Earlier this week, Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal), who had not won since 2019, now has two victories.The 39-year-old Gilbert added an overall victory to his third stage win at 4 Jules de Dunkerque on Sunday. [After winning the pink leader's jersey in the French race, Gilbert said, "I am very happy. I've had a lot of trouble and tough times in the last two years, but I want to finish my career at the highest level."

"I never forget what I have to do to achieve that. At the Classic, I was sick and couldn't train as planned. Here, the weather was great and I was able to win a short race. I also want to thank my great team."

The battle for the overall win in the 4 Jules de Dunkerque was tight, with only four seconds separating second place Oliver Naessen (AG2R Citroën Team) and another second separating third place Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ). In fact, there were 12 racers within 20 seconds of Gilbert on GC.

Gilbert had not been a serious contender for the overall since 2. Pro stage 3, when he won the windswept stage of the 2019 Vuelta a España for the 79th time in his career.

This stage 3 win and the associated 10-second time bonus put the Lotto-Soudal rider in second place overall.

Despite losing a few places on stage 4, he moved into the race lead on stage 5 from Roubaix to Kassel, where he finished in 4th place. Despite losing a few places on stage 4, he finished 4th in the section from Roubaix to Kassel on stage 5, moving into the overall lead.

If he could hold on in the 182.9 km final stage from Aldre to Dunkerque, his first GC win since the three days of the 2017 De Panne would be on the line.

"The final was a tricky local circuit with lots of turns and constant jostling for position, so the early stages were stressful," Gilbert said.

Nevertheless, finishing 15th in the final stage and safe in the peloton was enough for Gilbert, who has won every monument except Milan-San Remo, to take his eighth career win and 80th overall. Gilbert plans to score more wins this season before ending a career that has spanned two decades.

"First of all, I'm getting married at the end of this month," he said. But after that I'm very ambitious. I want to win more races."