Jasper Philipsen caught the eye during his spells with the BMC development team and Hagens Berman Axeon before deciding to make the step up to WorldTour level with UAE Team Emirates at just 20 years of age this season. The Belgian’s professional career got off to a fine start at the Tour Down Under, where he claimed sprint victory on the penultimate stage.
Cyclingnews: How did you get into cycling?
Jasper Philipsen: No one in my family raced. I played soccer as a child but then I had a BMX accident and that gave me some injury problems that meant I couldn’t play soccer any more. I was still watching cycling on television and when I was roughly 12 I started to get the sport. At the time, I didn’t really know much about professional cycling but I started racing, joined a team, and started to have fun.
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CN: You’re from Ham, near Mol, in Belgium. Mol has produced a number of professional riders but none bigger than Tom Boonen.
JP: That’s right. During Boonen’s final years we were in the same training group, along with Maarten Wynants from Jumbo-Visma. My first training ride with Boonen was probably a short coffee ride because we do a lot of them back home. We’d stop at a bar, have a coffee, and then have an easy ride home. He was always a hero for me because I’d watch him race in the spring Classics, and I really looked up to him and his achievements while the Classics were always special for me when I was growing up. He was a superstar when I was growing up, so it was strange to then find myself riding with him. I got used to it.
CN: How did you end up on Axel Merckx’s Hagens Berman Axeon team in 2018?
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