The Media has agreed with me here as our favourites list is just the list of Puncheurs in terms of their pure ability to get over a hill. We shall see how this one plays out!
And the riders begin the 257km journey. Keep your TVs on and your volume high because we are in for a cracker!
Plenty of riders trying their luck early on here.
31km into today's race and we have an established 8 man group which has a gap of 2'52. The riders here are: Gall, Rucigaj Rochas Soulious Trondsen Zimmermann Stancu Razumov
200km still to ride for the Peloton and a number of teams sharing the work at the front. The breakaway have stretched their lead out to 5'12 which would be the limit for now.
150km to go now and still the same teams at the front of the Peloton. They have slowly brought the gap down to 4'06.
100km left for the breakaway and they still hold a lead of 3'16 although the Peloton has seemingly decided to ramp it up ever so slightly.
76km now for the Peloton and the gap is down to 2'25. Per has been putting in a big shift on the flat sections but isn't quite as effective on the uphill sections.
The weaker and poorly positioned riders being weeded out here as the Peloton is down to 109 riders. They are now 1'36 behind the breakaway.
38km to the finish. Realising that their time is soon coming to an end, Trondsen decides to light up the front of the race a bit by attempting an attack.
19km to go now. The Peloton has caught the breakaway and it's Errazkin who has really been putting some hurt into the riders. The reduced Peloton still contains the main riders but not many other riders at this point.
You won't believe this but he put hurt into his tires too and got a puncture so he has work to do to catch the 30 man leading group now. Poor bloke.
14km to go and the pace is too much for Waeytens and Bettiol.
12km and Lutsenko is the first big name to flex his legs. De Bie is closest and has a number of riders trailing him.
Borges puts in an acceleration to catch Lutsenko. The line behind these 2 riders is now led by Mohoric.
4.7km to go and we have a 7 man leading group. From the front: Benoot, Sagan, Borges, Mohoric, Lutsenko, De Bie, Lopez.
17 seconds further back is a group of 8 made up of: Vakoc, Yates, Trakhov, Buchmann, Formolo, Koretzky, De Plus, Ulissi.
2km to go and these groups have come together!! It will be a battle of who is quickest up the final hill.
De Bie is the first to launch with 1.1km to go.
800m to go now and Lutsenko is in close pursuit but he has Lopez for company.
500m to go and it looks as if De Bie is too strong for his competitors here. Lutsenko doesn't seem to have the legs to challenge him and will have a fight on his hands to take 2nd.
200m to go and it would have to be a disaster now for De Bie not to win this one. Lutsenko has recovered somewhat and looks too strong for Lopez. No one else fighting for the podium here.
De Bie started celebrating a little early and had to get his hands back on the handlebars but he is simply too strong here and takes the win here on the Cauberg.
Lutsenko is the best of the rest for 2nd while Lopez completes the podium.
Mohoric holds off Sagan for 4th while Borges pays a bit for his earlier effort but still takes a respectable 6th.
Yates had to put in a big effort to drag the second group up to the leading one but he is still the strongest of them in 7th. Trakhov takes a very good result in 8th.
Finally, it's Vakoc in 9th ahead of Benoot while Formolo just misses out on the Top 10.
De Plus comes in 12th just ahead of Ulissi.
It wasn't a great day for Koretzky as the Frenchman comes across the line in 14th.
And a reminder of our winner today, it's De Bie who rode smart and conserved his energy until the end and clearly had better legs than his competitors.
Amstel Gold Race - Report 
