"Gasparotto wins Amstel Stunner" says the headline on cyclingnews. Hmmm, I thought it was a rather dull race really until right at the very very end.
Flanders and Roubaix are far superior races - much more intensity and riders attacking and going at each other a lot more. Can you imagine a rider as strong on an Amstel course as Boonen is on cobbles and a sprint lauching an attack 55km out? Amstel appears to be 30-odd hills where nobody big even tries attacking for at least 28 of them. It's a glorified sprint finish really. Well done to Freire for trying to make the race more interesting, he deserved the win, but surely I'm not alone in getting tired of seeing this race just ending up as a bunch sprint up a hill? The irony is the field was broken up more back in the days when it didn't finish atop the Cauberg - I think only one of the 6 editions before the route switch ended with a large group getting to the finishing section together (Zabel). Most riders seem to just be willing to sit there and wait for the Cauberg - exactly the same at Fleche Wallonne with the Mur de Huy. Even those who must know they have zero chance of winning a sprint up it. Thankfully at Liege the racing seems to step up to a better level and riders have a go earlier.
There are some great little roads and climbs around that area, but it just seems to me that the racing isn't living up to its potential and I think the summit finish has something to do with it. Let's see if the Worlds (which ends after the Cauberg, not on it) can produce anything more exciting.
Good effort by Gasparotto, though.
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