Philippe Gilbert Discussion Thread

[Billie]

Re:

This whole Gilbert was only good because of Ibarguren is completely wrong. His whole career at Lotto he was great. His 2009 and 2010 form was just as good as it was in 2011.

When he joined Lotto Tom Steels became the new trainer for the team. That was a total disaster and the whole team sucked during the start of the season. Gilbert was angry with the team even blaming them (he also floated that the bike supplier Canyon was giving them thrash equipment) and thus the team took action in March dumping Steels.
From that point on Phil was world class al the way to his last race for Lotto.

 

[Billie]

Re:

Discussing gilbert's performances you can't do it here...It's obvious what happened in 2011 with lotto. Look at vanendert and VDB2! Their best year in 2011 (vdb2 was in really good shape for the tour but crashed it, was the only year where he won a stage)

WC 2012, i don't think it was that impressive, cauberg is just made for him. Nothing more to it.

What he did in LBL 2011 was hilarious of course

he did the exact same thing the year before only that time the Frank couldn't follow already on Roche au Faucons instead of Saint-Nicolas and more people came back.

Vanendert was much better in 2012 than he was in 2011

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

His 2009 and 2010 form was just as good as it was in 2011.

Not even close

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

His 2009 and 2010 form was just as good as it was in 2011.

Not even close

His form was just as good. His palmares just looks better because everything went his way during the Ardennes that year

 

[kingjr]

Re:

Also, with the Cauberg, almost everyone **** their effort up. Gilbert is always in perfect positions, and never goes to early.

2012. Though he probably had to.

 

[mr. tibbs]

To... Quick Step? What kind of sense does that make?

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

With his Murcia win in february, it finally looked like he was exiting his comfort zone of peaking at the Ardennes exclusively. Then a cascade of bad luck happened. Of course Gilbert does not have his 2011 engine anymore, he was still lightning fast in 2014 on the Cauberg and present in the finales of many one day races. Most remarkable though is his lack of recovery during races and his racing attitude shift from positive to negative. Alright, exception on this is the 2014 Brabantse Pijl when he did a brutal attack and still handled Matthews in the sprint.

However, one only has to look at the finale of Amstel Gold in 2010 to see the difference.The last 25 km he is unstoppable. Marking Andy on Eyserbosweg, easily countering Cunego/F.Schleck on the Fromberg, then accelerating on and soloing after the Keutenberg. Before of course putting seconds in the rest on the Cauberg. This difference is IMO also the main reason he doesn't ride Flanders anymore, because he wouldn't be able to endure the long and demanding finale there like he used to.

Did you see Gilbert's two stage wins in the Giro last year? In the first stage he won he chased after Tanel Kangert and Pellizotti by himself, but saw his efforts were futile and went back to the peloton, where he then won the uphill sprint, beating Alberto Contador. His second stage win was an impressive solo from a breakaway stage.

He just couldn't sow his form in the Ardennes classics past two seasons (crashes, illness, breaking his finger in a fight). He wasn't allowed to ride the Flemish classics at BMC because of Greg van Avermaet (who has never won a real classic himself). That's why he's going to QS.

 

[barmaher]

Re:

To... Quick Step? What kind of sense does that make?

So Martin, Alaphilippe and Gilbert leading the Ardennes races?

 

[Walter Morgan]

The only great classic he can win is Amstel, o chances in the others (Fléche, Liege, MSR, San Sebastian, Lombardia.

 

[Billie]

Re:

The only great classic he can win is Amstel, o chances in the others (Fléche, Liege, MSR, San Sebastian, Lombardia.

you'll look stupid sunday

 

[Nirvana]

After the Vuelta he confirmed he'll ride all italian fall classics, Giro dell'Emilia could be very good for him.

 

[liamito]

Re:

After the Vuelta he confirmed he'll ride all italian fall classics, Giro dell'Emilia could be very good for him.

Funny, I was thinking Emilia would suit him the least of those four races. Moreover he is not riding all the Italian classics, no Beghelli, Milano-Torino and some 1.1 races.

 

[Nirvana]

Beghelli it's not a classics, italian fall classics ara Tre Valli, Milano-Torino, Piemonte, Lombardia and Emilia, the others are small one day races.
Anyway BMC was invited also for Milano-Torino.

 

[yaco]

Never featured today but it's hard to predict stage victories in GT's.

 

[Felice Gimondi]

Seems Gilbert went from 50-51cm BMC bike with extreme drop to a 56cm Tarmac with just a slight drop. Anyone who knows why?

 

[VDB44]

Re:

Seems Gilbert went from 50-51cm BMC bike with extreme drop to a 56cm Tarmac with just a slight drop. Anyone who knows why?

I ride a BMC myself and BMC-bikes are bigger than other manufacturers with the same size number

 

[Felice Gimondi]

Re: Re:

Seems Gilbert went from 50-51cm BMC bike with extreme drop to a 56cm Tarmac with just a slight drop. Anyone who knows why?

I ride a BMC myself and BMC-bikes are bigger than other manufacturers with the same size number

There is a 3,4cm higher stack on 56cm Tarmac than 51cm BMC Slr01. Likewise 1,7cm longer reach so there's got to be other reasons.

 

[staubsauger]

My Trek got a 56cm frameset. While I knew that's one size too big with my 1.72 m, Gilbert in former times riding a 52 cm frameset with his 1.79 meters makes me brood about my bike being essentially too big.

 

[carolina]

Re:

My Trek got a 56cm frameset. While I knew that's one size too big with my 1.72 m, Gilbert in former times riding a 52 cm frameset with his 1.79 meters makes me brood about my bike being essentially too big.

only one size to big? I hope you are super flexible and have super strong core.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

My Trek got a 56cm frameset. While I knew that's one size too big with my 1.72 m, Gilbert in former times riding a 52 cm frameset with his 1.79 meters makes me brood about my bike being essentially too big.

only one size to big? I hope you are super flexible and have super strong core.

To be honest I'm more built like Michael Rasmussen! :redface: :lol:

 

[OlavEH]

Great ride by Gilbert today, although he didn't win.

I have to say that, looking at Gilbert's form right now and what he did until 2011, his years in BMC looks like a pretty bad decision. It would of course been almost impossible to follow up on the results from 09-11, but he could and should performed better than he actually did. 9 big one-day classics win from 08-11. Only two from 12-16. If he had picked up a few more wins in these years I would have rated him on par with Cancellara and Bettini as the best classic riders in this millennium.

 

[the asian]

Just needs to win Ronde !

Hugely underrated due to his lean years at BMC but has there been a more versatile Classics rider this century?

Who else has won such diverse races such as Lombardia, Paris Tour, Het Volk & Amstel?

 

[Billie]

Phil completely took the piss out of BMC for 5 years. 15 million and never even bothered to reach peak form

 

[portugal11]

I just love this man!! He is my perfect prototype of classicomano, only kwia comes close to him.

 

[the asian]

Re:

I just love this man!! He is my perfect prototype of classicomano, only kwia comes close to him.

Indeed !