Remember the U25 post over the winter? Not the most prescient post I've ever written... from Cobbles Season we can see it should have also included Sebastian Langeveld, Martijn Maaskant, Niki Terpstra, Simon Spilak, and a few others I'm sure. But there are a large number of riders who were on the list whom we can expect to see over the next week.
The difference between trying to blog Ardennes Week and Cobbles Week is that climbers are pretty easy to spot, and probably have a bit more of an iron grip on the top placings. Over the last three years names like Ricco, Gadret, Gesink and Kroon showed up somewhat unexpectedly on the results board in Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, but the palmares were otherwise completely dominated by the big names.
This year, some of the big names are themselves part of the U25 crowd: Thomas Dekker, Andy Schleck, Robert Gesink, Nicholas Roche, Tomas Lovkvist, Heinrich Haussler, and so on. But the questions is, are there any young riders ready to make a name for themselves in the next couple weeks?
I'm traveling and don't have time for any real research, so I'm punting it to YOU, knowledgeable readers, to pony up some names. Check the startlist for Amstel Gold and start nominating. If you get it right, you'll have won the right to wave this in our faces for the rest of the spring.