The cobbles are behind us and now we move onto the hilly Classics and first up is the Amstel Gold Race. Yes, Holland is mostly flat, but try riding up the Cauberg and say that’s not a hill. Our Classics expert, Ed Hood, gives us the benefit of his Amstel experience – the race and the gold liquid.The first three Monuments have come and gone but with just two winners – courtesy Messrs. Degenkolb and Kristoff, surely the men of the year thus far? But its time for the Raging Bulls to go out to graze in the sun for a week or two as the smaller and/or skinnier men have their days.The big two races of this Ardennes Classics phase of the season are the Flche Wallonne and the fourth Monument, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The warm up for the Flche and La Doyenne as Liege-Bastogne-Liege is known is The Amstel.It can only be HollandThe Amstel Gold is a bit of a baby as far as classics go; the Primavera goes back to 1907; Flanders to 1913 and Roubaix to 1896. For The Netherlands biggest bike race its a relatively recent 1966; when Frances Jean Stablinski took the honours. This year will be edition 50 of the race that bears the name of Amsterdams main river and of course the golden beer. The parcoursHeld mainly in the lumpy province of Limburg, the route has been much changed over the years, but some things havent changed; the sinuous nature of the course, the...
View the full article
View the full article
