Nothing is as hard as being the all-out favorite, on home soil, in the greatest two races of your region. Defeat is never so painful - and victory never so desired. Such a challenge faced Philippe Gilbert, Belgium's new King of the Classics, this spring on the narrow, verdant, tree lined hills and lungburstingly painful ascents of Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne Liege. For all he had trained countless times on the roads of Fleche Wallone, Gilbert believed- and repeatedly said he was no favorite. The dreaded Mur de Huy climb, touching 30 percent on the inside of its steepest corners, were just too hard.Then at the even more daunting challenge of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Gilbert was not just the rider to beat. With a second stunning victory in Amstel Gold Race, Holland's top one-day race, already in his saddlebag, success would propel Gilbert, the first Belgian ever to do so, to a record-breaking Grand Slam win in the Ardennes Classics. Not even all-time great Eddy Merckx has managed that. But his rivals, in particular the fearsome duo of the Schleck brothers, will stop at almost nothing to ensure Gilbert cannot get there. So can he seize the right moment - perhaps the only one - to guarantee his place in the history books? Commentary by Liggett & Sherwen. Approx. 240 min.