THE EDGE OF GREATNESS

Can Philippe Gilbert become one of cycling’s greatest-ever classics rider by winning all five monuments? Only Belgian royalty Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have ever achieved the feat and it’s been 44 years since the last of those. Modern cycling dictates that the quintet is nigh-on impossible simply for the fact that riders are so specialised today. You need to be able to climb to win Liège and Lombardy. You need power and durability to survive Flanders and Roubaix. And you need to be able to sprint to win San Remo. Plus, you need luck in all five. That level of versatility doesn’t exist any more.

But then Gilbert won ParisRoubaix and is now one MilanSan Remo win away (he also has a Worlds title to his name). Roubaix, arguably, was Gilbert’s biggest challenge - he weighs 5-6kg less than recent winners and lacked the race experience typically needed. Yet when Nils Pollit accelerated on the Carrefour de l’Arbre, only Gilbert could follow. All he had to do then was win the two-up sprint. So what are Gilbert’s chances at San Remo? He’s twice finished third before, although the last time was in 2011. If Gilbert is going to win here, logic dictates he’ll need to escape as he did at Flanders and Roubaix and arrive on the Via Roma solo. Gilbert is also 37 and no rider has ever won San Remo over the age of 36. But the beauty of the monuments is that anything can happen, and as Gilbert proved, winning big against the odds is now his territory.