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Sunday, October 16, 2022

The Great Career Of Philippe Gilbert




As the 2022 road racing calendar winds down, so too do the careers of prominent UCI WorldTour racers like Alejandro Valverde, Vincenzo Nibali, and Niki Terpstra. But the racer I am really going to miss is perhaps my favorite racer of all-time: Philippe Gilbert. The Belgian raced on guts and instincts. He was tactically brilliant, attacking at times when his rivals couldn’t see an opportunity. And that self-reliant, attacking style made him a man for the one-day races. Just look at this list of major victories:

2006 Omloop Het Volk
2008 Omloop Het Volk
2008 Paris-Tours
2009 Paris-Tours
2009 Giro di Lombardia
2010 Giro di Lombardia
2010 Amstel Gold Race
2011 Amstel Gold Race
2011 Liège–Bastogne–Liège
2011 Strade Bianche
2011 Brabantse Pijl
2011 Clásica de San Sebastián
2011 Belgian National Time Trial Championship
2011 Belgian National Road Race Championship
2012 La Flèche Wallonne
2012 UCI World Road Race Championship
2014 Brabantse Pijl
2014 Amstel Gold Race
2016 Belgian National Road Race Championship
2017 Amstel Gold Race
2017 Tour of Flanders
2019 Paris-Roubaix

Gilbert appeared 3 times in the Olympic Games and 25 times in Grand Tours:

Giro d’Italia: 4 appearances, 3 stage victories
Tour de France: 12 appearances, 1 stage victory
Vuelta a España: 9 appearances, 7 stage victories

Overall, Gilbert had 80 victories in a professional career that began in 2003. Now he’s a 40-year-old retiree living in Monaco, and it’s still good to be Phil!

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