In this day and age few things go by without a hashtag, and so it is for racing objectives in professional cycling.
#StriveForFive is the message Philippe Gilbert has begun sending out on his social media accounts, and he was the centre of attention at Quick-Step Floors team presentation in Calpe as he set out his 2018 plans and his desire to complete the set of cycling's five Monuments.
"It's a big motivation for me. Even if it's a crazy dream, it's possible," the 35-year-old Belgian said on Tuesday in one of many rounds of interviews on the Spanish coastal resort.
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The ambition had lain dormant for some time but it was reawakened last year with a remarkable return to form in the northern, cobbled Classics, culminating in his extraordinary victory at the Tour of Flanders. With Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia already on his palmares, Gilbert now has just two boxes left to tick: Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. Both are written in bold on his 2018 calendar.
While Gilbert has twice finished on the podium at Milan-San Remo, he is almost a complete newcomer to Paris-Roubaix; out of 47 Monument rides in his 16-year career, he has hit the cobblestones of northern France just once, all the way back in 2007. But it's not that he's cowed by the race that's known as 'The Hell of the North'.
"We make a lot of things about it, but it's not that bad. It's like every Classic, you finish empty, but I think it's sometimes exaggerated," Gilbert said of the cobbles and distance, with the nonchalance that can only come from winning Flanders through a 55km solo raid.
What about the Ardennes Classics?
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