Amstel Gold Race... Post-Race Thread

Will I get a win this season?

Where the hell is Basso?

saying this is his favorite race. Very diplomatic.

Nice teeth, dude.

that they stayed away….seems that Saxo did their best at slowing the chasing peloton.

asked him what to do against two dutch guys, he kind of laughed it off.

Is this a big surprise or no?

with curves?

But Gilbert obviously missed the message that he was supposed to win, dammit.

i have followed a race on twitter – was actually very helpful, especially Cosmo’s tweets

1 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Katusha
2 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Saxo Bank
3 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank
4 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Silence-Lotto
5 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-NGC
6 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Rabobank
9 Christian Pfannberger (Aut) Katusha
10 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Saxo Bank

Was Saxo Bank really that effective at blocking in the last km? They seemed to have a presence on the front, and this seemed to combine with the lack of an explosive burst from the bunch that we, well I, was waiting for with baited breath.

Were they that good at blocking (was there some linking of arms across the front of the group) or were the “contenders” really that spent and unable to launch?

Frinking posted in fanshots – a Rabo rider threw the yellow jersey into the barriers in Turkey, disgusting…

here … according to DS Andersen not as serious as first thought, no fractures, but concussion … nothing in that report about Lloyd’s condition (I’m still looking).

after having a 36 hour power outage and 4 feet of snow here, it was great to watch the Tour of Turkey for a bit, then AG, and then the final 15km of Tro Bro(was on France3 live streaming).

might get out of hospital later today or tomorrow, according to this

from sporza, broken pelvis and out for months.

Nobody knows how the fall happened. The team buddies saw Lloyd suddenly fly from left to right, like something exploded. It may be a blown tube, or maybe hit the curb.

(interesting that google translates “doodjammer” as “horrible death” … )

Good ride by him and the rest of the Rabo team. Too bad he cramped when they entered Valkenburg but he did manage to stay close to the first two and in front of the chase group. The guy is only 22 so the Ardennes might be a lot of fun for Dutch fans the next decade or so.

If you scored this race like a (running) cross country race where the first place finisher gets 1 point, the second placed finisher 2, etc., and teams scored their top five with seven total on a team, here are the standings:

1. Saxo Bank- 54 points: 2, 6, 10, 16, 20 (30, 34)(Kroon, Kolobnev, A Schleck, N Sorensen, Larsson, Fuglsang, C A Sorensen)

2. Lotto- 130: 4, 27, 28, 30, 41 (67, 74) (Gilbert, Van Summeren, Vanendert, Dekker, Vandenbroeck, Evans, S Scheirlinckx)

3. Rabobank- 170: 3, 8, 31, 63, 65 (105, (Gesink, Nuyens, Martens, Tankink, Freire, Weening)

4. Katusha- 179: 1, 9, 36, 56, 77, (91,100) (Ivanov, Pfannberger, Mazzanti, Swift, Horrach, Klimov, Botcharov)

5. Quickstep- 190: 13, 24, 29, 55, 69 (72,73) (Pineau, Chavanel, Baredo, Cataldo, Reda, Deveyens, Davis)

6. Vacansoleil-232: 22, 33, 47, 64, 66 (90, 110) (Carrara, Leukmans, Lowik, Hoogerland, Marcato, Lagutin, Honig)

7. Columbia-248: 15, 25, 62, 71, 75 (78, 99) (Albasini, Monfort, Lewis, Rogers, Burghardt, Pinotti, Martin)

8. Lampre-253: 5, 39, 40, 52, 117 (118) (Cunego, Gavazzi, Gasparotto, Mori, Santambrogio, Righi)

9. Milram- 254: 11, 26, 53, 68, 96 (Knees, P Velits, Gerdemann, Wegmann, Frolinger)

10. Liquigas-277: 18, 19, 48, 94, 98 (108, 115) ( Kreuziger, Nibali, Stangelj, Willems, Santaromita, Vanborg, Agnoli)

11. Cervelo-285: 7, 38, 61, 82, 97 (116) (Gerrans, Sastre, King, Deignan, Pauwels, Rollin

12. F des Jeux-365: 12, 60, 83, 101, 109 (121) (Vaungrenard, Casar, Sulsberger, Cherel, Mourey, Roux

13. Caisse d’Epargne- 399: 21, 43, 104, 112, 119 (Valverde, Rodriguez, Losada, Passamontes, Costa)

The rest of the teams did not have 5 riders finish so they get no score:

Euskaltel- 14, 59, 79, 83, (Sanchez, Landaluze, Perez, Isasi,
Diqui- 17, 42, 54, 107, (Scarponi, Rebellin, Ginanni, Solari,
AG2R- 23, 88, 93, 95, (Nocentini, Elminger, Dion, A Efimkin,
Garmin- 35, 85, 89, (Hesjedal, Van Der velde, Maaskandt,
Topsport- 37, 44, 114, (Van Hecke, Hermans, vandewalle,
Astana- 45, 70, 92, (Muravyev, Bazayev, Dyachenko,
Fuji- 46, 51 (de la Fuente, Kessiakoff,
Landbou- 49, 57, 102, (Verheyen, Bert, Delfosse,
BBox- 50, 110, 120, (Sprick, Bonnaire, Arashiro
Cofidis- 58, 76, 81, 106 (Moinard, Duque, Kern, Fernandez,
Skil-Shimano- 80, 86, 103, (Hupond, de Kort, Goesinnen,

Note: Only two teams (Quickstep and Vacasoleil) had all 8 riders finish.

(not sure why a Peruvian media source has the most recent update I could find, but anyway)… it says he has fractured 3 vertebrae and has severe bruising in the sacral area, in hospital until tomorrow and a month before he can train.

seeing that the sacrum is technically made up of 3 vertebrae, it’s not necessarily contradicting prior reports of a sacral fracture, hopefully it’s not a sacral injury plus 3 other vertebral fractures.

Just saw schleck at hotel, looked good :-), spoke to Doctor Lotto, Broken Pelvis Matty :-(( In hospital, can’tmove.. would visit him, but have to leave tomorrow, back home…

Just have to wait and see what comes out in the next day or so….

What, he doesn’t get a case or two of AG as a prize?

Source: VeloNews

So watching the end of this race and noticing that none of the Big Stars was able to get any distance on the others, especially at the bottom of the Cauberg where the pack was just a bit behind the leading three, my mind went to the Poggio of all places. Why? Because in MSR there were no real attacks at the end- no one could create a gap. I guess the rationale goes that the peloton was moving so fast that no one had the strength to distance themselves for even a few seconds. Amstel reminded me of that.

Yeah Amstel had three guys who broke away on the penultimate climb but I felt while watching it that the Heads of State were more looking at each other and didn’t want to expend any more energy that they absolutely had too; they were already close to their limit. They hesitated and it was too late. At MSR the only ones trying to break on the Poggio were Pozzato and Rebellin and they were marked quickly as their reputation was that much greater than Ivanov, Kroon, and Gesink.

Okay, my theory doesn’t quite hold up completely. But to me there are still enough similarities between the two races and I’m wondering if we are seeing a slight shift in how non-Cobbled Classics are raced: a fast peloton with little left for late developing breaks to happen. I’ll be looking for reoccurences at La Fleche and LBL.

In a modern interview-by-statement to Van Summeren: “So you killed yourself for the team two weeks in a row for a fourth place?”

Rebellin and Rodriquez coming in more than 3 minutes after Ivanov? Rodri might have worked his ass of voor Valv-piti but it seem like a very disappointing performance by Rebellin to me. Or was he just saving his breath for wednesday/sunday?