Despite a very quiet Tour de France where the closest he got to a win were two fourth places, plus a season which is in no way comparable to his dominance of 2011, Philippe Gilbert insists that he can be a factor in the Olympic Games.
“Critics believe that I am selected on the basis of last season,” he told La Dernière Heure. “But I am not. I deserve my place. I am still one of the best in Belgium in one day races.”
The BMC Racing Team rider was the rider of the year last season, dominating the calendar and racking up 18 victories.
Amongst those wins were the extremely rare treble of Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, as well as the semi-Classic Brabantse Pijl in the same period.
Other successes which came his way included a stage and stint in the Maillot Jaune in the Tour de France, the Belgian road and time trial championships, overall victory in the Tour of Belgium and the Ster ZLM Toer, and single day victories in the Clasica San Sebastian and Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec. Speaking to the same newspaper at the end of the season, he said that he would step up a level. “I'm 29, I will still progress physically for another year or two and will be without doubt a little stronger in 2012, and possibly also in 2013,” he predicted.
Instead, the opposite has happened. The season is well over halfway through and the Belgian is yet to take a victory this year. He admits to being demoralised at times, but says that things are picking up.
“From now on it is interesting again for me,” he said. “My form was at a distressing level in the spring. The Classic pre-season was bad. After Liege-Bastogne-Liege, I put everything on stop, and also in my head.”
“Then I said to myself that I start again. From almost zero. In the Tour, I have an interesting level. From now on it can only be better and more interesting for me.”
Gilbert has said on several times this season that he has turned a corner, yet the victories did not occur. He needs a big performance to reassure the fans and to convince the critics that he is back. It remains to be seen if he can be a factor in the medals in Saturday’s road race; as the days tick down to that target, he said that the entire Belgian team would pull together to get the best possible result. “Egos do not count. We must make the right choices. For ourselves and for the team.”