Following Serge Pauwels’ appointment as Belgium’s national road coach, Philippe Gilbert has taken to social media to air his grievances with the hiring process for the position.
Belgian Cycling announced Pauwels’ hiring on Wednesday. The former pro steps up from coaching the junior programme, a position he’d held for the past four seasons alongside his role as an assistant to outgoing coach Sven Vanthourenhout.
In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, Gilbert complained that “the position was never open”, claiming that “internal agreements” at Belgian Cycling meant he never had a real chance of being hired.
“I had hoped to become a national road cycling coach in order to share my experience and passion with the current generation,” Gilbert, who retired at the end of 2022, wrote.
“Since the position was never open, the internal agreements of Belgian Cycling got the better of my application. I would like to thank the many riders who showed their enthusiasm as well as the countless people who supported me.”
Belgian Cycling chair Tom Van Damme, who said upon hiring Pauwels that “There will certainly be no cutbacks in top-level sport within our operations”, said that there were talks with Gilbert.
He stated, however, that candidates were “often rather vague” in their plans for the role, in contrast to internal candidate Pauwels.
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“There have been talks with Philippe,” Van Damme said, according to Sporza. “That was a very constructive conversation, by the way.
“The federation’s vision, however, is very much in line with Serge’s: the bond between youth and professionals has become so important that there needs to be a flow. We have continued along that line.
“There were a number of interviews, but the candidates themselves were often rather vague.
“They often did not know exactly which path they wanted to take with their career, while we had a fully-fledged candidate internally.”
Pauwels replaces Vanthourenhout, who has presided over an era of great success in Belgian cycling. The former cyclocross star helped deliver three rainbow jerseys and five Olympic medals since taking over as national coach in 2020, with the nation’s total coming to 99 medals in international competition under his reign.
