Preview: Amstel Gold Race
David Rebellin, winner in 2004 (Tim de Waele)
The hilly classics gets started this Sunday, 20 April with the 43rd Amstel Gold race. The race runs over 257.4 kilometres through the Dutch province of Limburg and is the precursor to the Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, next week.
The Amstel Gold Race is the youngest of the seven major Spring Classics and has gained its popularity over the last 15 years thanks to non-Dutch winners. Recent champions include Germany's Stefan Schumacher, Luxembourg's Fränk Schleck and Italy's Danilo Di Luca and Davide Rebellin, while further down the annals, stars like local hero Jan Raas, Belgium's Eddy Merckx and France's Bernard Hinault appear.
The parcours offers fans plenty of opportunity to see the riders go flying by as it repeats many of the climbs throughout its 257.4km journey from Maastricht to Valkenburg. The roads twist and turn on themselves and favour a local rider with intimate knowledge of the course.
The 184 riders will depart from Maastricht's Grote Markt at 10:21, head north towards the first climb and northernmost point in Geleen. The race will turn back south (climbs Adsteeg and Lange Raarberg), east towards Voerendaal and then back west towards Maastricht. Along the way they will tackle the Cauberg (climb number six, in Valkenburg) the first of three times – the second as climb number 21 and the last as the finishing climb.
After the first ascent of the Cauberg (185.9km to go), the riders will complete two anticlockwise loops to the south where they will encounter the next 25 climbs. The second ascent of the Cauberg at 76.3km to go should see a change in race rhythm as the teams of the favourites will start to make their appearance at the front to face the Geulhemmerweg 72.8km to go), Bemelerberg (59.1km to go), Wolfsberg (42km to go), Loorberg (36.4km to go), Gulperberg (28.1km to go), Kruisberg (22.6km to go), Eyserbosweg (18.6km to go), Fromberg (16.8km to go), Keutenberg (12.3 to go) and the Cauberg.
Overall, the climbs are not cobbled leg-sapping affairs like in the Tour of Flanders, but the sheer number will have all but the fittest riders fading off the back.
Favourites: Can a Dutchman win on home turf?
Holland has produced 17 winners in 40 editions, the most prolific being Jan Raas, who scored five victories – four in-a-row 1977-1980 and one in 1982. But the odds have been against the Dutch in recent years. The home team, Rabobank, will seek to control the race for its first win since Erik Dekker overhauled Lance Armstrong in a two-up sprint in 2001. Rabobank showed its strength in a number of the recent classics, highlighted by Oscar Freire's victory in Ghent-Wevelgem. Look for the three-time World Champion Spaniard to lead the orange team with strong options coming from younger team-mate Thomas Dekker.
Even though Freire will have home team support, watch a different Spanish conquistador to rule the Cauberg – Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne). The 27 year-old knows the race well – 13th in 2005 and sixth in 2007, not to mention his crash in the 2006 Tour de France on the same roads – and has the form, confirmed by his win in the Paris-Camembert Lepetit.
"My condition is better each day even if I know that my rivals' condition is very high and that it will not be easy for me," said the rider known as the 'Green Bullet.'
Last year's winner, German Stefan Schumacher will not be a hot-favourite per se, but he will be a contender. But his Gerolsteiner teammate and 2004 Amstel winner, Italian Davide Rebellin, should do much better. 'Tintin' Rebellin took the Tour du Haut Var early this spring and, more recently, conquered the overall of the Paris-Nice. He always rises to the challenge in the hilly classics – winning all three in 2004 and the Flèche Wallonne last year – and you can bet he will be firing on Sunday.
Rebellin's countrymen, Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) should not be counted out. Cunego is the favourite of the two young guns with his recent win in the Klasika Primavera, while Riccò is a bit erratic – he could either be drinking the winner's Amstel beer or tossing his bike into the Geul canal.
Denmark's Team CSC will have its guns firing in the form of 2006 winner Fränk Schleck and his brother Andy. If the duo can't pull it off then they will gladly support their teammate, Karsten Kroon. USA's Team High Road has been scoring well in the minor classics, but could really do with bagging one of the big ones. Look for Kim Kirchen to lead the squad in the Amstel Gold Race.
Other names to watch out for include Het Volk winner Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux), Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), Joaquím Rodríguez (Caisse d'Epargne), Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) and Ryder Hesjedal (Slipstream Chipotle - H30).
You can follow the entire race live via text updates on Cyclingnews.com.
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