After a hard crash at the 2018 Tour de France, Philippe Gilbert will make a return to racing at the end of September at the Grand Prix d’Isbergues.
Gilbert spent just two days in the hospital after the crash before checking himself out and continuing his rehabilitation at home with his own team.
“The first days after the crash were a bit difficult, to be honest,” Gilbert said in a letter to his fans. “Experts were saying that the injury didn’t look good and that it would take a long time to recover, many even said the season was over and that I should start focusing on 2019. I didn’t want to hear this, however, and wanted to prove them wrong, so I worked really hard to get back, day and night. And I mean it: I literally woke up at night and started doing exercises.”
The Belgian was back on the bike in just three weeks, starting with short 90 minute rides before really pushing himself.
“I still have more than one week of training but I am really happy to announce that I will return to racing already at the end of September, in the Grand Prix d’Isbergues, a race which I first did in my first pro season, 15 years ago,” Gilbert added. “Over the next weeks, a very hard block of training and some more specific exercises, like training behind a motorbike, will hopefully take my condition one step up and get me some race speed back into the legs.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am that I will be back racing this year. There are some interesting appointments for me, like racing in China, both on World Tour level in the Tour of Guangxi and of course in the final Hammer Series in Hong Kong. Our team is sitting second on the leaderboard, so we can expect a good fight for the overall victory next month.
“I am very ambitious, I want to win races, that is how things are working in my head. People may think it’s crazy to set such goals – and maybe it won’t happen this year – but this mentality is what drives me as a rider and what gave me the motivation to get back to the Wolfpack as fast as possible, against all odds,” he concluded.
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