Philippe Gilbert to skip the GP de Wallonie 2012
After a tremendous past season, Philippe Gilbert of Team BMC struggled during the earlier part of the 2012.
He has now decided to miss the Gp de Wallonie and will prepare for a more serious goal of his 2012 season, the UCI Road World Championships in Limburg, Holland.
The cyclist’s first victory in the current year came during the stage 9 of the Vuelta a Espana, when he overcame Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver, Paolo Tiralongo, Tomasz Marczynski and Daniele Bennati during the 196.3 kilometre pursuit to Barcelona.
He managed to continue his splendid form and claimed the top podium spot during the stage 19 of the Spanish Grand Tour.
Gilbert had to overcome the in-form Alejandro Valverde, Daniel Moreno Fernandez, Joaquim Rodriguez and Gianni Meersman to ensure his top position and he had no hesitations in registering his second stage victory at the race.
"I could feel the lactate building in my muscles heading up to the line, but you've got to keep going and not sit down because if you do then it’s over," he said after winning the Vuelta a Espana stage 19.
"All wins are nice as it’s always very tough to win at this level. A lot of credit for this one should go to my team. Klaas Lodewijk and Alessandro Ballan did great in the closing kilometres”.
“When you have a big talent like Ballan working for you there’s no doubt you get extra motivation."
His only other two commendable performances this year include a third place finish at the La Fleche Wallonne and a sixth overall spot during the Amstel Gold Race.
The 30-year-old claimed the top overall spot after the UCI World Tour Elite Men rankings with a total number of 718 points to his credit.
He defeated the 2011 Tour de France winner, Cadel Evans by a huge margin of 134 UCI points.
Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Katusha, Michele Scarponi of Team Lampre-ISD and Tony Martin of Team HTC-Highroad secured the next three positions with 446, 419 and 349 points in the respective order.
Grand Prix de Wallonie is a 203 kilometre race scheduled on Wednesday. Notable cyclists to ride the event include Tom Boonen, Greg Van Avermaet, Thomas De Gendt, Oscar Freire, Jakob Fuglsang and Jens Voigt.
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