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56th Amstel Gold Race: 10 April, 2022

One week after a spectacular Tour of Flanders everyone is wondering who will win in France. However this isn't the place to discuss politics, so we'll turn our eyes to the Netherlands instead. The hilly classic in Limburg is younger than some others, but it has a lot of big winners. Over a distance of 254 km the riders will take on no less than thirty-three climbs, including three times the Cauberg and twice the Bemelerberg. The steepest are the Kruisberg, the Eyserbosweg and the Keutenberg. The finish is on the Rijksweg in Valkenburg.

amstel-gold-race-2022-result-profile-dfc2fdc7cd.jpg


Recent winners:
2012 Enrico Gasparotto
2013 Roman Kreuziger
2014 Philippe Gilbert
2015 Michal Kwiatkowski
2016 Enrico Gasparotto
2017 Philippe Gilbert
2018 Michael Valgren
2019 Mathieu van der Poel
2020 /
2021 Wout van Aert

Multiple winners:
5x Jan Raas
4s Philippe Gilbert

The women's race will be held for the eighth time. For the first time they will receive equal prize money. They will ride 128 km over nineteen hills. Their finish is expected just after 14 PM.

Previous winners:
2021 Marianne Vos
2019 Katarzyna Niewiadoma
2018 Chantal Blaak
2017 Anna van der Breggen
2003 Nicole Cooke
2002 Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel
2001 Debby Mansveld

There's gold in them thar hills!
 
It's been three years since we've had a real Amstel Gold Race, really looking forward to this one. With Van Aert having caught Covid, Pogacar taking a break and there being an overlap with Itzulia, the field is a bit weaker than usual (thanks, Macron), so we'll have to hope Van der Poel doesn't just destroy everyone else - the tense finales after the real hills are done are always the best thing about this route.
 
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Itzulia's new date and the disease flowing around the peloton must mean that this is the worst start list for this race since forever.

Van der Poel heavy favourite, closest rivals must be Pidcock, Hirschi, Madouas, Cosnefroy, Matthews, Søren Kragh, Benoot and most of the Bahrain team.

And the first two you mention (probably his closest rivals?) are coming back from illness/injury, and Soren kragh apparently missed RVV due to illness? Bettiol looked a little bit more like his old self until the final 50K at Flanders. Maybe with a less challenging course and competition he could do something again.

But the only way this looks like a race for victory is MVDP having a mechanical. Such a shame for one of my favourite races.
 
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