Philippe Gilbert

Um, and again, switching gears a tiny bit, I mean, the, the world championships are very unique for any number of reasons.

Um, did you, did you catch the grumblings of what was going on in the Belgian team? Like, Tim Wellens was catching flack from Philippe Gilbert.

[laughs] Yeah, yeah.

I got the, like, I didn't know, like, any of the actual, like, details of it.

Yeah, I think he was in media.

He, somebody had put a mic in front of his face, and he, he got to say that.

And then I heard elsewhere a really funny thing, like, "Oh, Philippe Gilbert, he's dyed-in-the-wool Belgian, and yet he's living in Monaco." So, like, how, how dyed in the wool Belgian are you?

Y- y- you know he's on Cameo for, like, 25 bucks.

Just saying.

I saw, do you see what Philip Gilbert said?

He said they should wait until the end of the last climb to have Bernard and Remco together, and then they can play tactics.

I was like, have you watched cycling in the last five years?

But then, of course, he came back and won the Tour of Britain.

And he was then criticised by Philippe Gilbert.

Philippe Gilbert said, I think in a podcast, he said he was completely detached from reality.

And Wellens then replied that he was going to have to give up.

she'll be a piece of his mind or he's going to phone him up and tell him what he thought but underlying all of this is the suspicion and I think Tim Wellens probably has alluded to this as well that he didn't want to ride for Remco Evenepoel slash Wout van Aert when Tadej Pogacar was probably going to be trying to defend his title Tadej Pogacar of course is U18 um teammate what what do you think about this is this totally legitimate and i don't think wellens is the first rider in recent years to do this and be quite transparent about this that they didn't want to ride against their trade team leader

what I can

tell, the only drama that there was, was Wellens versus Philippe Gilbert to people who are not in the national team.

Yeah.

I

So it's a whole business thing.

uh question also right that's where the money comes from for all the federations um but it just makes no sense and then what i wanted to get to spencer is uh and here in belgium it's been quite uh you know discussed philip gilbert went on record in a in a tv show basically destroying Tim Wellens, saying, you know, that this is not possible.

You know, how can you betray your country like this? How can you not honor your selection? It's one day, it's, you know, and Wellens was surprised and Wellens was kind of pissed off.

He said, you know, I'm going to contact Gilbert and ask him why he was using these words.

Let's take a quick break.

When we come back, Mathieu van der Poel and Philippe Gilbert.

[upbeat music] Welcome back, everybody.

Pop quiz.

Segway.

Well, that's not his name.

His name is Philippe Gilbert.

Philippe Segway Gilbert.

Well, did

you see what, uh, what Philippe Gilbert had to say about, um, Tim Wellens, not wanting to ride, not refusing to ride on the world's team this year.

Yeah.

Uh, hang on.

Uh, the Dane was unable to hold the wheel, though, as the Belgian launched a big acceleration on the Cote la Montagne, and so it came down to a sprint a deux.

Uh, there, Evenepoel opened up quite a long way from the line, given that it's an uphill drag, but Ciccone could not come past him, and that ended a 14-year drought for Belgians at the race, their last winner being Philippe Gilbert in 2011.

And for Evenepoel, well, the signs are ominous, aren't they, ahead of the World Championships? That said, he might not start as the bookmakers' outright favorite, given that he didn't have it all his own way yesterday in Montreal.

Uh, as the winning move went there, he found himself a bit blocked in, and then spent the rest of the race chasing.