Gilbert ready but wary of Valverde

Gilbert was simply a step above the rest in Amstel, Fleche and Liege last season in which he won races from February through to September to meet a personal goal of becoming the No.1 UCI ranked professional.

But making his debut in BMC colours at the Tour of Qatar this week the 29-year-old did not go as far to say he would once again have the measure of the rest.

“Maybe it’s a difference this year with the comeback of Valverde but it’s something good for me,” Gilbert told Cycling Central. “He’s a rider who always makes his team work; he’s also working himself in the final.”

Valverde (Movistar) came back from a two year ban with a bang at the Tour Down Under last month where he won the queen stage to finish the tour in the same time as champion Simon Gerrans (GreenEDGE) but place second overall based on lowest aggregate score.

The Spaniard Valverde served a suspension after being implicated in Operation Puerto.

“It’s good that finally he paid for what he did in the past so now he can look at everybody right in the eyes,” Gilbert said when asked of his opinion of the 31-year-old. “I think it’s better for him.”

Gilbert is staring down the barrel of another long season in which he has marked success at the Ardennes Classics, Olympic Games and the world championships as his personal primary objectives.

The Belgian national road and time-trial gold medallist is also set to help Australian champion Cadel Evans defend his Tour de France crown as well as use the Vuelta a Espana as training for his world title tilt.

“For me I will be on my best level in the Ardennes Classics and if I can win one of those then I will be good in the Tour to help Cadel,” he said.

“I was trying to come on very good shape before the classics (last year) so I can win also some stages somewhere or some one-day races but I think you need a strong team also. I had a very strong team last year and with the same support I can maybe do the same.”

There are six days between the final stage of the Tour and the July 28 London Olympics road race and a further four to the Games time-trial. Gilbert is hopeful of starting both. The Vuelta begins 17 days after the Champs-Élysées finish in Paris.

“It’s why I start easy now,” he said. “With all these camps and this training maybe I will be good, I don’t know, but it’s not my goal to be good now. I’ll try to go easy but we will see!”

Gilbert has approached this season slightly differently shaking up training in team camps the past two months.

“BMC don’t train the same as (former outfit) Lotto so I had to do some different things in the camps,” he said. “We were a little group, like six guys, where we did a lot of hours and a lot of intensity. Last year we didn’t do so much intensity over December and January so for me it was new.”

The Tour de France stage winner says it’s too early to tell if the regime will make any difference to his performances throughout the first part of the season.

Winning the UCI No.1 ranking was a motivating factor behind Gilbert’s consistency in 2011 but now that he’s done it is not so much a priority this year.

“My first goal it was the classics so I was good in San Remo and good in Flanders but not on the top,” Gilbert recalled of arguably his best season to date.

“I felt after Flanders that I had to work a lot for the Ardennes. That’s what I did and from that moment I won all the races.

“I was also motivated to get this (No.1 UCI) ranking. Cadel had a great season so it was hard to pass him because he won Tirreno, Romandie and the Tour so it’s three GC - you get a lot of points with this. For me, it was hard to pass him so that’s why I was keeping going like this.”

There was also a more practical component to it with Gilbert’s Omega Pharma - Lotto outfit splitting into two different entities at the end of last season and thus UCI points playing a big factor in the value of a new contract.

“The team stopped, I had to search for a new team, search for new riders, also trying to take riders with me from Lotto so it was very hard,” he said. “I was focused on this ranking but focused on my future also. I was doing different things together so it was hard.”

In 2012 however that pressure is gone and Gilbert appears relaxed, even smiles, when he talks about what could be another career defining season albeit not identical to last.

“I’m not always like this but I always did a full season so my body is used to it,” he said. “I was just now maybe on my best season, always on top level, and just racing always for the win, which was nice.”

Twitter: @SophieSmith86

Sophie Smith is in Qatar as a guest of Amaury Sport Organisation