Making the Quick-Step Floors team for the cobbled classics – the Belgian team's raison d'etre – is no easy feat at the best of times, and doing so as a new signing, as a 36-year-old, and after a five-year absence from the pavé, is another matter entirely. Yet Philippe Gilbert has gone above and beyond, pretty much establishing himself at the top of the team's hierarchy for Sunday's Tour of Flanders, with many placing him in the same bracket as Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) as a five-star favourite.
After a spell at BMC, where he was 'not allowed' to ride the cobbled classics due to a clash with Van Avermaet, Gilbert is under no illusions as to how good he is feeling right now. He shaped the race at Dwars door Vlaanderen and E3 Harelbeke, finishing second on both occasions [the first behind a teammate], and he asserted his dominance all over the Three Days of De Panne earlier this week.
The Belgian champion, however, is refusing to get ahead of himself, even if his teammate and compatriot Tom Boonen said on Friday that he's never seen him so strong at this point in the season.
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Asked whether he considered himself a top favourite on a par with the world and Olympic champions, Gilbert simply replied: "I've worked very hard for this weekend. I believe I'm going into it with a strong condition, and that's interesting.
"I'm really good now," he added later. "I really worked heard to get here, so it's not like a miracle. I really made a lot of sacrifices to get here in good shape, so it was like on schedule, but it's never easy to make it happen."
Nor have his recent displays made him complacent that things will go smoothly once again on Sunday.
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