46th Amstel Gold Race (The maze) - Sunday April 17, 2011

[Anonymous]

Cool. Although... who wrote the introduction to the race? It's hardly complimentary.

yeh, needs to be updated a bit. Its taken me the best part of the day to do that bloody profile.

 

[The Hitch]

yeh, needs to be updated a bit. Its taken me the best part of the day to do that bloody profile.

A day. Holy ****. Its times like this that i feel it wont do any harm to reiterate that there are a lot of us who appreciate it.

 

[Anonymous]

A day. Holy ****. Its times like this that i feel it wont do any harm to reiterate that there are a lot of us who appreciate it.

Well i started last night, then redrew the profile myself, then messed it up. Probably about an hours work if i hadnt made such a pigs ear of it.

 

[El Pistolero]

Cool. Although... who wrote the introduction to the race? It's hardly complimentary.


Gilbert can't win this race solo.

If Gilbert is in a 3 man group at the Cauberg, he's going to finish solo

 

[FignonLeGrand]

History will agree with what i tell it to agree (with).

So to put it another way, its been done before.

Moreover a statement like " Only x number of climbers have won Paris Tours" can be used to assess somebodies chances at a race. Somebodies physical abilities count as a variable.

Something like " Only x ammount of riders who have won Vuelta a Pais Vasco own a dog/ were born with blonde hair/ were named John", not so much.

Saying that only so many riders have been able to repeat it does not take away from Gilberts chances. his chances are the same as they would be had he not won last year. Had the Icelandic volcano prevented him from making it to Holland, or for that matter had said volcano failed to prevent Pitis owner (trying to link my points) from making it his chances would be exactly the same as they are now.

Gilberts victory last year was very dominant. If he comes to this edition significantly weaker and fails to take home the victory, it will not be because of any Amstel curse which discriminates against former winners.

Not sure he has the same chance as last year. Having number one on his back is far more likely to get him marked out of it, so winning last year might have an influence.

But actually I dont think he has got it right now, id like to see him win cos he usually does it with style but he doesnt seem to be popping

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Gilbert can win in a small group, solo and in a peloton sprint. So, that works in his favour.

I don't see Gilbert winning solo outside Lombardy. Can't seem to hold any sort of gap on the flat or downhill

 

[luckyboy]

Either Gilbert or Cunego to win this.

Hopefully Cunego so that Gilbert gets Luik.

 

[El Pistolero]

I don't see Gilbert winning solo outside Lombardy. Can't seem to hold any sort of gap on the flat or downhill

There's flat in Lombardia as well.

Never mind he actually won Lombardia on the downhill. He's a better descender than a lot of cyclists that are called "great" descenders.

And he did a 50km solo in the Omloop. And he won the "sprinters" classic twice. And he held off a raging peloton in the Giro in the final km once on a pretty flat part.

Luckily AGR is hilly with narrow roads and twists, so it doesn't even matter.

 

[greenedge]

Degenkolb, Devolder, Devenyns, Terpstra, Taäramae, Docker and Kadri are absolutely no contenders. Anton is not starting (Samuel Sanchez is, but he does not like this race, I guess he won't come close).

As for the teams: Katusha, Lampre and Astana will have several cards to play with. Ivanov will be very motivated; Iglinskiy and Gasparotto should be approaching top form by now. Grega Bole and Gavazzi should be great helpers for Cunego.

Agree with the katusha/ Lampre/ Astana. Sry for the anton it said he was on startlist provided. Degenkolb might not be able to win now but in future he could evolve. Kadri has been aggressive but you're right, his team only do it because they have too. I think the trio of Belgium are threats, devolder will be smarting after Roubaix. Taaramae probs not too as he is not focusing on it but he has the abillity too. Don't discount Docker as well, he's young and was impressive in Flanders and Roubaix on a relatively unknown team.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Di Luca looked real, REAL bad in Pais Vasco, I don't know why you guys are rating him.

