Jasper Philipsen is missing from the team around Mathieu van der Poel in the Tour of Flanders

Jasper Philipsen will not be at the start of the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. The Limburg winner of Milan-San Remo is focusing on the Scheldeprijs and Paris Roubaix, the competitions in which he finished first and second last year. Philipsen decided this in consultation with the management and performance cell of Alpecin-Deceuninck.

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In the final selection around world champion and top favorite Mathieu van der Poel, master servant Gianni Vermeersch can be found – as expected. The West Flemish recovered well from his fall in Dwars door Vlaanderen. Together with Søren Kragh Andersen and debutant Axel Laurance, Van der Poel has some strong servants with him.

The selection is completed with Silvan Dillier, Xandro Meurisse and Oscar Riesebeek. Last year, the winner of Milan-San Remo also missed out on Flanders Most Beautiful.

Philipsen’s decision comes as a surprise. Last Wednesday he sounded hopeful at our microphone for the Tour of Flanders. “I think that together with the team, Søren Kragh Andere, Gianni Vermeersch and myself, we have to support Mathieu as much as possible, as deep as possible in the final. So that he certainly does not become isolated,” he said about the plans for De Ronde.