However, the road to those results wasn’t entirely smooth. The jump from the junior ranks, where Philipsen was the dominant force in 2023, winning the World titles in Road and MTB, to the World Tour required an adjustment period.
“The step from juniors to the pros is very big, also because of everything involved, such as traveling,” Philipsen himself explained regarding his inconsistent start to 2025. “After big races, I got sick quite often, and I think that went a bit better at the end of the season. My body felt increasingly comfortable.”
Philipsen presents a unique “problem” for his team: he is arguably good at everything. He has already showed a lot of potential on cobbles, punchy climbs, and endurance races, and he has no rush to specialize into something, not yet at least. “I cannot go into that yet. I find it much too fun now to do a bit of everything: the classics, the climbing work, gravel and so on,” Philipsen said. “That is a good thing for my development, and then I can make the decision at a later time.”
For the early part of 2026, the plan is to test the waters in the most chaotic one-day races. We can expect to see him in action during the Opening Weekend in Belgium, as well as on the white gravel of Tuscany. “I still have a lot of time and a long career ahead of me, so I see no reason to make a quick choice. At the moment I like the heavy classics, such as Strade Bianche, the most,” he noted. “I am going to gain more experience in the classics and belong to the group for the cobbles, but mainly to help and gain experience.”
Philipsen won Paris-Roubaix Espoirs in 2025
Learning from one of the best
Despite the hype surrounding him, often mentioned in the same breath as other generational talents like Paul Seixas, Philipsen remains grounded. “I have always put a lot of pressure on myself, so I was used to it pretty quickly when it came to the outside world. In a way it was weird, but it didn’t change anything about my personality.”
“I’d rather show it in races than mention it in interviews. It may be that I deliver a top result this year already, but it could just as well take another three years. There are perhaps more expectations than last year, but for me, it is not the case that everything has become completely different. I just try to remain myself, more than being the person others want me to become,” he concluded.