Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) will apparently not participate in this year's Tour de France and will instead compete in the season-ending Vuelta a España, the 22-year-old himself told Belgian media.

Since turning pro in 2018 with then-Professional Continental (now Continental) team Hagens Berman Axiom, Philipsen has two stage wins, one at the 2018 Tour of Utah and one at the 2019 Tour Down Under wins, and moved to UAE Team Emirates in 2019.

In 2020, Philipsen again competed in the Tour Down Under, winning the points prize for finishing in the top five in four of the race's six stages, and returned to Europe in early March to complete the Coone Brussel Coone before a coronavirus outbreak shut down his season and He was lost for the rest of the season.

"I may not be able to make this year's Tour de France (August 29-September 20), but I will be ready as soon as the competition resumes in August," Philipsen told Het Laatste Nieuws on Friday. It's going to be a tough Tour, so the team is focusing on the overall, with Tadej Pogachal and Alexander Kristoff for the sprints."

"We should do the Vuelta and the classics and important one-day races that don't overlap with it," he added.

Philipsen's program suggests that the World Tour races Strade Bianche (August 1) and Milan-San Remo (August 8) could be included.