51st Amstel Gold Race, 249km - 17/04/16

[jens_attacks]

honestly - who foresaw Gasparoto as winner of AGR at all?

glad he did win though

I did.

Very glad for both gaspa and valgren.
Yes the route need to be changed back

Any from the forum on cauberg or the tradition was lost?

 

[Red Rick]

honestly - who foresaw Gasparoto as winner of AGR at all?

glad he did win though

I did.

Very glad for both gaspa and valgren.
Yes the route need to be changed back

Any from the forum on cauberg or the tradition was lost?

Didn't you hear? D_T and I were spotted doing a rain dance

 

[jens_attacks]

Screenshot!

What about ryo?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

With the organisers talking about having a women's race next year, the big question will be whether Ryo boycotts it as a result, or if he's just going to stand and hurl abuse at them for not climbing the Cauberg as fast as Gilbert in 2012.

 

[LaFlorecita]

honestly - who foresaw Gasparoto as winner of AGR at all?

glad he did win though

I and someone else did in a prediction game on another forum bragging rights

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

It was very obvious when OGE had four riders in a line in front of the peloton but yet Gerrans was at the back of the peloton nowhere near his teammates. And Matthews and Gerrans will ride the TDF together when OGE will be hunting stage victories.

Whilst I agree that OGE management SHOULD have spelt out that Matthews was "the man" for today; it's actually plain sense for your option B not to be riding in close proximity to option A so as to not have both wiped out by the one accident.

Matthews DOES go off contract at the end of this year and whilst the money from other teams may be comparable or better; its hard to see where else he will have the "precedence" that he has at OGE. As for the Gerrans situation; it will be interesting to see if anything is said after this race but Gerrans goes off contract at the end of 2017 and it may well be that he calls it quits given his age.

There will be lots if rider movement in 2017 so wait and see what happens. Reckon Matthews is a touch off his 2015 form and he doesn't race enough.

Interesting that Chavez is not riding Romania or Yorkshire. So he will go into the Giro with around 10 race days and questionable form.

It's also interesting that OGE is getting S.Yates to ride for GC and not Adam. I suspect one will be moved on.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Anyone surprised Gerrans didnt lift a finger after Cauberg ?

WHO WOULDVE GUESSED

No surprise,the guys wheelsucks in every single small Aussie Crit.

 

[trevim]

Nice one from Valgren! The talent looked to be there but at one point you really have to prove and it was about time Michael did it. I'm not expecting anything from him in the next Ardennes races (FW is a closed race and Liége is probably too hard), we'll see where he can get some more results.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I feared it would be this boring...

Well props to Wellens for at least trying something.
This race needs to go to the old course, or fear going back to 1.HC and suffer the same fate as Paris Tours.
You can say a lot for the old course and the old finish, but at least it still had some household top 10 results.

Now this race can be confused with any small Italian 1.1 race where it ends in a sprint just after a hill.

Maybe they can consider switching AGR with Paschi Eroica and let thet be the start of the 'Hill' tripple, if they do not change this course..

 

[Kwibus]

Yes the course needs to change, but tbh I didn't find the racing too boring today. It's mostly frustating though to see so many teams unwilling to risk anything.
I do get the feeling that everyone was just completely empty near the finish. A lot of riders got dropped, but barely anyone managed to get off the front. Only Wellens made a nice move, but instead of other teams without a Matthews or Gerrans try to join his attack they start riding at the front... helping...???

I think they need to change the final to the one before this final, except keep the 1.5km after the Cauberg. They also need to change the first 100-120km to a 'flat' course. With about 100km to go the course needs start getting hard and nervous.
I'm not 100% sure this works since it could as well mean that the bunch will only be bigger at the bottom of the Cauberg (which was greatly reduced this time), but it could also mean the attackers have more punch left for an attack. Maybe bigger riders dare to attack from further out if they still feel good.

Big chance they will only think: "oh boy I still feel great, let's wait for the Cauberg!!"

That's why the biggest solution is: Finish atleast 10km after the last climb.

 

[Kwibus]

Also this overreacting regarding not worthy of WT is silly. There are lots of races not worthy of WT.

WT doesn't mean it's a top race.. unfortunately.

