Former ProTour leader Philippe Gilbert deliberately missed the Tour de France so as to have a strong second part of the season, but found that he was lacking some sharpness in the Clasica San Sebastian on Saturday.
The Omega-Pharma Lotto rider finished 43rd, seven minute 28 seconds behind the winner Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne), but his directeur sportif Roberto Damiani said that was to be expected.
"He could not follow the main group during the second ascent of Jaizkibel,” Damiani told DH Sports. “But there is nothing alarming, the level difference between those who came out of the Tour de France and the other was so huge! He was not too disappointed after the race.”
Of the ten riders who were most aggressive on the Alto de Jaizkibel, eight of those had ridden the Tour. The same pattern is seen each year; the riders from the Tour hold onto their form for a week or two, then the tiredness from the three week race kicks in and the fresher riders start to have their say.
Gilbert is aiming to win the world road race championships in Geelong in October, and knows that his strong spring campaign meant that he had to allow his batteries to recharge. Omega Pharma Lotto gave the Amstel Gold winner the chance to ride the Tour but he preferred to sit it out, and instead worked hard so as to keep some condition.
"We feel he has done a good job during the training camp at Livigno, but we must not forget that this was his first race back and that it is a tough test,” Damiani explained. “We felt that he’d be okay up to the 200 kilometre point.”
Gilbert missed out on ProTour points and is expected to drop to fifth in the UCI World Ranking. However the other riders – Alberto Contador (Astana), Joaquin Rodriguez (Team Katusha), Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) are all expected to take breaks from racing and some of those won’t keep going until the end of the season.
Gilbert will however race hard from this point until the Tour of Lombardy, which he won last year, and should move up the rankings once more.
He had a superb end to 2009, winning the Coppa Sabatini, Paris-Tours, the Tour of Piemonte and the Tour of Lombardy.