Huge crowds, free-flowing beer, grand tour winners taking on one day classics specialists and a very tricky course make the Amstel a special race. The 50th edition looks like it’s made for Philippe Gilbert. Who can stop him from a fourth win this Sunday?
The Amstel Gold Race is a race of repetition. Repeat enough small climbs and you get a total vertical gain close to an Alpine stage of the Tour de France. The Cauberg is climbed repeatedly. And today Philippe Gilbert repeated exactly the same move that won him the world championship road race in 2012. On the last time up the Cauberg he attacked hard on the inside of the bend, the steepest part of the climb and immediately distanced everyone else and over the top he had a tailwind to help speed him to the finish line.
A heavy week with the recent news dominated by a triathlete. But the racing goes on and so here’s a mention of actual sport for balance. Earlier today Andre Greipel outsprinted Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw in Stage 2 of the Ster ZLM Tour in the Netherlands. Look closely and you can see team mate Greg Henderson celebrate. Cavendish might have finished second but he is now in the overall lead after finishing third yesterday.
A thrilling finale with tension all the way to the final metres. Philippe Gilbert has eased up and Oscar Freire has been caught. Now Jelle Vanendert and Peter Sagan sprint for the line but behind them Enrico Gasparotto of Astana starts to accelerate. The Italian tracked the leaders up the final climb and timed his sprint to perfection to surge past in the last 20 metres. This was the moment the race was won.
Giant crowds, 25 different climbs and a brewery as race sponsor, what’s not to like about the Amstel Gold Race?
That said this is a different race to the events we’ve seen in recent weeks. It is the most modern of the spring classics thanks to its relative youth as an event on the calendar but also one defined by suburban roads rather than medieval farm tracks. It also marks a change in the season where grand tour contenders compete alongside one day specialists.
Dutch team Project 1t4i will unveil its new sponsor and jersey later today. Here’s a sneak peak of the jersey ahead of the launch…
In the fifth and final part of the highlights of the year I’ve realised one thing. 2011 has been such a good year that you cannot take five highlights of the year because there have been so many more. So I’m going to cheat in this final look at the best moments of the year with five more moments from the year.
The biggest one day bike race in the Netherlands takes place on Sunday. It’s always an exciting race and if you want a preview, well the Pavé guys will probably do it better soon. Instead I thought I’d take a side look at the race, to review the geography of the event. Plus a quick mention of what Amstel is, in case you don’t know.
As part of the series on the 1980s, here are five items related to Dutch cycling. Whether it’s a freak result or careful planning I don’t know but one by one all three Grand Tours start in Holland. Last year’s Vuelta started in Assen, the upcoming Giro opens in Amsterdam and the Tour prologue will … Read more