56th Amstel Gold Race: 10 April, 2022

[Bonimenier]

Hirschi will do a Gilbert and win all 4 Ardennes Classics.

 

[Lequack]

Hirschi will do a Gilbert and win all 4 Ardennes Classics.

Idk. Ever since he lost the beard/stubble he just hasn't been the same.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Idk. Ever since he lost the beard/stubble he just hasn't been the same.

I didn’t like the beard/stubble but agree it has affected his performance.

 

[tobydawq]

A kermesse. The loop-de-loop race. Okay, it was a more fitting description for last year's race, but it's not completely off the mark.

The point stands. He has been racing more conservative so far in this season, and I see absolutely no reason for that to change tomorrow. Roubaix is the big target.

He did have an 80k solo on a stage in Coppi e Bartali.

Also, this is home race and the other time he rode it, he made a tiny bit of a mark on its history, so I doubt he will start tomorrow with the mindset of just rolling along until the finish.

 

[search]

Everybody will be looking at Alpecin to chase any move with a top ten favorite in there and they will need enough guys to control for MVDP.

on paper, maybe, but on this start list there are maybe like 5 guys who have the quality and stamina to finish off such an attack. And van der Poel can cover those moves on his own, or just attack himself before anyone else even takes it into consideration, as usual.

Of course, this doesn't mean he'll definitely win, but I can't see many scenarios where he really ends up not being in the mix in the end.

 

[Red Rick]

I feel like unlike De Ronde, Amstel does not really have a good zone for tactical/preliminary attacks. But I think MvdP can get himself a good group with a guys like Cosnefroy or Van Baarle and then he shouldn't struggle too hard to control it.

 

[hayneplane]

Quite an odd looking field with the forced calendar swap meaning many teams are fielding rosters closer to their Roubaix line up than their Ardennes classics team due to the proximity to Itzulia.

 

[Lequack]

Quite an odd looking field with the forced calendar swap meaning many teams are fielding rosters closer to their Roubaix line up than their Ardennes classics team due to the proximity to Itzulia.

Amstel Gold Race startlist quality lowest in years
"With the preliminary startlist in place, it seems that the quality of the competitors in the Amstel Gold Race has not profited from the calendar position swop with Paris-Roubaix. The startlist quality stands now at 700, signifcant lower than it has been in the last 15 years. "

Amstel Gold Race startlist quality lowest in years

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Jungle Cycle]

go Vini Rangel(Mov)!! 1st of MANY surprises yet to come..

 

[Sciatic]

Amstel Gold Race startlist quality lowest in years
"With the preliminary startlist in place, it seems that the quality of the competitors in the Amstel Gold Race has not profited from the calendar position swop with Paris-Roubaix. The startlist quality stands now at 700, signifcant lower than it has been in the last 15 years. "

Amstel Gold Race startlist quality lowest in years

www.procyclingstats.com

It’s really too bad it worked out this way. Amstel is an excellent race but already had this “in between” status. It’s not a cobbled classic but isn’t in the Ardennes. It’s longer and often harder than any race except a monument but isn’t a monument. And this year it falls between the two biggest races of the Spring. Hopefully it provides some great racing regardless.

 

[search]

Phrase of the week, from Wawa's pre-race interview: "Amstel is always an open race. Until the finish line, we don't know who wins. And sometimes even after the finish line."

 

[sir fly]

The teams only need to figure out how to exploit MVdP's status of absolute favourite.
Opens up the space for the lower echelons.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

The reigning Tour, Giro and Vuelta winners all missing.
The recent P-N, T-A, PV and Catalunya winners all missing.
Last year's winner missing.
The current LBL, Lombardia, FW, GW, E3, PR, SB champions all missing.
The 2 reigning Olympic Champs and 2 reigning WC are all missing.

Amazing start list, really.

 

[Wvv]

Not that I'm a fan or something, but I can see Matthews finally winning this.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It’s really too bad it worked out this way. Amstel is an excellent race but already had this “in between” status. It’s not a cobbled classic but isn’t in the Ardennes. It’s longer and often harder than any race except a monument but isn’t a monument. And this year it falls between the two biggest races of the Spring. Hopefully it provides some great racing regardless.

Amstel had the perfect spot for itself a week after Roubaix. You had the guys coming out of Basque country for FW/LBL, and you had the guys who after Roubaix thought they could do another one. Recent years they had one of the highest quality startlists because of that.

This one time change is absolutely awful for the quality.

 

[tobydawq]

Amstel had the perfect spot for itself a week after Roubaix. You had the guys coming out of Basque country for FW/LBL, and you had the guys who after Roubaix thought they could do another one. Recent years they had one of the highest quality startlists because of that.

This one time change is absolutely awful for the quality.

Yeah, I just went back through the years on PCS where you can see the ranking of the races based on startlist quality*. Amstel was usually around 5th-8th each year with a score of approximately 1050 (which also makes it ludicrous when people try flaming it for being a small, Dutch beer crit). This year it has a score of 683 and will be around number 20.



*The quality score of a startlist is computed as follows. For each rider on the startlist the position on the PCS ranking on the date of the start of the race is computed. For a top-10 position 50 points are awarded, top-25 position 35 points and on according to this scheme (top10: 50, top25: 35, top50: 20, top100: 10, top200: 5, top500: 2, top1000: 1).

 

[Pantani_lives]

In Belgium they would have postponed the elections.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Schelling in the breakaway, imo a bit of a waste...

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Johan Jacobs has really developed a great ability of getting into the early breakaway.

 

[Wvv]

In Belgium they would have postponed the elections.

Might even be the case. De Ronde is our true national holiday.

 

[search]

Pidcock was sick during the week, according to his pre-race interview. Same for Ayuso, based on what Hirschi said

 

[Salvarani]

Schelling in the breakaway, imo a bit of a waste...

Has not had the best season so far.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

You can watch the women's race from 12 o'clock CEST through this link https://l1.nl/live-l1-tv/
or on NOS.nl in the Netherlands/with VPN.

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

Pidcock was sick during the week, according to his pre-race interview. Same for Ayuso, based on what Hirschi said

defending champion Pidcock was sick during the ...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He did have an 80k solo on a stage in Coppi e Bartali.

Also, this is home race and the other time he rode it, he made a tiny bit of a mark on its history, so I doubt he will start tomorrow with the mindset of just rolling along until the finish.

it wasn't a 80k solo. He bridged to an early break. And it was meant as a training effort to simulate a RVV finale (which did open up pretty early as usual).

He has been racing more defensively in both RVV and MSR. Although in RVV he didn't have much choice... Pogacar just went berserk