{"id":7332,"date":"2024-10-25T10:07:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T08:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=7332"},"modified":"2024-11-13T10:14:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T09:14:17","slug":"is-alpecin-deceuninck-preparing-for-a-future-after-van-der-poel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/10\/25\/is-alpecin-deceuninck-preparing-for-a-future-after-van-der-poel\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Alpecin-Deceuninck Preparing for a Future After van der Poel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This has been another good year for the Belgian team Alpecin-Deceuninck, as it registered 26 victories, including three stages and the green jersey at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a by Kaden Groves, three stages in the Tour de France by the prolific Jasper Philipsen, and three spring classics \u2013 the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and the E3 Saxo Classic \u2013 by Mathieu van der Poel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, the trophy haul was down from last year when the team racked up 35 wins, representing its worst showing since 2020, when it was called Alpecin-Fenix and won only 16 races. For one thing, despite the nine wins, it was a down year for Philipsen, who won 19 races last year. Groves also had a disappointing season, winning only those three Vuelta stages and taking the Vuelta points classification only because the green jersey leader, Wout van Aert, crashed out late in the race.<\/a><\/p>\n

Still, I don\u2019t suppose the team\u2019s managers or sponsors are unduly worried since Alpecin has not been active in the transfer market. In fact, not only have they not brought anyone new into the squad so far, but they have also lost some quality riders. The promising 23-year-old French rider Axel Laurance, who won the 2024 Tour of Norway, has gone to the troubled INEOS Grenadiers, and the 30-year-old Dane, S\u00f8ren Kragh Andersen \u2013 who had a disappointing year but previously won stages in the Tour de France<\/a> and Paris-Nice \u2013 has gone to Lidl-Trek.<\/p>\n

As a result, as of this writing, Alpecin-Deceuninck has a World Tour squad of only 22 riders signed for 2025, eight fewer than they carried this year. This could simply mean that contracts for some riders have not been finalized, or it could mean that the team\u2019s bosses, Philip and Christoph Roodhooft, are already working on a strategy for after Alpecin\u2019s leader and main attraction, van der Poel, retires. Van der Poel also had a somewhat disappointing year by his standards, finishing third in the UCI World Championship Road Race and 12th in the Olympics road race \u2013 though he did win the UCI Gravel World Championship, a race in which he faced none of the riders who defeated him in the Olympics and the Worlds.<\/p>\n

\"Mathieu<\/a>
What will the team be like post-van der Poel? \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One problem for the team is that the newly crowned Gravel World Champion will turn 30 in January, and Alpecin is very much van der Poel\u2019s team. He draws the crowds, the media, and the sponsors. He wins the big spring classics, world championships (in road, cyclocross, and now gravel), and, when called upon, becomes the world\u2019s best leadout rider for Philipsen. But 30 is a turning-point year.<\/p>\n

His one-day-race rivals, Tadej Poga\u010dar and Remco Evenepoel, are significantly younger. Van der Poel seemed not to have answers to Evenepoel in the Olympics and Poga\u010dar in the World Championships when they made their moves. As long as those two riders continue to concentrate on the Grand Tours at the expense of the classics and monuments, van der Poel should continue to find success in the spring.<\/p>\n

Is the reason Alpecin has so far shied away from the transfer market because the Roodhoofts are mulling over a post\u2013van der Poel strategy? Earlier this year, van der Poel extended his contract until 2028, and Philipsen\u2019s contract has also been extended to that year. It\u2019s reasonable to see van der Poel as a force for another three years, until he is 33. But after that? Of the 22 riders currently under contract for 2025 on Alpecin\u2019s World Tour team, only four are under 25 years of age. And many of the riders on its development team ride primarily in other disciplines, such as gravel and cyclocross. So there is a real question mark over the team\u2019s road racing future.<\/p>\n

Philipsen is 26, and Groves is 25; they should be strong for another three to five years. However, several young sprinters are already nipping at their heels, such as the 24-year-old Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), who won three green jerseys this year, including in the Giro d\u2019Italia, and 23-year-old Olav Kooij, who is being brought along slowly by Visma\u2013Lease a Bike but has already won a stage of the Giro and three stages in Paris-Nice. I assume that eventually their teams will allow them to ride in the Tour de France and\/or the Vuelta, where they will presumably face Philipsen and Groves. And there is this year\u2019s Tour de France \u0160koda Green Jersey winner, Biniam Girmay<\/a> (Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty), who is only 24 and getting stronger every year.<\/p>\n

So Alpecin-Deceuninck\u2019s strategy of winning one-day races and Grand Tour stages is under threat by both age and youth and does not, for now, look like a sustainable model over the long term. It will be interesting to see what riders the team signs when it finally jumps off the fence and gets busy in the transfer market \u2013 if it does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been another good year for the Belgian team Alpecin-Deceuninck, as it registered 26 victories, including three stages and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":7416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-7332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Alpecin-Deceuninck Preparing for a Future After van der Poel? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/10\/25\/is-alpecin-deceuninck-preparing-for-a-future-after-van-der-poel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Alpecin-Deceuninck Preparing for a Future After van der Poel?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This has been another good year for the Belgian team Alpecin-Deceuninck, as it registered 26 victories, including three stages and […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/10\/25\/is-alpecin-deceuninck-preparing-for-a-future-after-van-der-poel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-25T08:07:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-13T09:14:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/11\/Alpecin-Deceuninck-profimedia-0885350609-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hettie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/10\/25\/is-alpecin-deceuninck-preparing-for-a-future-after-van-der-poel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/10\/25\/is-alpecin-deceuninck-preparing-for-a-future-after-van-der-poel\/\",\"name\":\"Is Alpecin-Deceuninck Preparing for a Future After van der Poel? 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