“I mean, what can I say?” Alpecin-Deceuninck team boss Philip Roodhooft asked the evening before Saturday’s stage 20 of the 2025 Tour de France.
“It’s extremely stressful. It overshadows everything. It has an impact — the way you experience this race, the way that you live — it’s all completely different when you’re in this situation. You’re insecure.”
Few teams have managed to have a more impressive Tour this year than Alpecin-Deceuninck.
In the first half of the race alone, the Belgian squad won two stages through Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel, with the latter wearing the leader’s yellow jersey on two separate occasions.
After Philipsen’s race-ending crash on stage three, Van der Poel went close again by finishing second behind Tadej Pogacar on stage four in Rouen, before a thrilling escape with teammate Jonas Rickaert ended within 750m of the line on stage nine.
Yet throughout, the team have been racing through uncertainty. Though they boast two of the world’s best bike racers, unless they find a new title sponsor, the team’s long-term future is in serious doubt. Even as Philipsen and Van der Poel lifted their flowers at the Grand Depart three weeks ago, Roodhooft’s mind was elsewhere.
He co-owns and runs the team with his brother Christoph — loosely, Philip concentrates on the business side, Christoph on the racing. This is a team they built themselves.
“It’s a pity, it’s sad, but this is entrepreneurship,“ Philip says. “It has consequences. It’s a lot easier to enjoy it and be emotional when you’re not this deeply involved.”
Cycling is not like football. Manchester United are not dependent on shirt-front sponsor Snapdragon for their survival. Chelsea have begun several seasons without a principal partner’s logo on that same piece of prime marketing real estate. Barcelona famously did not take the shirt-sponsorship shilling until 2011.
But these clubs make millions through revenue streams such as television rights and match-ticket sales. Cycling, by contrast, is generally shown on free-to-air TV, and the world’s top teams receive no share of the lucrative broadcast deal struck by the Amaury family, owners and organisers of the Tour.
It means the existence of any cycling team is dependent on sponsorship.
This is why their names are constantly changing — for example, the Picnic-PostNL of this year’s Tour were called Team dsm–firmenich PostNL when they raced in the event a year ago, and Lotto were Lotto-Dstny. Over the years, the peloton has been graced by such names as Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni Androni Giocattoli (windows and toys), Linda McCartney Racing Team (vegetarian food), and Swatt Club (clothing).
Alpecin-Deceuninck is a partnership between a shampoo brand and a windows and doors manufacturer. The former has sponsored the team since 2020, the latter for the past three years, but Deceuninck announced at the beginning of the season that it had opted not to extend its deal.
Philip Roodhooft immediately got to work, searching for a new title partner. Should he fail, the team’s future is in question.
“We will be able to continue next year with a good team and good set-up, but it’s not an ideal situation, and it’s not a sustainable situation,” he explains. “If you lose 20 per cent of your turnover from your budget, it’s a bad thing, but you can overcome it. But if you lose 50 or 60 per cent — you’re done.”
They are not the only team struggling.
Kevin Vauquelin’s Arkea-B&B Hotels squad’s survival is in serious question, with both sponsors set to leave from next season. Two of Alpecin-Deceuninck’s fellow Belgian teams, Lotto and Intermarche-Wanty, are set to merge because of the sport’s financial difficulties.
“We’re in discussions with some companies, but we need to find a match that suits both us and the company,” Philip says. “Nothing is concrete; there is nothing until there’s a signature. We can talk about numbers — an 80 per cent chance, a 20 per cent chance, a 95 per cent chance — but what’s the use of 95 per cent, thinking it’s going somewhere, and then the deal collapsing just before the finish line? I’m realistic with that. It’s only done when it’s done.”
There are deadlines to meet — for official filings to the governing UCI, for practical details such as kit design, but in many ways, those do not matter to Roodhooft.
“Let’s say the deadline is in mid-September, and there’s nothing by then. What do you do then? Stop working on it? No. So, is there a deadline? I mean, there is, but it’s irrelevant, in a sense.”
But from the outside, it is difficult to understand how Alpecin-Deceuninck find themselves in this position. In a sport which is high-profile enough for several teams to be owned by nation states, how can one of its most successful squads — boasting one of its best riders in Van der Poel, one of its best sprinters in Philipsen and a long list of wins — be struggling to find a partner?
“We have good results, attractive riders, and an attractive team,” Philip replies, “and we are having concrete discussions. But it’s still difficult.
“One, it has always been difficult. That’s the first thing. Secondly, the economic situation does not help — we’re not in a crisis, but there have been many better moments for companies. And third, the geopolitical situation doesn’t help. We have wars going on, discussions about extra taxes for European companies working in the United States. And extra taxes are one thing, but the situation is that they don’t know whether it will be a 10 per cent tax rise today and tomorrow, 60 or 70 per cent.
