Amstel Gold Race 2023, one day classic, April 16 (men's)

[Cookster15]

Warm-up race befor the big one, L-B-L. It seems to be a formula that has worked pretty good for him so far. Race one or a couple of races, before the main objective.

He might win, but maybe not. Either way, it would be a good race to add to his already great palmares.

Agree and well put. I even remember Lance used to talk up Amstel back in his heyday. It is one of the most prestigious classics and yes a good warm up for LBL.

 

[Lequack]

Not enough cobbles for Pog.

 

[search]

Maybe Pog doesn‘t want to win because he will receive an unhealthily large beer if he takes the win?

MvdP rejected it in 2019, but not sure a foreigner is allowed to do so as well

 

[Valv.Piti]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

 

[Peyroteo94]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

Liege of course. Monuments is all that matters. However, I love races from the old World Cup and Amstel was a race included in the World Cup. I couldn't care less about Fleche but of course when some rider has a chance of winning all 3 races (Rebellin or Gilbert), I am thrilled to see all 3 races. But if I look only to Fleche, I just remember it is only a Scheldeprijs for climbers.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Tomorrow, we can have rain. Fingers crossed for no bad crashes

 

[Nick2413]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

Still Liege by a lot. But he does seem to like branching out for his collection.

 

[Poursuivant]

I’m sick of Pog dominating races, I’ll be sick of Vingo if he wins the tour this year, I’m sick of Roglic’s fans and I’ll be sick of Remco if he becomes the dominant rider as expected.

Hope you feel better soon topcat, thoughts and prayers, that’s a lot of sickness

 

[proffate]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

If it were me, I'd want to win every prestigious race at least once before I start racking up 3, 4 or 5 iterations of the same race.

 

[SHAD0W93]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

I’d want a monument honestly to get 5 and keep on moving up the list. I can always come back later and focus exclusively on Amstel and Fleche if I wanted them in my trophy cabinet. Pogacar could get close to Merckx’s GT and monument win record if things go his way.

 

[Netserk]

I think it’s roughly equal. The Ardennes wins of Di Luca is thus equivalent to those of Bettini.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Since last WC (looong time ago), Pogi won 6 out of 9 races (placing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in those he lost) and won 6 out of 11 individual stages, totaling 12 out of 20 possible wins (60%) and 15 top4 places (75%). Maybe finally it's time for some weaker race and being dropped on hills by weaklings? (or maybe FW is better for that) Even Teddy may get bored by this winning routine.

 

[Aimar16]

The race is likely to be over before we get a live picture

 

[Netserk]

The race is likely to be over before we get a live picture

When was the last time a crucial move happened before Gulperberg?

 

[Aimar16]

When was the last time a crucial move happened before Gulperberg?

When was the last time Pog raced here?

 

[tobydawq]

Liege of course. Monuments is all that matters. However, I love races from the old World Cup and Amstel was a race included in the World Cup. I couldn't care less about Fleche but of course when some rider has a chance of winning all 3 races (Rebellin or Gilbert), I am thrilled to see all 3 races. But if I look only to Fleche, I just remember it is only a Scheldeprijs for climbers.

Unless the winner of Amstel doesn't participate in FW, there will always be a rider who has the chance of winning all three when FW is on.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Acting like Amstel and Fleche are some mickey mouse races is quite disrespectful I think. I don't really know what I'd want, I consider the other Ardennes races some of the biggest one day races outside the monuments and having all three of them counts for a lot to me. Especially if you can pull off the mythical triple, and thats not that unrealistic. I think even Red Rick wouldn't state something like "Monuments is all that matters". And Amstel maybe is the 6th biggest one day races after the monuments?

Right now, we don't really have the big Ardennes specialists and the crosser don't race them, but in some eras these races are extremely contested and hard to win. That might be different this year.. but look at Gilbert, some of the first you think about is him dominating Cauberg (also due to his WC win ofc) and Valverde, you think about him dominating Mur de Huy.

 

[Red Rick]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

Still Liege in my opinion. It's not like he has 5 of those already and none of the other Ardennes races.

But that's me, I can't speak for Pog. I'm surprised to see him on the list for all 3 this week cause his schedule has been super hard already.

 

[Lequack]

Tom is loitering around

 

[Red Rick]

Acting like Amstel and Fleche are some mickey mouse races is quite disrespectful I think. I don't really know what I'd want, I consider the other Ardennes races some of the biggest one day races outside the monuments and having all three of them counts for a lot to me. Especially if you can pull off the mythical triple, and thats not that unrealistic. I think even Red Rick wouldn't state something like "Monuments is all that matters". And Amstel maybe is the 6th biggest one day races after the monuments?

Right now, we don't really have the big Ardennes specialists and the crosser don't race them, but in some eras these races are extremely contested and hard to win. That might be different this year.. but look at Gilbert, some of the first you think about is him dominating Cauberg (also due to his WC win ofc) and Valverde, you think about him dominating Mur de Huy.

I don't think they're mickey mouse races, I would put Amstel up there with GW, probably slightly below Strade Bianche now. It's just different from the week that precedes it where you have 2 monuments in 8 days, and both these monuments tend to simply be more hyped than Liege.

Fleche and Liege are in a weird spot with the 3 best Ardennes riders also being 3 of the 4 best GC riders in the world. Amstel is in a weird spot cause it's not actually that well suited to the 2nd line of contenders for FW and Liege, so it kinda doesn't blend that well but whatever. I do like the change of route in AGR a lot.

To me the fact that Van Aert and Van der Poel are skipping Amstel are quite telling however that its status is quite a bit below the monuments. Yeah both have ticked it off their bucket list, but both prefer to rest instead of trying to win a 2nd one a week after absolutely dominating Paris-Roubaix.

But in a way I think these hypotheticals of "would you rather win x or y+z" are very disingenuous because I'm pretty sure any rider would absolutely love to win Amstel or Fleche, and you never get to make this weird choice of designing your own palmares like it's an RPG.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

If youre Pogacar, would you rather win Amstel + Fleche or Liege? I know its a monument and all, but getting some other big classics on your palmares should also count for something.

If I were Pogacar, I'd wonder what the word 'or' is doing in such a question.

 

[Lequack]

It's a Pog kind of weather

https://twitter.com/x/status/1647522110854627330

View: https://twitter.com/1Lsport/status/1647522110854627330?s=20

 

[search]

Breakaway from the gun: Heinschke, Vanhoof, Vercher, Ludvigsson, Fedeli, Urianstad, Vacek

Will they get over oder under 15 minutes?

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Breakaways have been held on a very short leash recently, so I‘d guess 8 minutes.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Tom is loitering around

Tom came especially to cheer for the miner.