Him and Cunego haven't looked too sharp lately, but I thought the same about Ballan. Sure, he didn't win anything, but he put himself out there.

Hesjedal is sounding a little underrated, so I'll make him my top pick. I want to fill out my top 5, but I might obviate my north-american bias

 

[luckyboy]

Don't discount Docker as well, he's young and was impressive in Flanders and Roubaix on a relatively unknown team.

Him and Cunego haven't looked too sharp lately

Cunego just won the Giro dell'Appenino in a group of 7 including 4 Androni riders.

 

[The Hitch]

Dude, did you see Cunego on Sunday? It was Cancellara stuff

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Cunego just won the Giro dell'Appenino in a group of 7 including 4 Androni riders.

Can I blame cobble induced tunnel vision?

EDIT: Watched the last few km's of the race on youtube to fully taste my crow. Sharp is the exact word I would use to describe what I saw.

 

[Ferminal]

Ive added interactive profiles to our page at Tsf (cant post these as they are in the forum)
http://teamskyfans.com/amstelgold.html

Click on a part of the profile image for detailed profiles for most of the climbs. (or if you have an extension for firefox or opera installed it shows the profiles when you mouse over the climbs)

Thanks for this, better than the official profile.

I just hope the other teams don't help Lotto bring it back for a sprint.

 

[Ryaguas]

Him and Cunego haven't looked too sharp lately, but I thought the same about Ballan. Sure, he didn't win anything, but he put himself out there.

Hesjedal is sounding a little underrated, so I'll make him my top pick. I want to fill out my top 5, but I might obviate my north-american bias

Dude, did you see Cunego on Sunday? It was Cancellara stuff

Damn it... I wanted to answer that... Ninjaed by Hitch...

 

[xmoonx]

Any which way:
Cunego
Gilbert
Hesjedal

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ive added interactive profiles to our page at Tsf (cant post these as they are in the forum)
http://teamskyfans.com/amstelgold.html

Click on a part of the profile image for detailed profiles for most of the climbs. (or if you have an extension for firefox or opera installed it shows the profiles when you mouse over the climbs)

The worst part about the official profile is they only name the official 31 (or 32?) climbs. While the real number is 45 climbs, they just don't even name the shorter 600/700m ones. Hell, they even completely 'forget' about a 2,5km climb somewhere in the middle of the race.
It's that kind of 'suprises' which I also found in the tour version which I rode several times.

 

[beer_thirty]

Any which way:
Cunego
Gilbert
Hesjedal

I would really love to see Cunego win this; rides with a lot of heart and looks strong at the moment. I just get the feeling Gilbert isn't quite as good as last year, though I'm a big fan. The finish does suit him like no other classic, though, so maybe he's got enough for AG and maybe not enough for LBL. Hard to say til the day arrives.

I like the above, in that order.

 

[dlwssonic]

You gotta say wow when you look at the leopark trek line up.

 

[maltiv]

Funny that no one has mentioned Sagan yet (I think), whilst a lot of people were naming him as an outsider for P-R, RVV and M-SR. Surely, this race suits him a lot better. Probably a little too long for him but he's pretty much the only guy I can imagine beating Gilbert in the sprint.

 

[mulletCobra]

Dude, did you see Cunego on Sunday? It was Cancellara stuff

Anyone have video of this?

 

[Damiano]

Anyone have video of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IE_SXU8XA

 

[mulletCobra]

Funny that no one has mentioned Sagan yet (I think), whilst a lot of people were naming him as an outsider for P-R, RVV and M-SR. Surely, this race suits him a lot better. Probably a little too long for him but he's pretty much the only guy I can imagine beating Gilbert in the sprint.

If this was the tour of california he'd be on my fantasy team.

 

[mulletCobra]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IE_SXU8XA

Thank you

 

[TeoSheva]

does anybody consider Nuyens a probably top3?