Philippe Gilbert was a guest on our Thursday night live show and, together with Fede , Marru and the Mullah , he touched on various topics, answering questions about current events and his career. Click here to watch the entire live show, which was later also attended by Riccardo Magrini .

We started with the Ardennes Triptych: the Belgian, a true expert, being one of the two men to have won the three races in the same year, spoke about both the Amstel and the Walloon Arrow: " Evenepoel improved a lot in the sprint, but at the Amstel he made a mistake, he started too early also considering that there was a headwind", he continued then on the Arrow "Christen did a fundamental job on the Cote de Cherave and the group arrived very stretched out at the Mur de Huy, then Pogacar made an out of this world acceleration in the hardest section at 20%".

"The most difficult race of the three? Without a doubt the Amstel because it is very technical with continuous curves and changes of direction, and also the finish is always complicated. The best route is exactly the one there is now, with the Cauberg a couple of kilometers from the finish, so it can end in any way, whether with a solo finish, in a small sprint or with a small group".

Gilbert also spoke about the new era of cycling , made of long-distance attacks and spectacular races: " I really like this cycling , I see myself in these champions for their mentality; in my time I was the only one with Nibali who tried to liven up the races, while many other riders were too cautious. For example, at the Flanders that I won in 2017 I started 54 km from the finish and also at the Roubaix I made a first attack with over 60 km to go".

Fede then asked Philippe the reasons for the shameful gestures towards Van der Poel : "Fortunately I have never suffered similar behavior, but I tried to analyze the reason for these gestures and I found three main reasons . The first is that he is Dutch and has often beaten the home idol Van Aert; the second reason could be that he often seems like a robot, who averages 50 km/h and seems to not struggle; the third reason is related to his over the top attitudes in terms of ostentation, in a popular sport like cycling; for example when he arrives in very expensive cars at cyclocross races."

Gilbert then spoke about his experience in the classics : "If I had won the five monuments, my career would have had another dimension and I would have been on a par with a few others like Merckx or Van Looy . When I won Flanders I received a confused communication on the radio, at the moment in which Sagan and Van Avermaet fell behind me and therefore I was not able to understand the situation with certainty". And on the absence of the Muur : "The Muur is a beautiful climb, long and demanding, where you can make the difference. I'm sorry that it is not there also because of the very technical and demanding approach".