Gilbert feeling fresh and motivated for 2015
Belg🌳ian starts 14th season as a profess🐟ional at the Dubai Tour
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Philippe Gilbert (BMC) will begin his 14th season as a professional at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Dubai Tour on Wednesday but insists he is still hungry for success, with Milan-San Remo the tꦰop of his list of goals for 2015.
“I've been a pro for 13 seasons. But it doesn't feel like a lot to me. I'm still fresh and motivated. I still feel young,” Gilbert told Cyclingnews after a final pre-race ride with his BMC teamm𓄧ates on👍 Tuesday.
“I still do all the sacrifices without any problem such as going out in the rain or riding in the cold. I'm n✱ot getting old, neither are the years weighing on my shoulders. I feel good and feel I can go for some years yet.”
Gilbe𝓡rt will be 33 in July and has won 49 races during his career, including the 2012 world road race title, Il Lombardia in 2009 and 2010 and of course his beloved Ardennes Classics. He won the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-♓Bastogne-Liège triplette in 2011 - his golden season, on the way to winning 16 race.
Thinking of Milan-San Remo
Gilbert's fast finish, his climbing ability and sharp tactical mind makes a natural contender for the Dubai Tour. While the pure sprinters will no doubt dominate the three flat stages and take the ten, sixജ and four second time bonuses, the uphill finish on stage 3 to Hatta Dam perfectly suits Gilbert. However, he quickly played down his ambitions, consciousꦏ that his big goals lay further down the road in March and April.
“I feel good🃏. I've had a good winter but I haven't really done any specific work to be good in this race, so it's not really a goal. I'm here to get in some quality kilometres and so make sure 🌺I'm ready for later in the season,” he said.
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“My goals ar🐷e Milan-San Remo and the Ardennes. There's something special about San Remo and not only because I live nearby in Monaco. It's special because it's so difficult to win.”
The decision to move the finish back to the famous Via Roma in the centre of town favours riders like him. There is one kilometre less of flat road after the descent of the Poggio, giving the attackers slightly better odds of escaping the ꦏspri🌳nters' grasp.
&🎐ldquo;For sure there's more chance for attacks on th🅺e Poggio now,” he said with belief.
&ldღquo;With the old finish, some riders were afraid to attack or waited because they were afraid of being caught on the flat road after the descent of the Poggio. Now there's less road before the finish and so I think we'll see more moves on the Poggio and more attacks.”
For the love of cycling
Gilbert has invested some of his career earnings and opened his own bike sho🎀p in Monaco, where he spends much of the year and seems to enjoy meetin𝓀g other cyclists and seeing the latest bikes to hit the market. His shop in Rue des Acores in the heart of Monaco naturally stocks BMC bikes.
“I love the sport and everything about cycling,” he explaౠined. There's something special about cycling. You can train where you want, when you want. You can discover a new road or climb and even travel somewhere warm to enjoy cycling if the weather is bad at home. It's absolutely not like playing football inside a stadium.
“The shop helps me underst🎀and my love for cycling. There are a lot of people starting cycling who are in the 40s and 50s. They fall in love after perhaps being injured doing other sports and they go crazy for cycling. It's grea𝄹t to see that. Also because it's people like that who fund professional cycling by buying the bikes and our sponsors' products.
“I wanted a bike shop because I love bikes and ꦰlike seeing the new bikes. As pros we use what we get from the sponsors and by having a shop I can see everything that is 🌜produced in the world of cycling. It's amazing some of the things they produce now.”
Don't ask about Van Avermaet
Gilbert enjoys talking about Milan-San Remo, his love for cyclin൲g and his bike shop. The only thing that irks him, and turns his smile into a scowl, is a question about his teammate and fellow Belgian Greg Van Avermaet.
Gilbert has said he⛎'d love to target the Tour of Flanders and the other cobbled Classics but BMC insist he stays focused on Milan-San Remo and the Ardennes Classics, and has again back Van Avermaet ♍for the first half of April.
“I don't see the point in speaking about it. I don't think it's important. We're teammates but we never race together. ” Gilbert snaps back to Cyclingnews with a mix of boredom and anger.
He was happier talking about his ear🌌ly season race programme.
“After the Dubai Tour I'm also riding the Tour of Qatar, then Haut Var, Het Nieuwsblad and 𒁃maybe Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. After then it's maybe Paris-Nice,” he said.
He shrugged off a suggestion riding P✱aris-Nice challenges the unwritten rules of the best Milan-San Remo preparat𒆙ion.
“We'll see...,”ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ he said, ready to accept the challenge as if he is looking to prove a point. “We'll be able to say after Milan-San Remo and if I w♛in or not. Let's see what happens in the next weeks and months...”
Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.