Alpecin-Deceuninck Confirm Roubaix Squad: Van der Poel Targets Record Fourth Win, Philipsen and Groves Add Sprint Firepower
Alpecin-Deceuninck have confirmed their seven-man squad for Sunday's Paris-Roubaix, with three-time defending champion Mathieu van der Poel heading a heavyweight Belgian-Dutch unit that will line up at Compiègne with the singular ambition of claiming a record-equalling fourth Hell of the North victory. Joining the world champion are sprint star Jasper Philipsen, Australian fast-finisher Kaden Groves, cobbled lieutenants Edward Planckaert and Silvan Dillier, veteran Dutchman Oscar Riesebeek, and Belgian all-rounder Gianni Vermeersch.
It is the strongest seven Alpecin-Deceuninck have ever sent to Roubaix, and unmistakably the most loaded support unit any team has ever built around a single rider for a Monument. Van der Poel goes into Sunday with the chance to draw level with Roger De Vlaeminck and Tom Boonen as a four-time winner of the cobbled Monument — a feat that would establish him in cycling's all-time pantheon and complicate the GOAT debate that Lance Armstrong reignited after Sunday's Tour of Flanders.
"Mathieu has been preparing for this moment since the day he won his third Roubaix in 2025," team manager Christoph Roodhooft told Het Laatste Nieuws on Wednesday afternoon. "He has done his Calpe block, he has done his Spain trip, he has done his recon. Everything is in place. The squad is built to give him the best possible chance — full stop. Whether the cobbles are dry or wet, whether there is wind or no wind, whether Pogacar attacks at 100 kilometres or 30 — Mathieu is ready for every scenario."
The most striking name on the squad sheet is Philipsen, the 2022 winner of Scheldeprijs and one of the fastest men in the bunch, who has gradually been remodelled by Alpecin into a credible cobbled racer over the past three seasons. The Belgian was ninth at last year's Hell of the North and is expected to operate as Van der Poel's last man in the closing 30 kilometres if the race comes down to a small group, with the additional brief of acting as a sprint Plan B should the world champion be isolated or marked out of the race.
Groves, signed last winter from Alpecin's WorldTour rivals, makes his Paris-Roubaix debut at the age of 27. The Australian green jersey winner has spent his spring on a cobbled apprenticeship that has taken him through Omloop, E3 and Gent-Wevelgem, and Roodhooft has openly stated that the team views him as a future Roubaix contender. "Kaden has the engine and the head for this race," the Belgian manager said. "Sunday is about education for him as much as anything else."
Planckaert and Dillier provide the experience and cobbles miles. Planckaert's last-minute U-turn on his Soudal-Quick-Step move last winter has paid immediate dividends for Alpecin, who retain a rider whose entire career has been built on the cobbles. Dillier, second to Peter Sagan in 2018, remains one of the most respected road captains in the peloton and is expected to be the rider on the radio when tactical calls need to be made in the chaos of the middle sectors.
Riesebeek and Gianni Vermeersch round out the unit. Riesebeek's recent two-year contract extension is a public acknowledgement of his importance to the team's classics campaigns, while Vermeersch — Florian's older brother and a former cyclo-cross world champion — brings exactly the kind of bike-handling pedigree that the discipline rewards. The seven-man squad averages 31 years of age and over 6 previous starts at Paris-Roubaix between them — a level of collective experience that few rival teams can match.
The plan, predictably, is centred on Van der Poel attacking from distance — exactly as he has done in each of his three previous wins. The Dutchman remains the only rider in the modern era to have soloed to victory at Roubaix from more than 60 kilometres out on multiple occasions, and his Canyon Endurace cobbles weapon — first unveiled at E3 Saxo Classic — has been refined and re-tested over the past fortnight. With Pogacar lying in wait and Wout van Aert finally back in form, Sunday's race promises to be the most loaded Hell of the North in living memory — and Alpecin-Deceuninck, more than any other team in Compiègne, will line up convinced that their man holds the keys.