Philippe Gilbert not sure about his form ahead of the Tirreno - Adriatico 2012
The most successful cyclist in the past season, Philippe Gilbert has yet to claim his first victory of the 2012 season.
He is currently riding the third World Tour event of the year, Tirreno-Adriatico and is struggling to find his form.
"I'm not worried, I'm not bad. I have no stress. The season is still very long. My goals are the Amstel Gold Race, the Ardennes classics, the Tour, the Olympics and World Championships in Valkenburg", he told Het Nieuwsblad.
The Belgian struggled during the 16.9 kilometre opening stage of the race and finished the race at 168th position.
He was more than three and a half minutes behind the race leader Matthew Harley Goss. Svein Tuft, Sebastian Langeveld, Stuart O’ Grady and Cameron Meyer claimed the next four spots.
Gilbert has been unsuccessful to find his last season’s form and has not register any victory in the 2012 season.
He topped the 2011 UCI World Tour rankings with a total number of 698 UCI points in his pocket. Cadel Evans finished second with 574 points to his credit.
The 29-year-old grabbed almost every single race he participated in the past season. The long lists of his victories include the overall win at the Ster ZLM Toer and the Tour of Belgium.
He also grabbed victories at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Amstel Gold Race, Clasica de San Sebastian, Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec and the Montepaschi Strade Bianche in the past season.
Philippe bagged stages at the Volta ao Algarve and Tirreno-Adriatico to wrap up the best season of his career so far.
Gilbert’s team-mate Cadel Evans is also targeting the coming race to check his fitness level.
"To repeat last year's result here would be an ultimate gauge of my fitness," Evans noted. "But we'll first test my fitness and then see the result".
However, Philippe himself is not sure about his chances at a fully packed Team BMC squad.
He briefed, "I do not know if my form is good enough to win a stage here, the competition here is very strong".
BMC Racing Team finished 17th during the Team’s Time Trial opening stage of the event and is looking ahead to improve its performance during the coming stages of the race.
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