Mathieu Warnier, Media365: published on Thursday November 14, 2024 at 10:30 p.m.
After learning that Serge Pauwels had been appointed coach of the Belgian road Cycling team, Philippe Gilbert did not hide his disappointment and ensured that his candidacy was slowed down by the federation.
Philippe Gilbert wanted to imitate Thomas Voeckler. Two years after ending his career, the former world champion launched the race to succeed Sven Vanthourenhout, coach of the Belgian road cycling team since 2021. However, earlier this week, the Belgian federation (Belgian Cycling) formalized the appointment to this coveted position of Serge Pauwels, who left the professional peloton at the end of the 2020 season. In the wake of This announcement, Philippe Gilbert spoke on social networks, he who had “the hope of becoming a national road cycling coach in order to share (his) experience and (his) passion with the current generation”. In this message, he attacks the leaders of the Belgian federation, ensuring that they were able to give him a hard time to prevent him from taking the head of the national team. “The position having never been open, the internal agreements at Belgian Cycling got the better of my candidacy,” he said with unfeigned bitterness.
The federation goes a little in the direction of Gilbert
Words which did not escape Tom Van Damme, president of Belgian Cycling. During a press conference, the latter specified certain criteria chosen to appoint the new coach. One of them was the desire “to have a full-time coach, capable of combining professionals and youth”, according to comments collected by the RTBF. However, since his retirement, Philippe Gilbert has moved to the other side of the camera, notably being a consultant for the channel Eurosport during the main races on the international calendar. In addition, the boss of the Belgian federation ensures that the ambition of the former wearer of the rainbow jersey was “above all to take care of professionals”, which was deemed incompatible with the activities of Philippe Gilbert. However, Tom Van Damme agreed with the former rider, assuring that “there was never actually a job offer for this position, so it wasn’t really open”, adding that the federation had “the desire to look internally first”. Which should not appease Philippe Gilbert.
