Amstel Gold Race 2025, one day classic, April 20 (men's)

[Lequack]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLoA66Uvq7Y

 

[peterfin]

I am curious to see what Nys does. If the big names counter each other and he hangs on, he will kill them on the Cauberg.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I am curious to see what Nys does. If the big names counter each other and he hangs on, he will kill them on the Cauberg.

Let me guess, you are belgian?

 

[peterfin]

Let me guess, you are belgian?

And you look like you are from Spain.

 

[Netserk]

And you look like you are from Spain.

Iberian.

 

[Peyroteo94]

And you look like you are from Spain.

The other iberian country

 

[Froome]

Chris Horner calls this race the 6th Monument. In my view this title belongs to Gent Wevelgem. Amstel is slightly behind. What do you guys think?

I think there is no 6th monument.

There is only 5 monuments.

 

[Filippo_3467]

I think guys like Healy, Blackmore and Nys could go with the first and second Pogacar attack. the climbs are not that long of course steep but also not cobbled. i think he needs two or three attacks to shake everyone but (hopefully) Evenepoel. WvA should be also better here in comparison to Flanders, but don't know if he has the positioning and acceleration at the moment.

Pogacar with a solo win is of course the best bet you can make. For all others to be relevant they have to take some risks and ride totally destructive. Don't think that's the era for it but I would like a more open race with Pogacar having at least some fight to get to the front past some anticipation moves because no one rides with him.

I also expect a huge fight for the break with the real break maybe taking 40-50 kms to form. Tbh with how early races open even in an Amstel you have a chance for a good result from a largish break. It's not typical for the race but also attacks on Cipressa and 80 k solo wins weren't typical...tbh if I'm a Zimmermann, Tulett, Bagioli, Alaphilippe I would try to get into a strong breakaway on the first bergs. To me the UAE squad looks a bit suspect. Don't know why Morgado, Covi or Laengen aren't there but McNulty, Großschartner and Sivakov who aren't exactly experts in those kind of hectic semi-classics. The probably get help from Quick-Step and for some reason EF in controlling the first 100-120 ks after that it's just Wellens/Narvaez to launch Pogi one or two times and the team is done for the day.

 

[Rockestar_33]

In order:
CEGORR
San Sebastian
Gent Wevelgem
Amstel
Fleche/Strade/Omloop/Kuurne

FTFY

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Browsing through the start list I expect a battle of the Bens:

• BENoot

To be or noot to be.

 

[E_F_]

My prediction; Pogacar will win easily, I won't be entertained.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

GW was the 6th monument until riders started handing it out as a promotional gift.
Amstel was never the 6th monument and any chance at becoming so was skilfully squashed when race organisation started cheating in order for their favorite rider to win.
Strade is turning more and more into a gimmick.
FW was always a bit of a gimmick with the finish on the Mur.
San Sebastian has a nice route and a top tier list of winners (seriously) but is probably not ancient enough.
Omloop / Kuurne just don't cut it tbh.

 

[E_F_]

FW was always a bit of a gimmick with the finish on the Mur.

Well... It didn't always finish on Mur de Huy. And originally it was more prestigious than LBL, then equal to it. Now it's a lame race, though. That's true. But it's still the most prestigious of the 3 non-monuments from the original 8 classics. No one cares about Brussels Cycling Classic, and for some reason ASO don't seem to push Paris-Tour as hard as I think they should.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Well... It didn't always finish on Mur de Huy. And originally it was more prestigious than LBL, then equal to it. Now it's a lame race, though. That's true. But it's still the most prestigious of the 3 non-monuments from the original 8 classics. No one cares about Brussels Cycling Classic, and for some reason ASO don't seem to push Paris-Tour as hard as I think they should.

I know it didn't always finish on the Mur, which is why i specified. And i don't necessarily think it's a lame race, i actually enjoy finding out who is the best wallclimber every year, but it's not monument material in this form. And frankly, it doesn't have to be. There already are two monuments in Belgium, it would make more sense to look for one in Spain or a second one in France if we were to hypothetically bestow the title of 6th monument on a race. Of course the fact that a joke race like MSR is referred to as monument kicks the discussion wide open as to which other race could be considered a monument. I think San Sebastian, Amstel, GW are all actually much more "worthy" of the moniker, but it is what it is.

 

[Leinster]

Bring back Bordeaux-Paris. Paced by e-bikes instead of Dernys.


They shoulda never turned Paris-Tours into a gravel race.

 

[pelotonIQ]

I feel like the sprint is 50/50 between them, as long Remco doesn't get dropped he has decent chances. Let's see how he looks back from injury in a much tougher race.

 

[Sciatic]

To be or noot to be.

I suspect he's going to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I feel like the sprint is 50/50 between them, as long Remco doesn't get dropped he has decent chances. Let's see how he looks back from injury in a much tougher race.

Pog and Evenepoel? Nah, 70/30 maybe.

 

[Amazinmets87]

I think there is no 6th monument.

There is only 5 monuments.

I'd be interested in a general consensus of the top-10 most prestigious one day races.

 

[Kwaremonster]

On a different note, I was interested to hear Thomas Van Den Spiegel (Flanders Classics director) suggestion that changing the finish this chance was a small change and that there might be more changes on the parcours in the future. I wonder if that was just generic pr remark or if there are actually more changes considered for the next years. And if so I wonder what they are. It's not like they can suddenly open a can of new climbs like in Spain or something. I guess they could add Doodeman (a steep climb to the same plateau as Keutenberg) and maybe they could put the longer but less steep climbs like Camerig later in the race. Not sure if that would make it better. Curious what they could come up with.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I'd be interested in a general consensus of the top-10 most prestigious one day races.

1. Worlds
2. Paris-Roubaix
3. Flanders
4. Liège-Bastogne-Liège
5. Milan-Sanremo
6. Il Lombardia
7. Strade Bianche
8. Amstel Gold Race
9. Gent-Wevelgem
10. Fleche-Wallone

The last one I'm not sure about. San Sebastian? Doesn't attract that good of field. E3? Perhaps.

Some might disagree on the sub-ranking of the monuments, but I'm trying to list them the way I see what the general consensus is - not what I think (although I agree with this, but that doesn't really matter here). Strade I'm ranking highly because there's always all this nonsense 6th monument talk about that race.

I'm leaving Olympics out of this because there's no general consensus on that. Some wouldn't have it in top 10, others would rank it first. I belong to the latter group, but that's irrelevant here.

 

[AmRacer]

I think there is no 6th monument.

There is only 5 monuments.

SB

 

[Berniece]

SB

They need way more interesting editions to get that title.

 

[AmRacer]

They need way more interesting editions to get that title.

Remco should try it, with or without Pogi

 

[Salvarani]

SB

Yup, it has taken over that title from AGR.