Gilbert on Lotto Soudal's relegation battle: "We live from week to week, almost from day to day"
Cycling
Philippe Gilbert is on his final season as a professional rider. The Belgian veteran is having a role in Lotto Soudal's fight to stay afloat at World Tour level, a battle that every month seems more complicated for the Belgian team.
Although not being set for the cobbled classics, as he was planning his spring around the Ardennes where he's gotten some of the biggest wins of his career, he will be at the start in Compiègne tomorrow: “First of all, it happened at my personal request. I continue to experience significant breathing problems. I don't know if you can still call it bronchitis, but when I climb, I have really big problems. I'm not getting enough oxygen, as I've noticed in the Amstel."
Roubaix is more flat, a more gradual effort. I hope I can defend my chances better there. In the ideal world you wouldn't be sick, of course, but I can't control that," he added in a pre-race conference.
Gilbert was the winner of Paris-Roubaix in 2019. After having raced it four times, he will know very well what the task at hand is and his experience can be of great value for the likes of Victor Campenaerts and Florian Vermeersch who will be aiming for a high result at the end of the day.
He was asked about the team's situation in the UCI rankings. Lotto Soudal was, in the last update, in 20th and very last spot between the World Tour teams, more than 1000 points behind Cofidis - who in the meantime have extended the gap with a dominating performance at Classic Grand Besançon Doubs. “We have no choice. There is a lot of pressure within the squad to race. For example, Tim Wellens had to go to France immediately after the Brabantse Pijl to race there.
"The team is in a major stress situation around the points. There is no longer a long-term vision. We live from week to week, almost from day to day. There is a lot of pressure. It's true: you might say quitting and taking the time to recover is the better option, but in the meantime, we live on hope. Although we may have to say in a month that it was a mistake," he concluded.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
- He will be lol, but he can still win on the climbs hahaawp04-11-2026
- I would love to have his inconsistency. How many wins this year? 2 TdF stages, a WC, a Euro championship, San Sebastian, multiple wins early year. Monument podiums. I'd take it. I don't think he has a chance in the TdF, but he is still amazing.mij04-11-2026
- He's not going to win the TdF. Maybe if they make every single stage a TT he could win. But I still believe Tadej would just sharpen his TT skills and win.mij04-11-2026
- You beat me to it. Should he make a full recovery (likely) and go light early in the year. One, two, three. Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. Should he be on a Feel-Like-He's-Fixin'-to-Die High.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- The deciding factor may be the (TBD) number of (any type of) kilometers without Pogacar.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- Unexplained chronic fatigue is an all too common bitch. The hard to find definitive answer may lie buried in gut mechanisms. A mystery of the deep.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- It's weird to say Evenepoel would be making a "serious mistake by adding the 2027 Giro d'Italia to his calendar, warning that such a decision could even be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his ability to win the Tour de France." It may well be a mistake but with so many commentators (of all sorts) continuously claiming almost everything Remco does as being a mistake, almost nobody should care what the pundits and the disparagers should say. His team may not want him to do the Giro, and that matters. But it's possibly or probably up to Remco to decide and it may not have to be decided on until a month or so ahead of the race. Yes , Remco is inconsistent much like the majority of the best riders but he's enjoying a period of not having been recently injured (or sick). Whatever he does he need not be concerned with critics who will second guess any perceived failure no matter what. I suspect he will have enough other races on his schedule so he won't be considering it. But the worst reason to not race it is because of what some will say - humorous that be.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- I'll say clean sweep all grand tourZamorano04-11-2026
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🎬 The importance of a 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬-𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐚𝐢𝐱 recon Go behind the scenes with the team during yesterday's recon of #ParisRoubaix, where we give you some insight into why we are testing on the famous cobbles one last time ahead of the race on Sunday.
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