He almost crashed in Knokke-Heist, but thanks to a sprint victory, Jasper Philipsen will return to his home base on Friday in good spirits.
The “Flame from Ham” beat everyone on Thursday during a sprint in Putte. On Friday, the Baloise Belgium Tour continues with an individual time trial over 9.7 kilometres in Tessenderlo-Ham, Philipsen’s hometown.
“It had been a long time since I last won, so this victory feels really good. I’m glad I managed to do it once this week. Jonas Rickaert was my lead-out again. He did an excellent job and was very strong. I think that we are all beginning to reap the rewards of our long training camp. Oscar Riesebeek also did a great job preparing for the sprint. I was held up for a little while, but fortunately it opened up at the right moment in the final straight,” said Philipsen.
Alpecin-Deceuninck had already opened up the throttle with about 50 kilometres to go. “The course lent itself to attacking racing. The circuit featured no hills, but on the Peulisbaan cobbled section anything could happen. We put the rest of the field under pressure there and did some damage,” Philipsen continued.
The man from Limburg narrowly avoided a crash during the opening stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour on De Wandelaar. “I still don’t know what went wrong in that sprint. I didn’t know if I was going to manage to stay upright twice. There is the individual time trial in my hometown Ham on Friday. I am really looking forward to that.”
