Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) may or may not win Paris-Tours Sunday, the last race of his illustrious career. But in Gilbert's mind, the most important thing for him these past few months is to keep himself a racer this weekend and until the last metre of the Rue du Grandmont race in Tours.

As one of the greatest and most versatile racers in modern cycling, the 40-year-old Belgian has won four of the five Monuments, the 2012 Road World Championships, stage wins in all three Grand Tours, and many more.

But as Gilbert revealed in a lengthy interview with various media outlets on Friday, after 20 years of racing, the time has come for him to lead "a very different kind of life, with different motivations and different goals."

Gilbert is as forthcoming as ever about his career, but remains tight-lipped about his post-racing future, saying only that "it will become clear shortly." According to Cyclingnews, however, rumors that Gilbert will remain at Lot Soudal as director, or even take a more senior management position, appear to be unfounded.

Meanwhile, in the countdown to Paris-Tours, Gilbert will reflect on his career and also, as Lotto Soudal racers believe, he will leave the race the right way.

"I was pretty strong last month," he said. After the Tour de France, I've been getting better and better, and I did a good job for Arnaud de Lee in Paris-Bourges on Thursday."

"I was working for this: I didn't want to go into the finale of my career in obscurity. I wanted to do something and enjoy myself."

Gilbert, who won the Paris-Tour twice early in his career, and who in 2008 won the emotional farewell race to his first professional team, the Francaise des Jeux, may have another peloton doing him a favor, the last to raise their arms high for victory. He had no intention of going into the race thinking that it might give him a chance. Rather, he wanted to fight all the way to the finish of the race and his career.

"I hope they don't make me pass through the middle of the peloton unopposed, or that I don't have any 'gifts,'" Gilbert said. 'I hope they fight with me like they always do and race normally.'

Not only will the lights go out on Gilbert's career this weekend, but two of the sport's recent leaders will also head for the door: Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Kazakstan) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). But as the Belgian pointed out, the three have not been contacted about their departure from the race: "I don't have their phone numbers, I haven't contacted them, and they are not starting today," he said with laconic humor.

Gilbert agreed that what all three have in common is that they "won from the beginning of their careers to the end. This is like Eric Zabel (a former racer who won Milan-San Remo many times) or Paolo Bettini (who became world champion many times).

"It is always good to be successful. But it takes a lot of organization, training, and motivation."

There was one thing in particular that Gilbert still seems most pleased about when it comes to the finer details of professional racing. It was the challenge of turning a situation in which he was most likely to make a near miss in a race into one in which he was far more likely to succeed.

"When you're training and you find out you're just a little bit, 2%, 3%, 4% short, and you know you have to be 100% to win, at that point your career becomes more like a way of life," he explained.

"We have to train more, we have to be more organized, more efficient. That's a lot of work. But it's something I'm sure I'll miss."

He has 80 career wins to date and will probably reach 81 on Sunday night. However, Gilbert noted that one of his strengths is that he does not specialize in any particular type of racing

. Furthermore, unlike Valverde, Gilbert insists that he has never thought about continuing "just one more year. This is partly because he had done almost everything he wanted to do, and partly because, looking back on his goals, he always knew his own limits.

"Twenty years is enough. It's really hard to keep going year after year; I'm satisfied that I've done 100% and it's time to do something different," he explained

. Flanders, Ardennes, Lombardy, Paris-Roubaix, etc. I didn't go for the GC in the Grand Tours because I knew I didn't have the potential for it."

"I didn't make the mistake of sacrificing a season or two for a top 10 or 15 overall in a Grand Tour. In my eyes, you either get on the podium, win the race, or you don't go."

"I'm not a podium finisher, I'm a winner, and I'm not going to go.

Gilbert has won everything from the Canadian Classic to Clasica San Sebastian, from the Tour de Beijing to the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, but his favorite of the five Monument wins is Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the closest to his home town 14]

"It was a special race for me because it was the last of four wins in a row, from Amstel to Flèche Brabantsonne (Brabantspaille), Flèche Wallonne, and Liège."

In addition, he has won the Bastogne-Liège race in the past.

Gilbert, who became the first athlete in history to win four mountain classics in one year, said, "It was a special 10 days.

"I remember at the time the expectations and pressure were growing day by day. So I was happy to finish with that victory and it was the most special of all the victories."

Gilbert's victory in Liège that year, where he fended off the Schleck brothers Andy and Franck, over the Côte de Saint Nicolas, and up the final climb to Ans, is certainly one of his most memorable wins. As he said himself on Friday, "I hope people will remember me as a charming rider, a rider who always tries to do his best"

.

"Seeing Lemko (Evenpole, Quick-Step Alphavinil) win Liège this year with his attack on the Côte de la Redoute is a dream come true and really makes me appreciate cycling.

"I like this way of racing. It's good for the public to have people who want to attack and are always willing to risk losing. But that's the beauty of the sport."

Once the curtain falls, beyond next weekend's celebratory and decidedly non-competitive "race" in Cauberg, Gilbert said he has plans for the future. But, he said, "Now is not the time to tell you that. If you are patient, one day it will happen."

He said.

Gilbert has stated many times that he is not interested in becoming a sports director, and he strongly hinted at a major change in perspective in the coming months and years.

"It will be a different life, with different motivations and goals. It will be completely different," Gilbert said.

"The life of a cyclist is completely different. For one thing, there is a lot of traveling, you can never relax, there is constant training, there is expected stress, you have to be in good shape all the time. It's stressful."

"The last three years I wasn't at my highest level anymore. I got COVID, I hurt my knee in the second fall, and the team was not always easy. We had a lot of problems."

"But we have always done our best and the most important thing is to finish at a good level now."