Also a lot of big riders try and win this and it's not like they don't try. (well... besides the waiting, but that happens in all Ardennes races)

 

[Red Rick]

I think the problem is that so many riders are so close to each other in level. The climbs aren't long enough to make the difference between good or great riders, but they're numerous enough to tire everyone. So I guess we should do the following

Make the first 100km easier
Make the part from 50-20km from the race as hard as possible
Get rid of the extra loop anyway
Finish at least 5km after the last hill. The 2km loop now just sucks, people wait even longer on the Cauberg itself. Maybe even get rid of Cauberg as last hill entirely

6 man teams. Can't be repeated enough, even though it's not specific to the AGR

 

[del1962]

honestly - who foresaw Gasparoto as winner of AGR at all?

glad he did win though

I and someone else did in a prediction game on another forum bragging rights

Forgot to put my predictions in, anyway would not have chosen any of top 5 so that ok

 

[LaFlorecita]

Forgot to put my predictions in, anyway would not have chosen any of top 5 so that ok

Fleche next

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

Also this overreacting regarding not worthy of WT is silly. There are lots of races not worthy of WT.

Eneco Tour tops my list.

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

Also this overreacting regarding not worthy of WT is silly. There are lots of races not worthy of WT.

Eneco Tour tops my list.

Eneco was one of the best stage races in the WT in the last 3 or 4 years.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

Eneco was one of the best stage races in the WT in the last 3 or 4 years.

If it were any good they wouldn't need silly gimmicks like the "golden kilometre".

 

[roundabout]

Re:

I think the problem is that so many riders are so close to each other in level. The climbs aren't long enough to make the difference between good or great riders, but they're numerous enough to tire everyone. So I guess we should do the following

Make the first 100km easier
Make the part from 50-20km from the race as hard as possible
Get rid of the extra loop anyway
Finish at least 5km after the last hill. The 2km loop now just sucks, people wait even longer on the Cauberg itself. Maybe even get rid of Cauberg as last hill entirely

6 man teams. Can't be repeated enough, even though it's not specific to the AGR

Yes, get rid of Cauberg. Or at least work on changing the last 20k or so.

It seems right now that the last lap is too easy for any chase to keep a reasonable gap while the Cauberg is hard enough for an attacker to lose considerable time to people who waited for it.

How Kreuziger pulled his win off remains a mystery.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Eneco was one of the best stage races in the WT in the last 3 or 4 years.

If it were any good they wouldn't need silly gimmicks like the "golden kilometre".

Dude, did you even watch the race? Because I can hardly believe someone who saw the stage Wellens won, would say this is a bad race.
And what do you mean with "silly gimmicks like the golden kilometer". This silly gimmick caused some very interesting situations and only because it is something different and new that doesnt mean it is bad.

 

[Kokoso]

Re: Re:

I think the problem is that so many riders are so close to each other in level. The climbs aren't long enough to make the difference between good or great riders, but they're numerous enough to tire everyone. So I guess we should do the following

Make the first 100km easier
Make the part from 50-20km from the race as hard as possible
Get rid of the extra loop anyway
Finish at least 5km after the last hill. The 2km loop now just sucks, people wait even longer on the Cauberg itself. Maybe even get rid of Cauberg as last hill entirely

6 man teams. Can't be repeated enough, even though it's not specific to the AGR

Yes, get rid of Cauberg. Or at least work on changing the last 20k or so.

It seems right now that the last lap is too easy for any chase to keep a reasonable gap while the Cauberg is hard enough for an attacker to lose considerable time to people who waited for it.

How Kreuziger pulled his win off remains a mystery.

Well if you had more guys in attack taking turns at front maybe there would be chance. Kreuziger had some advantage when he attacked of groups of attackers, had bigger advantage than Wellens and peloton wasn't going so hard back then. Plus he was really good TTer back in 2013. Plus maybe headwind, nice weather (good for Kreuziger)...

 

[TMP402]

honestly - who foresaw Gasparoto as winner of AGR at all?

glad he did win though

I and someone else did in a prediction game on another forum bragging rights

Forgot to put my predictions in, anyway would not have chosen any of top 5 so that ok

I got Coquard but he didn't podium Very long odds too.

 

[SafeBet]

This is last year Sonny Colbrelli rides for a pct team I hope. It remains a mystery why a team like Lottonl went after Battaglin instead of him.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

This is last year Sonny Colbrelli rides for a pct team I hope. It remains a mystery why a team like Lottonl went after Battaglin instead of him.

Don't you refer to Enrico like that!

Serious though, he probably saw a red flag in Van Asbroeck. Maybe Lotto did go after him and he refused.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Also this overreacting regarding not worthy of WT is silly. There are lots of races not worthy of WT.

Eneco Tour tops my list.

While it was crap in the past I think last 3 years were really good. It has a lot of diversity to offer and there was quite a lot of good racing. Also from far out, so I don't agree at all.

 

[Kwibus]

6 man teams are always good, for any race.