It may have taken Jasper Philipsen a while to come into his own at this year's Tour de France, but he still managed to win three races. Next season, however, the early going will be different for Alpecin Deceuninck and the other sprinters.

That motivation comes in the form of the yellow jersey, and the opening flat stage of the 2025 Tour de France piqued sprinters' interest when the route was announced in late October. However, that does not mean that they have forgotten what happened after the race in the Lille-Metropole.

On the sidelines of a pre-race event at the Tour de France's Prudential Singapore criterium, Philipsen told Cycling News.

It took Philipsen 10 stages to win in 2024, with the yellow jersey up for grabs on the first stage and four flat stages before the first rest day.

“I think next year we will have a lot of chances in the first 10 days of the Tour de France, so we have to be in the best condition from the first stage.

“This year we had to spend more time to get better conditions. So we're looking into the details and trying to learn from the previous years.”

Philipsen has already raced the Tour de France five times, the last three times with three stage wins in 2024, four stage wins and the green jersey in 2023, and two stage wins in 2022. [Since 2021, he has won two stages in Spain after six podium finishes in the Tour de France. [While retiring rival Mark Cavendish (Astana-Kazakstan) may have difficulty motivating himself outside of the Tour, Philipsen has a different motivation.

“Personally, I have more of a winning mindset. I try to do my best in every race,” says Philipsen. 'I aim for the best possible, and that means winning bike races. Of course, the Tour de France is more important than any other race, but I do my best on the bike every day.”

His trip to the Tour de France criterium in Saitama, Japan, proved that mentality. Philipsen's determination to achieve the best possible results was evident in an attempt far removed from bicycle racing, as the riders mastered, or at least made a decent sound on, the Japanese folk instrument, the koto, at a cultural exchange event.

Philipsen may not have been able to dexterously manipulate an instrument like the half-tube koto, but by the end of the bunch sprint, the rider who had professed to have “no musical talent” delivered a crowd-pleasing performance.

There is one Grand Tour left in the Giro d'Italia where this rider, clearly not averse to jumping into new challenges, has not tested his winning mentality. The race is held early in the season and is close to an important classic campaign for the teams and riders who won Milan-San Remo this year. However, that does not necessarily mean that the link to the Grand Tour remains lost.

“We'll see what the program is for next year, what the team's goals are, what they want me to race, what my personal ambitions are, and we'll try to match that,” said Philipsen.