After the Tour de Suisse, reigning world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) is still in search of his first win in the rainbow jersey, but he hopes to rectify that situation this coming weekend at the Belgian championship race in La Roche. The BMC rider came close in the Tour de Suisse, placing third in Saturday's penultimate stage.

An undulating climb near the end of that eighth stage narrowed the field down to around 40 riders, and Gilbert finished behind Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff), both of whom he described as “very strong. It is no shame to finish third behind those names. If you check my sprints, that third place is where I belong. Of course you always hope for better.”

By a large margin that 3rd place was Gilbert’s best finish in the Swiss race, and he was content with his overall performance. “The condition is there, the speed too. I am satisfied with my Tour de Suisse. I worked well.”

Gilbert cited his team duties as part of the explanation for not finishing higher in the overall classification. “We worked for the race leader, Mathias Frank, and Tejay van Garderen all week. When you have a team like BMC, the leaders have to work for each other in each race.”

With the start of the Tour de France only days away, Gilbert is ostensibly still not guaranteed a place in the BMC Racing Team Tour de France roster. Team principal Jim Ochowicz has publicly said that only Cadel Evans and Van Garderen are certain of Tour participation, although Gilbert said earlier that he has been told privately that he too will ride the Tour. The BMC Racing Team is expected to announce its Tour de France line-up later this week.