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Amstel is Gold, Jerry, Gold! Men's Classic One-Day Race, April 14, 2024

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Who will win Amstel Gold (Men) 2024?

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Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Netserk said:
Really?!

While I never saw any of the editions ending in Maastricht, I definitely think the current finish is much, much better than the old hilltop finish. Together with Ans and the evolution of Flèche to a mere punch-out, it has meant that the hilly classics have greatly suffered this century thus far.
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The context of the rest of the post is key.

Yes, maybe the Cauberg finale was getting a bit stale by the early 2010s, but the route up to that point was vastly superior than the version with the Cauberg finish on the terrible 2012 Worlds loop, because moving the climbs like Keutenberg away from the finish but with no actually potentially selective climbs between the penultimate Cauberg and the finish on the Cauberg, it just killed action, as Geulhemmerweg and Bemelerberg were not challenging enough to make a selection on, but because nobody dared go earlier because of the distance from home, the group was too large to get away from. Removing the final climb of (most of) the Cauberg has been an improvement. But only for the men, because they're the only ones that get to do it.

This is not a bad course in the slightest. The final climb is a horrible climb, but you have an excellent sequence of climbs from 40km through 10km to go to incentivise action that shouldn't be dissuaded by fear of the last climb, because it's not selective in its own right:
mHc6F5jmutqNzUskmLgKX7.jpg


This, however, is a dreadful route, rendering all climbs other than the Cauberg total irrelevances and putting a large amount of focus on a circuit where the only part that will ever have any value or interest is the penultimate kilometre:
DBDDL2D6ErLLc7hHTtba9n.jpg


The interesting and potentially selective climbs of the Limburg region - those very ones that are key to that decisive section of the men's race - are reduced to total irrelevance, such that it's like comparing the relevance of the Muur van Geraardsbergen in the old Ninove route of the Ronde van Vlaanderen to its relevance to the first stage of the 2019 Tour de France.

The obsession of the race organisers with that 2012 Worlds loop (plus the extension to add Geulhemmerweg) has been hugely detrimental to the Amstel Gold Race, and while they've found a decent solution in the men's race, the women's race parcours has been made even more of a joke to accommodate it, where the Bemelerberg serves as nothing but a means to dissuade anything interesting happening and to bunch the field back up again.
 
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Libertine Seguros said:
I preferred the Cauberg finish before they added the miserable 2012 Worlds loop. That loop was improved by the addition of Geulhemmerweg but the long gap from there to re-climbing Cauberg (because Bemelerberg is such a nothing) really hurt the viability of escapes. The current men's route which doesn't re-do the Cauberg at the finish is absolutely fine - but the version with the added loop including Bemelerberg before returning to Cauberg was just dreadful, removing all relevancy for all of the other climbs in the route because the stretch from Geulhemmerweg to Bemelerberg was such a nothingburger, adding distance which both added no viable action, and moved the other climbs with viable action further from the finish.

The women still have the crappy version of the finish where the Bemelerberg neuters the race and encourages a final Cauberg shootout, though, and that needs fixing. If they want to insist on a Cauberg finish for the women, the 2012 loop needs removing to stop it being a less interesting Flèche, and the Bemelerberg can be consigned to the opening part of the race, long forgotten by the time the race is in its key moments, which is where it belongs in a Cauberg finale scenario.

Unfortunately, the women's race route is essentially a token nod to the good climbs of the area like Keutenberg, Eyserbosweg and Kruisberg, and then a load of laps of the 2012 circuit where Cauberg is the only area that ever generates or incentivises action.
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Having the finish at the stop of the Cauberg was an amazing spectator experience. I was never there for Amstel, but was there on the climb when the Tour stage finished there almost 20 years ago—what a mass of humanity. I know there are still crowds all along the climb with the current course, but it was as an amazing to be leaning over the barrier as they roared by sprinting up the climb to the finish line.
 
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Kwaremonster

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While Van der Poel isn't as good on this course as he is in the cobbled classics (usually) he is definately in with a good chance, also because his team is much better than in the past. Laurance and Hermans seem in good shape and could be cards to play with. I could even see Mathieu riding in service for one of them, if the race plays out that way.

I find Amstel interesting in that you always seem to have a few riders that are especially good in this race. Not that they are bad in other races, but in this race they are always there. Nowadays I think of Pidcock, Healey, cosnefroy, kwiatkowski and Van Gils. I also like Jorgenson for this race.

Pidcock impressed me very much in Roubaix, he will be up there, but Jorgenson is my favourite given what he showed so far this year.
 
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Kwaremonster said:
While Van der Poel isn't as good on this course as he is in the cobbled classics (usually) he is definately in with a good chance, also because his team is much better than in the past. Laurance and Hermans seem in good shape and could be cards to play with. I could even see Mathieu riding in service for one of them, if the race plays out that way.

I find Amstel interesting in that you always seem to have a few riders that are especially good in this race. Not that they are bad in other races, but in this race they are always there. Nowadays I think of Pidcock, Healey, cosnefroy, kwiatkowski and Van Gils. I also like Jorgenson for this race.

Pidcock impressed me very much in Roubaix, he will be up there, but Jorgenson is my favourite given what he showed so far this year.
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Will be interesting to see if Cosnefroy continues his streak of podiums here - 3 out of the past 4 years. But ai have no idea what his form is like this year.
 
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Squire

Squire

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scribers said:
Other : Ben Healy

I don’t even know if he’s racing
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There are a lot of 'other' options in that poll. :D

Gregoire, Matthews, Healy, McNulty, Ayuso, Teuns, Vauquelin.

I guess the startlist was less full when the poll was made. But Leknessund is still a weird choice there. I expect him to do a random early attack/breakaway and be cooked with 60km remaining. Uno-X probably riding for THJ, although I have no idea how his form is at the moment.
 
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