It's not all intense training and dreaming about the future in Mallorca right now for the Omega Pharma-Lotto team. Philippe Gilbert had a little bit of fun on a descent during the day's training on Saturday and planted himself firmly on the bumper of the team car and decided to go really fast.
The end result was a top speed of 119 km/h, around 75 mph.
The exceptionally fast speed was not very impressive to Gilbert though. The Porsche owner and Classics winner is no stranger to speed on and off the bike, but his general disappointment with the number when speaking to Het Nieuwsblad is rather humorous.
"Fast? That was all? If you really do your best, you can get 140 km/h easily. I've even ridden faster before, though I cannot remember what I did," said the Belgian hero.
The Amstel Gold champion's mention of 140 km/h brings to mind another Mallorca training camp speed demon from a few years past, Theo Bos. Bos managed 140 on the bumper of his team car and later described the effort as 'freewheeling'.
Returning back to Gilbert's pedestrian effort, the Liege-Bastogne-Liege hopeful's English teammate, up and coming British sprinter, Adam Blythe, was similarly unimpressed with Gilbert's number, dismissing the feat entirely.
"It was a descent. That doesn't count. The official [team] record? 117 km/h on flat roads. I did that."