Rickaert is the heavy-duty part of the Alpecin sprint machine: 1.87m, 88kg, and built to keep position when the peloton turns into elbows and noise. He has individual wins on rough Belgian terrain, but his value at this Tour is the unglamorous horsepower — riding the front, shutting doors, and setting up the last handoff to Planckaert, Van der Poel or Philipsen.
Palmarès
- Dwars door het Hageland winner (2020)
- Grote Prijs Marcel Kint winner (2017)
- Tour de France stage combativity award (2025)
Cut-out factAt the 2025 Tour he earned the combativity award after a long stage-9 attack with Van der Poel, an effort so deep he was remembered as much for the suffering as for the move.
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Mathieu van der Poel, Ramses Debruyne, Silvan Dillier, Tim Marsman, Jasper Philipsen, Edward Planckaert, Emiel Verstrynge — see the full Alpecin–Premier Tech team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Nicola, license: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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