Philippe Gilbert Discussion Thread

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Amazingly—especially considering how good Quickstep has been this year—this injury means that Gilbert will not get a victory this year. The last time he didn’t get a win in a season was 2002, when he was only a trainee in the autumn.

Well, Gilbert managed to get a win in his first race back from injury and thus keep his 16-year streak of getting at least one win per season alive.

Such an impressive comeback. Great rider.

 

[Koronin]

Impressive

 

[SHAD0W93]

That is good that he was able to win this year after injury. Hopefully he can get the rest of the monuments.

 

[toolittle]

Re:

Well.
This topic had to come back.
Poggio di Sanremo is the next target.

 

[Mavic]

What a legend. Ages like wine. Love this guy.

 

[Asero831]

Did he surpass Tom Boonen's one day palmares already?

 

[OlavEH]

Re:

Did he surpass Tom Boonen's one day palmares already?

Yep, definitely. The greatest classics rider in the last 25 years, ahead of both Bettini, Cancellara and Boonen.

 

[jmdirt]

WOW! Congrats PG!

 

[Mayomaniac]

Probably the best classics rider of the century.
All those years GvA didn't want to have him on the cobbles squad at bmc and he still wins the 2 big ones, legend!

 

[Koronin]

Impressive ride.

 

[jsem94]

His contract runs through 2020, right? So he only has next year to get that win at MSR. And that would be on a pretty stacked team already with Alafpolak and Viviani among others.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Did he surpass Tom Boonen's one day palmares already?

In my opinion, yes. Consistency means something - Ardennes triple, Roubaix, Flanders, Lombardia, Strade Bianche, San Sebastian etc.

Insane ride today. Chapeau!

 

[tobydawq]

His palmares is just insane.

The Olympics, MSR, GW and E3 are the only major one-day races he hasn't won.

Checks at Worlds, RVV, PR, LBL, Lombardia, Strade, Omloop, Amstel, Flèche, San Sebastián and Paris-Tours.

Plus he has won De Brabantse Pijl, Québec and Belgian Championships (RR and ITT).

Stages in all Grand Tours as well.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Did he surpass Tom Boonen's one day palmares already?

In my opinion, yes. Consistency means something - Ardennes triple, Roubaix, Flanders, Lombardia, Strade Bianche, San Sebastian etc.

Insane ride today. Chapeau!

There’s no question. Gilbert’s one day palmares are now clearly better than those of both Boonen and Cancellara. The only one who is still in the argument with him in the modern sport is Bettini.

You have to go back to the era of the Titans, before mortal men pedaled this earth, to find riders with clearly better one day palmares, Kelly, De Vlaeminck etc.

 

[Red Rick]

Congrats to the old man. Was very surprised to hear it's only the 3rd time he's started this race.

Unfortunately for him the best time to win Sanremo was 8 years ago.

Side note, it's kinda shocking to me Sean Kelly was never a WC

 

[trucido]

Greatest classics rider of the century.

 

[Red Rick]

We should make a poll after LBL

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Probably the single most impressive thing about him is that after he was more or less washed up at his real specialty, he went on to win the Ronde and Roubaix. That’s just insane.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Congrats to the old man. Was very surprised to hear it's only the 3rd time he's started this race.

Unfortunately for him the best time to win Sanremo was 8 years ago.

Side note, it's kinda shocking to me Sean Kelly was never a WC

I have been thinking the same this past week. Also that he never won Flanders. You'd think that 49 out of 50 times, a rider of his skillset in that time period would be WC at least once.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Congrats to the old man. Was very surprised to hear it's only the 3rd time he's started this race.

Unfortunately for him the best time to win Sanremo was 8 years ago.

Side note, it's kinda shocking to me Sean Kelly was never a WC

I have been thinking the same this past week. Also that he never won Flanders. You'd think that 49 out of 50 times, a rider of his skillset in that time period would be WC at least once.

He was always at a disadvantage in the WCRR because of its wildly unfair team structure. Of course the same could be said of Sagan and Roche won a WC when covering a move for Kelly, so that wasn’t an insurmountable disadvantage, but the Ronde is a more surprising gap in his palmares. He was the perfect rider for the Ronde and he would have swapped two of his other Monuments for one Ronde.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Congrats to the old man. Was very surprised to hear it's only the 3rd time he's started this race.

Unfortunately for him the best time to win Sanremo was 8 years ago.

Side note, it's kinda shocking to me Sean Kelly was never a WC

I have been thinking the same this past week. Also that he never won Flanders. You'd think that 49 out of 50 times, a rider of his skillset in that time period would be WC at least once.

Worlds are a fickle thing. I'm sure being Irish didn't help

 

[Gigs_98]

The comparison with one day racers such as Boonen, Cancellara and Bettini is quite interesting, especially the one with Boonen as I feel they stand on completely different ends of the spectrum of classics specialists. Boonen with the excption of his worlds triumph has only ever really won cobbles classics and although these races are among the most prestigious ones and he has been quite dominant and won even more big races than Gilbert has, it doesn't really come as a surprise that a rider is dominant in a "discipline" if all the races in that discipline are very similar. Gilbert never felt like the classics force, Boonen has been as he has never been dominant (with the big exception of 2011) yet the spectrum of races he has won is absolutely unheard of in todays era. After today I'd probably put him on the top spot of 21st century classics specialists, but it's close. Just one more big win would make it quite clear though.

 

[Red Rick]

I guess a lot depends on how you rate certain races/distributions. For me Bettini is still clearly ahead

 

[DFA123]

The comparison with one day racers such as Boonen, Cancellara and Bettini is quite interesting, especially the one with Boonen as I feel they stand on completely different ends of the spectrum of classics specialists. Boonen with the excption of his worlds triumph has only ever really won cobbles classics and although these races are among the most prestigious ones and he has been quite dominant and won even more big races than Gilbert has, it doesn't really come as a surprise that a rider is dominant in a "discipline" if all the races in that discipline are very similar. Gilbert never felt like the classics force, Boonen has been as he has never been dominant (with the big exception of 2011) yet the spectrum of races he has won is absolutely unheard of in todays era. After today I'd probably put him on the top spot of 21st century classics specialists, but it's close. Just one more big win would make it quite clear though.

No way, Gilbert is right in the middle of the Classic spectrum of modern greats. Boonen on one end, Valverde on the other. Gilbert sits in that perfect niche where he can win them all (except probably current Lombardia) in the right circumstances.

And he's also played it smartly. Took on Lombardia when it suited him, then switched his focus fully on the cobbles only after joining by far the strongest cobbled team.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

I guess a lot depends on how you rate certain races/distributions. For me Bettini is still clearly ahead

How?

I can see that there’s an argument, but I can only understand putting Bettini “clearly” ahead if you think that the Olympic RR is more important than the Monuments. And anyone who thinks that hates cycling and is operating on the assumption that it’s a trivial sport with no fan base or traditions of its own.