“It all creates uncertainty — and it’s quite clear that uncertain situations lead to an attitude where people and companies tend to wait.”
Another factor is that the team is co-owned by the brothers.
In cycling, one recent trend has been for the sponsors to own their squads; EF, Decathlon and Cofidis are all examples, while it was announced this week that Trek had sold part of the Lidl-Trek team to its supermarket-chain co-partner. And unlike the situation at several teams, such as Israel-Premier Tech or Q36.5, the Roodhoofts are not in the position of being the sort of wealthy benefactor who can pour further money into the team if there is a sponsorship shortfall.
“Very few teams are in the position that Christoph and I are in — owning and managing the team; that’s a special situation,” Philip explains. “I’m not saying it’s a disadvantage, but it creates a different environment. Some (potential partner) companies like that, others see it as more difficult because they want a share of the capital.
“We have to be careful about the opportunities that are being presented — it needs to be reliable, it needs to make sense, and that all makes it uneasy. Is it a pleasant situation at this point? Not really. But it’s good to see that we are still attracting real interest.”
Philip has been a fleeting presence at this Tour, dashing between the race and meetings across Europe. Both are related to the sponsorship search — it dictates his life. As he speaks to The Athletic on Friday night, he is en route to Paris — one day earlier than other teams will arrive in the capital for Sunday’s final stage — to have talks with another company.
“For the past six or seven months, I’ve been talking with riders, talking with agents, I’ve had races, I’ve had the daily business, but we’ve had to shift those further backwards in terms of importance,” he says. “We have to give priority to the co-sponsor — that’s normal.”
With uncertainty past 2026, rider recruitment and retention appear to be particularly challenging elements. Philip says that with Van der Poel, Philipsen and Australian sprinter Kaden Groves committed long-term, their core is stable, while they have been able to offer contracts to several young prospects.
While needing to avoid being frivolous, a base level of spending needs to remain — “You can’t have it affect everything, because if the perfect partner arrives tomorrow, or in a month, or in two months, then of course we will still need to have a competitive team,” Philip says.
Despite the distractions, his team have continued to be competitive throughout this year’s Tour.
In many ways, the race is the world’s biggest mobile ad break — a constantly shifting billboard of team jerseys, hoardings and interview backdrops. An event founded in the early 20th century to help sell more newspapers, teams these days use it to sell themselves, with the smaller ones often launching attacks during its stages to secure television time for their sponsors. Will the stage wins and yellow jersey stints make an impact for Alpecin-Deceuninck?
“I don’t think we needed this Tour de France to make it clear that we can make an impact as a team,” Philip replies. “But does it help? Of course it does. I always tend to say that sporting performance is a necessity — if you’re not performing, I have no idea how you can get to a point where a partner is willing to step in.”
“Plus, our performances (such as Van der Poel’s doomed but heroic escape to Chateauroux in stage nine) show a mentality that says something about the DNA of the team. There was no stage win, but the impact was big once again. It’s appealing to the public, and that often makes it interesting to companies.
“And obviously, there are still two stages left. Hopefully, there is still some more to come.”
The next morning, Groves gets himself in the break to Pontarlier.
Stage 20 was bumpy and filled with climbing, a day for the puncheurs and classics specialists — like the absent Van der Poel, who withdrew from the race through illness earlier in the week. Groves can climb far better than most sprinters, but even Christoph, his own directeur sportif, did not think Saturday was a day for him.
Yet when a crash wiped out half the breakaway with 27km remaining, Groves found himself at the front alongside just Frank van den Brouck and Jake Stewart. As his rivals marked each other, the Australian accelerated away.
By the time he reached 500m to go, Groves’ lead was almost a minute. He was visibly in tears.
The 26-year-old has spent most of this Tour in service to Van der Poel and Philipsen, despite his pedigree as a nine-time stage winner at the two other Grand Tours — the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. When he finished second to Jonathan Milan in Laval (stage eight), it appeared his opportunity had disappeared, at least until the final day’s racing on the streets of Paris. But Saturday nights are always better for a celebration.
From the window of the team car as the finish line approaches, Christoph holds up three fingers, one for each of their stage wins at this year’s Tour. Just up the road, a triumphant Groves sits up in the saddle and raises his arms, Alpecin-Deceuninck clear across his chest as he is the first man home. Victory. And the money-shot for their sponsors.
“Will this help the search?” one reporter asks Christoph as he strides off to see his riders.
The team boss shrugs and makes a face.
“Too difficult to say.”
(Top photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
