Written by TEAM BOBYN at 13:58 1/2-2022
Sixteen solid years of service and Egil “Eagle” Guilbert joins his teammate Homer Looper for a well deserved retirement. Part of the TB’s Cambridge/East Anglia set the Eagle provided solid graft as a domestique picking up some memorable performances along the way -in particular in his final season in which he was persuaded to stay for an extra year and provided his best ever career performance in a final swansong.
Born in East Anglia, Norwegian mother and English father, developed his Eagle nickname from his English school friends and their difficulty in pronouncing his name properly so simply called him eagle – and the fact he flew like the wind on a bike also helped. A rider that developed a useful niche on the flat sprints but could also turn it on for the occasional climbing sprint. An abrasive character at times and very much schooled under the Liam “don’t give a s@:*” approach but also fiercely loyal to hs friends and teamates.
Eagle was scouted by the TB East Anglia scouting network in S44, similar time to when Looper – a rider well known to Guilbert was spotted and joined the TB academy in time for S44 which has a hard baptism of fire for the young rider with a number of D5 races. Eagle impressed early and signed pro-terms early in S45 and from hereon provided lower down the train LO support for the next two seasons.
Eagle was part of a small contingent of English riders who accompanied TB’s relocation to Ukraine in S47 (he was single but he did not like beetroot) and the change for him seemed to work as he picked up his first place (7th in the Parnu-AUdru-Parnu). However race successes were few and far between and it was not until S52 that Eagle finally burst onto the scene by securing a 3rd place in the Four Rivers Cup in the epic battle between the two Ukrainian teams TB and ArxhangiiliPoznyakax, After this brief glimmer of success Eagle went on to secure a podium in S53 and clocked some good performances at the Sanreizen in S56 but outside of this Guilbert’s role in the team was predominately as LO support.
Admittedaly, Eagle was a little frustrated with his role and requested an early retirement but in an astute move Manager Barry persuaded the Eagle to stay for one more season. It proved to be inspirational move as in Guilbert’s final swansong season, he produced his best ever cycling in his career with a win and two podiums in the Sanreizan, a second in the Sprint Classification and 3 places and reaching a PB rank of 1763rd.
WE are sad to see the Eagle fly the nest, he leaves with some fond memories, A loyal dependable rider and leaves just shy of Vannoy’s all time record for most rides with TB. WE are however pleased that Guilbert will now join the coaching staff.
Key Stats:(*TB records)
Races: 353
Wins: 1
Podiums: 4
Tour GC: S52 3rdCup of the Four Rivers (D7)
S59 2nd Sprint Classification - Tour of Sanreizen
Classics:
S59 71st Budapest Meeting Point (D6)*
Placements: 8
Highest ever Ranking: 1763rd (S59)
International Caps: 0
Best Podium Performance:
1st D7 Fuji to Tokyo #18 (Sanreizen Stage 5) (S59)
Highest ever Divisional Performance: (S54) 43rd D4 Lexington - Laconia #39 (D4)
Best Div4 Performance: As above
Best Div5 Performance: 18thGenève - Genève #43 (S56)
18th Atakent - Toshkent #10 )S58)
Best Div6 Performance: 2nd Grimstrup - Esbjerg #41 (S53)
Best Div7 Performance: As above
Best Div8 Performance: Not competed
Best Div9 Performance: Not competed
Best Div10 Performance: Not competed
Best Div11 Performance: Not competed
Best ND Performance: 16th Kyongsong - Sonbong (U23) #12 (S44)
Ukraine Club Records
None
Best International Performance - N/A
U23 Honours - N/A
Tour Record
MINUTEMAN (D4)
GC N/A
Av.Pos. (S54) 70th
Best Stage Performance: 43rd Lexington - Laconia #39 (S54)
MONTE ROSA TOUR (D5)
GC N/A
Av.Pos. (S57) 86
Best Stage Performance: (S56)18th Genève - Genève #44
FAST ON WHEELS (D5)
GC
Av.Pos. (S52) 80th
Best Stage Performance: (S52) 40th Odense - København #33
STONE CITY (D5)
GC: N/A
Av.Pos. S59 88th
Best Stage Performance: S58 18th Atakent - Toshkent #10
CESKO (D6)
GC: N/A
Av.Pos. S52 86th
Best Stage Performance: S52 63rd Brno - Trnava #4
ORYX (D6)
Best GC: N/A
Best Av. Place: (S59) 96th
Best Stage Perf: (S59) 44th St. Oshakati – Namutoni #18
CUP OF FOUR RIVERS (D7)
GC: (S52) 3rd*
Av.Pos: S52 – 3rd*
Best Stage Performance: (S52) 2nd Tisa - Dunare #2*
SANREIZEN (D7)
GC: N/A
Av.Pos: S59 - 34th
Best Stage performance: (S59) 1st Fuji to Tokyo #4*
(S59) Sprint Classification – 2nd*
Subscribers: 6
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Comments
Cheers pal - had to throw in our epic encounter at the 4 rivers how are things going for the montenegrins?
Goodbye the Eagle
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