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52nd Amstel Gold Race - April 16 - 261km

Page 5 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Feb 21, 2017
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Breh said:
CCC had their bikes stolen last night :(

One would think trying to offload those flouro-orange and black bikes might be a bit conspicuous. The amount of security makes the incident pretty suspicious:

"It happened on a guarded parking lot in front of our hotel in Valkenburg," directeur sportif Piotr Wadecki said in a press release on Friday afternoon. "All 18 bikes and spare wheels were stolen, despite the fact that the truck was equipped with car alarm and the door was blocked by another team car, parked right in front of it. We don't know how the burglars managed to go around the security system. Currently we are working on bringing training bikes to the Netherlands, so the riders can race on Sunday."

The lot it was in was apparently locked and guarded as well.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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jaylew said:
El Pistolero said:
StryderHells said:
El Pistolero said:
Honestly, besides Movistar, not a single team should want an uphill sprint on Mur de Huy. But as this is only a prep race no one's going to bother doing something about it. Does anyone care about FW? I don't think so, besides Valverde. Otherwise they'd try to win it.

The amount of people that rate this race high and think it should stay the same way just because they're Valverde fans is astonishing.
I think you're getting confused with your desire to say anything to belittle the achievements of riders you don't like and to do the opposite for the ones you do.

I like Gilbert and he won FW, so your argument makes little sense. It's simply a boring race. The strongest always wins, that's boring. I like cycling because it's so unpredictable and many scenarios are possible. You don't only need to be strong, but smart and even lucky. That's what makes the other Monuments so great.

A classic is 240 km+ and takes place during the weekend. FW has been turned into a semi-classic. Those are facts. Otherwise we can start calling the Scheldeprijs a classic as well... Don't they call it the "unofficial WC of sprinters"? Fans who hate on the Scheldeprijs, but love FW are hypocrites.
 
Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
jaylew said:
El Pistolero said:
StryderHells said:
El Pistolero said:
Honestly, besides Movistar, not a single team should want an uphill sprint on Mur de Huy. But as this is only a prep race no one's going to bother doing something about it. Does anyone care about FW? I don't think so, besides Valverde. Otherwise they'd try to win it.

The amount of people that rate this race high and think it should stay the same way just because they're Valverde fans is astonishing.
I think you're getting confused with your desire to say anything to belittle the achievements of riders you don't like and to do the opposite for the ones you do.

I like Gilbert and he won FW, so your argument makes little sense. It's simply a boring race. The strongest always wins, that's boring. I like cycling because it's so unpredictable and many scenarios are possible. You don't only need to be strong, but smart and even lucky. That's what makes the other Monuments so great.

A classic is 240 km+ and takes place during the weekend. FW has been turned into a semi-classic.Those are facts. Otherwise we can start calling the Scheldeprijs a classic as well... Don't they call it the "unofficial WC of sprinters"? Fans who hate on the Scheldeprijs, but love FW are hypocrites.
Those are not at all facts

I like Gilbert and he won FW, so your argument makes little sense.
You're seriously going to try this? So transparent.
 
Bling today: I want to ride more aggressively and attack more. This is something I wasnt allowed to do when I was at Orica where I was always told to follow wheels and wait for the sprint, but that doesnt actually suit me.

Expect the black hole of entertainment aka Gerro to be glued to his whee on sunday.
 
It's good that Il Lombardia wasn't 1 kilometre shorter last year then. Or it wouldn't have been a classic (just last year that is). Or you would have had to change your factual criteria to another set of factual criteria.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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tobydawq said:
It's good that Il Lombardia wasn't 1 kilometre shorter last year then. Or it wouldn't have been a classic (just last year that is). Or you would have had to change your factual criteria to another set of factual criteria.

There's a reason why they don't go under that.

That's the length it takes to seperate the men from the boys.
 
Pretty excited about the race. The non-sprinters HAVE to attack from far and some guys who are not at all afraid to do so, happen to be in superb shape (Greg, Phil and Ollie). Throw guys like Kawasaki and Wellens into the mix as well and there's hope to have a good race.
 
True. If the attackers want to win they have to attack far far out. Between Loorberg and Keutenberg, there are 6 small, steep climbs.. they are perfect ramps for attacks. The Wellens, GVA, Kwai and Gilbert-types could get a giant gap if they worked together.

Cauberg is overrated and not as hard as people think.
 
Bummer of a course but the race will be great regardless. Year to date, it's the best one racing-wise in a long time, so why would it change? But the course change sucks cul, in my French opinion.

I hope that we get the first of several Valverde-Gilbert showdowns...it could be funny...
 
Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
jaylew said:
El Pistolero said:
StryderHells said:
El Pistolero said:
Honestly, besides Movistar, not a single team should want an uphill sprint on Mur de Huy. But as this is only a prep race no one's going to bother doing something about it. Does anyone care about FW? I don't think so, besides Valverde. Otherwise they'd try to win it.

The amount of people that rate this race high and think it should stay the same way just because they're Valverde fans is astonishing.
I think you're getting confused with your desire to say anything to belittle the achievements of riders you don't like and to do the opposite for the ones you do.

I like Gilbert and he won FW, so your argument makes little sense. It's simply a boring race. The strongest always wins, that's boring. I like cycling because it's so unpredictable and many scenarios are possible. You don't only need to be strong, but smart and even lucky. That's what makes the other Monuments so great.

A classic is 240 km+ and takes place during the weekend. FW has been turned into a semi-classic. Those are facts. Otherwise we can start calling the Scheldeprijs a classic as well... Don't they call it the "unofficial WC of sprinters"? Fans who hate on the Scheldeprijs, but love FW are hypocrites.

Let's face it , it's been the same bunch of riders dominating in the Fleche for many years. A small group of riders and rarely an upset winner.
 
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klintE said:
Where you put him next to Phil and Greg

Yeah, as a rider "who's not afraid to attack from far and is in superb shape". Doesn't mean I think he's a huge favourite to actually win, but rather someone who could put his stamp on the race and perhaps get a nice result in the process.