So it came to this for Philippe Gilbert: At 26 years old, the Belgian had been close in classics races before (3rd at Milan-San Remo), but he had never managed to break through. He was part of a dysfunctional Belgian team at the world championships in Varese, Italy, and due to negative polemics, found himself out of the running in the chase for the rainbow jersey. It was just as well.
Today, two weeks to the day later, Gilbert found himself taking the start at a classic that he had come close to winning before: Paris-Tours. Using his acute tactical sense, Gulbert was able to join a group of four, consisting of Sébastien Turgot, Nicolas Vogondy, Mickaël Delage (Gilbert's teammate) and Jan Kuyckx. Gilbert was able to win thanks to an excellent lead out from Delage. Having ridden for Francaise des Jeux the last five years, he'll will be happy with his win at Paris-Tours; it will be a farewell gift to his sponsor.
Gilbert will be on the start line at next week's Tour of Romandy, but don't expect the Belgian hard man to win again. He'll be up against some of the world's best climbers, and he'll find it hard to keep pace with such mountain goats when the road grows steep. Instead, expect Lombardy defending champion Damiano Cunego to be in contention again, especially whe taking into account that we'll be only three weeks from Cunego's masterstroke 2nd place in Varese at the world championship in support of his countryman, Alessandro Ballan. The staunch climber will be motivated to take the final classic of 2008 in style, as the defending champion.
For the next day or so though, Gilbert should bask in his own success. Taking a classics win at such a young age makes Gilbert a favorite for the future, a rider capable of great things. He has taken multiple semi-classics victories before, but now that he has won one of the "big ones," expect that Gilbert to entrench himself among the world's best one day riders starting in 2009. And as a matter of fact, Silence-Lotto is counting on it.
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2 comments:
Yea for Gilbert, but I was hoping to see Zabel win or at least be in a bunch sprint at the end.
Zabel had a pretty good year for a 38 year old going against 20 somethings. Good bye Erik Zabel.
So let's see, Ricco, Peipoli, Schumacher, and now Kohl. All 20 somethings. I hope this puts an end to this old versus new generation of cycling bs.
Actually I think the Millars, Hamiltons, and Bassos, will be cleaner, more grateful to the sport that has given them a second chance, and examples (of what not to do) to the young guys who think they can somehow can get away with this.
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