The stepping stones to victory: Alpecin-Premier Tech's perfect day In Flanders Fields

Cor Vos

It was almost a fairytale renaissance of one of the greatest rivalries of the modern era as Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert set off together through the wind-swept Flanders Fields, but instead, the race formerly known as Gent-Wevelgem came down to a bunch sprint that was won by Jasper Philipsen, the culmination of a thoroughly perfect day for Alpecin-Premier Tech.

From the start in Middelkerke, through the nervy splits on the wide open roads, and on over the cobbles and bergs that punctuated the last 100 km, the Belgian WorldTeam didn't put a foot wrong in 241 km of racing.

Though they've remained arguably the dominant outfit of the spring thus far, there had still been a few question marks after a seemingly slow start for Philipsen, and most recently, a narrowly-avoided disaster for Van der Poel at E3 Saxo Classic, Alpecin is reaching a peak at the perfect time with Holy Week – Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – now just a week away.

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[race_result id=7 stage_id=0 count=10 gc=0 year=2026]

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