunities for Philipsen, while the Belgian stage race offers three or even four chances for the fastest to stretch their legs.<\/p>\n<p>Mixed season for Philipsen<\/p>\n<p>In a season that&#8217;s blown hot and cold for Philipsen, the ten-time Tour stage winner has only been on the top of the podium twice &#8211; although one of those was high-profile classic In Flanders Fields &#8211; formerly known as Ghent Wevelgem.<\/p>\n<p>Philipsen hasn&#8217;t raced since Paris Roubaix, a race that ended in disappointment as he gave his bike to van der Poel following a flat for the Dutch rider on the legendary Arenberg cobbled section. The move to give his teammate a bike effectively ended his race, leaving him far behind the front of affairs in the unforgiving race.<\/p>\n<p>The preparation race is sure to see Tour de France excitement reach a boiling point and Philipsen is among the top stage hunters at the July showpiece. The preliminary team for Alpecin includes Jonas Rickaert, Kaden Groves, van der Poel and Emiel Verstrynge.<\/p>\n<p>Other sprinting contenders at the Baloise Belgium Tour, kicking off on June 17th, include Olav Kooij, Milan Fretin and Dylan Groenewegen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jasper Philipsen has made a clear deviation in his sprint to the Tour de France, but the move&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[3334,12896,7,1682,3330],"class_list":["post-20466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-alpecin-premier-tech","tag-baloise-belgium-tour","tag-belgium","tag-cycling","tag-jasper-philipsen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116731395754390057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}