Superb spring, fine French summer - Alpecin-Deceuninck 2025 verdict

Based on their performances in the Classics in previous seasons with their star rider Mathieu van der Poel, the assumption was that the team would win a handful of Classics and a Monument, before competing for the green jersey at the Tour de France. 

With the Tour de France parcours particularly suiting Mathieu van der Poel in the opening stages, the team would look to get one of their riders into the yellow jersey early on.

With their sprint superstar Jasper Philipsen and Van der Poel backed by a number of talented and underrated Classics specialists, the team looked primed and ready for competition as they headed into the 2025 season.

Wins: 18
UCI Ranking: 9th
The Verdict: 9/10

Alpecin-Deceuninck achieved 18 victories during the 2025 season, eight fewer than their 2024 total with the team also sliding down just one place in the yearly UCI ranking, sitting in 9th place.

In terms of the teams victories, it was all about the quality of the victories for the Belgian team, with two beautiful Monument victories, where Mathieu van der Poel won the clash of gladiators in Milan-San Remo, the race of the season, complemented with further success at Paris-Roubaix. 

Those victories were followed by victories in all three Grand Tours, with a sole victory at the Giro d'Italia with Kaden Groves and three wins at the Tour de France, where both Philipsen and Van der Poel enjoyed stints in the yellow jersey. After crashing out of the Tour, Philipsen returned to claim a hat-trick of stage wins on the Vuelta a Espana.

Let’s be frank, many teams in the WorldTour would consider their season a success if they won just one Monument, let alone two. In fact, the Belgian squad might have scored even higher if not for the unfortunate incident that forced Jasper Philipsen to abandon the Tour, where he was a strong favourite for the green jersey.

It’s been another stomping season for Mathieu van der Poel with the Dutchman able to triumph in the aforementioned races along with some insane performances at the Tour.

The modern-day classics king was simply dominant in any race he wished to aim for, with his best performance of the season coming at Milan-San Remo. Van der Poel went into 'overdrive' there in order to match the relentless climbing pace of an otherworldly Pogacar, finishing it off with a monstrous sprint against the Italian powerhouse, Filippo Ganna. 

At the Tour, Van der Poel returned to the yellow jersey after his four-year wait since first taking it in 2021, when he delivered an emotional tribute to his grandfather, the late Raymond Poulidor.

Other notable results for Van der Poel included a typical win at the Samyn Classic, along with another dominant win at E3 Saxo Classic. Van der Poel would have been hoping for a better result than the third place he took at the Tour of Flanders as looked to add a fourth Flanders to his immaculate collection.

It was yellow joy for Alpecin in the 2025 Tour de France as Jasper Philipsen took the yellow jersey through his opening stage victory in Lille, followed up directly after with a victory for Van der Poel in stage 2 on the coast in Boulogne-sur-Mer. 

The Belgian team endured some heartbreak during the Tour when Philipsen had an awful crash which cruelly took him out of the race as he was primed to add a second green jersey at the Tour to his collection.

It wasn't all just Van der Poel and Philipsen at the Tour however, as Aussie Kaden Groves took a remarkable breakaway victory in some awful conditions which meant that he completed a full set of Grand Tour stage wins.

Jonas Rickaert raced 84 times for Alpecin - Deceuninck in 2025, including both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana.

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