2024, A monumental year
In the past few years, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s main objectives have been the Classics, especially the Flanders ones. Philip Roodhooft’s team has been built around Mathieu Van der Poel with the ultimate aim of winning the maximum number of major one-day races possible. In 2024, this objective has clearly been reached, with success in the first three Monuments of the season: Milano-San Remo, Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.
First of all, in Italy, Jasper Philipsen managed to sprint for the win after an impressive climb of the Poggio and incredible work from the then World Champion Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutch rider’s time to shine arrived later in the season, when he won his third Ronde van Vlaanderen after a 45-kilometre solo, before taking his second Paris-Roubaix in a row one week later after attacking almost 60 kilometres from the finish line. Three minutes later, the second rider to cross the line in the Velodrome was… Philipsen, who recreated the incredible one-two of 2023, confirming the dominance of Alpecin-Deceuninck on the cobbles.
Indeed, in addition to the Monuments, van der Poel also won the E3 Classic while Philipsen raised his arms in De Panne. The incredible Monument streak ended in Liège–Bastogne–Liège for the Belgian team, as van der Poel was beaten by Pogačar and Bardet, finishing third.
During the rest of the season, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s riders became stage chasers at the World Tour races. Indeed, Jasper Philipsen and Kaden Groves each won three stages of Grand Tours, the first at the Tour de France and the second at La Vuelta. The Frenchman Axel Laurance managed not only to take a stage of the Volta a Catalunya but also to win the only general classification of the season for his team at the Tour of Norway. Alpecin-Deceuninck finished the season with 26 wins, including 15 at World Tour level, allowing them to finish the season in eighth place on the UCI ranking.
A calm transfer window
For the season to come, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s management bet on stability, with only a few riders arriving in the World Tour team. Indeed, only six new faces will make their debut for the Belgian team in 2025, including five of them who will ride for the first time at the highest level of cycling. The only exception is Johan Price-Pejtersen, who arrives from Bahrain-Victorious. The Danish former U23 ITT World Champion will try to give a new start to his career after two years with the Middle-Eastern team where he was not able to take his chance. This strong time trialist could also be a good domestique for his leaders, as will be the five young stars joining alongside him. Two of them are already known by the amateurs of cyclocross as two of the most promising riders of the discipline. Indeed, the Dutch Tibor Del Grosso is the reigning U23 World Champion, a title that he won ahead of his new teammate on the road, the Belgian Emiel Verstrynge.
In addition to these two, Gal Gilvar, Ramses Debruyne and Simon Dehairs will also make their way into the World Tour next season, where they could maybe take their chance sometimes at smaller races, as did the former when he had the opportunity to ride with Alpecin-Deceuninck at the ZLM Tour last season.
Among the departures, Søren Kragh Andersen will be missed by Mathieu van der Poel at the Flanders Classics while the young Axel Laurance is already leaving for the INEOS Grenadiers after only one promising year with the World Tour team. With only a few movements this winter, Alpecin-Deceuninck will try to conserve their momentum of last season, especially at the Classics which will be the main objective for the team, as it was in the past few years. The sprint team should also be at the centre of Belgian team’s success in 2025 with Jasper Philipsen and Kaden Groves as its head and with the younger generation of riders pushing in such as Jensen Plowright or Simon Dehairs.
Mathieu Van der Poel, King of the Flanders?
He almost won them all. In 2024, out of the four starts of Mathieu van der Poel at a Flanders classic, he was only beaten once, in Gent-Wevelgem, where he finished behind Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). Last year, Raymond Poulidor’s grandson was undeniably the strongest as soon as the peloton entered a cobbled hill or section and he proved it with incredible solo wins, including the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.
The recent Gravel World Champion benefitted from a team built around him for the Flanders Classics with riders such as Søren Kragh Andersen, Silvan Dillier and Gianni Vermeersch. The 2023 World Champion’s old rivalry with Wout Van Aert seems to have turned in his favour, at least during the spring. Indeed, even though Van Aert missed the two cobbled Monuments due to a bad crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, he couldn’t compete with van der Poel at E3, where he crossed the line more than 1:30 after the winner. The only man who seems able to beat the “Flying Dutchman” on the Belgian roads is named Tadej Pogačar. The Slovenian, who won the Ronde in 2023, seems to be the greatest threat to Alpecin-Deceuninck’s domination if he decides to go on the spring’s cobbles.
At almost 30 years old, van der Poel can also still dream of winning a fourth different Monument. Indeed, if Il Lombardia seems to be too hard for him, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race in which he finished third last season, seems more accessible for the cyclocross World Champion. Van der Poel’s 2025 season should be centred around those races, though it may cost him his ability to perform later on the season, including at the Tour de France, similarly to the last few years. He has proven himself as an extremely good lead-out for his sprinter Jasper Philipsen but he has not been able to win a stage in the country of his grandfather since 2021, when he wore the yellow jersey. A very difficult parcours for the 2025 Worlds Championships could see van der Poel not travelling to Rwanda next season and instead discovering La Vuelta, the only Grand Tour at which he never won a stage.
Jasper Philipsen, the most complete of the sprinters
2024 was undeniably the best season of Jasper Philipsen’s career to date. At 26 years old, the Belgian managed to raise his arms nine times, including seven times at World Tour level. The biggest of them was Milano-Sanremo, his first Monument, which he won after a very good management of the Poggio. He continued his Classics campaign with a win in De Panne, a fourth place at Gent-Wevelgem and, for the second year in a row, second place at Paris-Roubaix. These results proved that, in addition to being one of the greatest sprinters on the planet, Philipsen is also capable of performing very well on the cobbles and on more hilly roads.
At the Tour de France, the main objective of the second part of his season, the native of Mol in Northern Belgium managed to win three stages, rounding up his total to nine on the July roads. With this amazing season, Jasper Philipsen finished third in the UCI Ranking, only behind Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel.
In 2025, it is very likely we will see the Belgian sprinter back on the roads of the Tour de France in order to compete again for the green jersey that he could not retain in 2024. Philipsen could also be tempted by discovering the Giro, with the goal of entering the circle of stage winners in the three Grand Tours, and he will surely have in mind the Belgian championships in Binche, where he will dream of bringing home his first national title.
A pivotal year for Quinten Hermans
When Quinten Hermans joined Alpecin-Deceuninck at the beginning of 2023, high expectations were on his shoulders after his second place at the 2022 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in what was only his third year among the professional peloton.
After a very complicated first season with his new team, 2024 was better for the native of Antwerp. Indeed, he raised his arms for the first time under his new colours on the third stage of the Itzulia Basque Country, rounding off the sprint after a difficult stage. The Belgian also showed his capacities as a puncheur on the roads of the Giro and La Vuelta, posting multiple top 10s on hilly roads. On the other hand, he was quite far from his past performances at the Ardennes Classics, where he played the role of domestique for Mathieu van der Poel and did not manage to do better than a top 20 at the Flèche Wallonne, where the Flying Dutchman was not present.
At 29 years old, Quinten Hermans is entering a key point in his career. Indeed, his contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck is expiring at the end of 2025 and he will have at heart the aim to show that he is one of the best puncheurs in the peloton in order to have a hand in deciding his future. The former rider of Intermarché-Wanty is not the only one in this situation, as 17 riders see their contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck coming to an end at the close of next season and will try to prove their worth for the future of their career. After a calm transfer window this year, 2025 could be a really busy winter for the Belgian team.
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