Gilbert to finish career with 'special' Paris-Tours

Philippe Gilbert will bid farewell to professional cycling at Paris-Tours, to be livestreamed on SBS tonight.

Philippe Gilbert and Simon Gerrans share a beer on the podium after the 2014 Amstel Gold Race (Getty Images) Source: Getty / Getty Images

The Belgian cycling legend is set to hang up the cleats after Paris-Tours, the French classic special for Gilbert as the race in which he made his big breakthrough win.

"I think it's important to finish there. In 2008, I scored my first big win there in the jersey of Française des Jeux. A year later, I won there for Lotto,” said Gilbert.

After two decades as one of the leading and most famous athletes within cycling, Gilbert said he was happy to retire while still in good enough condition to compete at the top level.

“20 years is enough. It would be really difficult to have gone on year after year,” said Gilbert. “I’m just happy to have done this 100 per cent and also it’s time to do something different.”

Gilbert is hoping to make an impact at Paris-Tours, and the possibility of a win is far from impossible, with the Belgian classics specialist in strong form in recent races. He also took victory at the 4 Days of Dunkirk earlier in the year, a similar style of racing, and he could add to his two previous Paris-Tours victories here.

“I was quite strong the last month,” said Gilbert. “After the Tour de France I was getting better and better, and I still could do some good work for Arnaud De Lie at Paris-Bourges on Thursday.

“This is what I was working for - I didn’t want to have an anonymous finale to my career, counting down the days. I really wanted to be able to do something and enjoy myself.”

Gilbert has been one of the best riders in his generation, and won four of the five monuments in cycling, including Giro il Lombardia twice. However, he said that the training and preparation that went into those results were what he would miss the most.

"It’s nice to always be successful,” said Gilbert. “But it requires a lot of organisation and training in your life, and a lot of motivation.”

“When you are training and see that you are missing just a little bit, 2, 3, or 4 per cent and you know that to win you have to be 100 per cent...at that point, your career becomes more like a way of life.

"You have to train more, you have to be more organised and be more efficient, and count on a strong team too. It’s a lot of work. But that’s something I’m going to miss, I’m sure.”

The 40-year-old reflected on the choices made during his career - one that was focused on stage-hunting at the Grand Tours rather than the general classification, and on the Ardennes classics. Overall, Gilbert took 80 UCI-ranked victories in his career, was world champion on the road, raced 25 Grand Tours, completing in 17, and was always a favourite during the hilly races. He famously completed an unprecedented sweep of Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl in 2011, winning the races across a dominant showing over 10 days.

“I was also lucky, because I have tried many different things. I tried the Flemish races, the Ardennes, Il Lombardia, Paris-Roubaix... I never went for Grand Tour GCs because I knew I didn’t have the potential to do well in them,” said Gilbert.

“I never made the mistake of sacrificing one or two seasons for a top 10 or 15 overall in a Grand Tour. In my eyes, either you get on the podium or win, or you don’t go.”

Watch Paris-Tours on SBS On Demand from 12.30am AEDT for all the action from the final race of Gilbert’s career, with catch-up replay and highlights available the following day.