Amstel Gold Race! One of the hardest of the protour! Last year winner De Bie is back on top of the favorite’s list. Behind him are all the big punchers of the division, as PCT brings in McCarthy to perfect an already excellent season for Amaysim and disturb the PT teams plans.
A group of 5 takes a short advance at the beginning of the race, an d that seems to be OK for the favorites, as their teams shut down every other attack.
The five in the break of the day are: Van Gestel, Boutopoulos, Dewulf, Kenyeres and Agrotis.
Due to the continuous attacks in the pack, they only have a 36 seconds lead with 238 km to go.
Aegon, Amaysim, Evonik, King Power and Gazelle are working in the pack.
They don’t want to let Per go, even though he continues to try. Same goes for Barbio and Cras.
203 km to go and the gap is 2’20. The peloton has given up the chase on Girdlestone and Jones, who are between them and the leaders.
They finally catch on 6 km later, and the new group of 7 fast takes more time, as we’re not in the hardest part of the race yet.
150 km to go and the steepest hills are near. After going up to 4’30, the gap between the break and the peloton is now slowly going down. It’s 4’10 right now, with the same teams participating in the chase.
50 km later, the situation is unchanged, but the gap is down to 3’20. There were some alerts in the peloton, but it’s still packed together, though stretched.
New alert for Isostar and cycleYorkshire! Both teams are grouped at the back at the peloton.
70 km to go and the peloton is still 180 men strong. The splits are more and more frequents, but the peloton manages to hold on for now.
That’s not the case anymore 20 km later: the 7 leaders have a 1’38 lead on a 76 men pack. The more important riders not in the main group are: Barbin, Quita, Tratnik, Narvaez (all of those are 2’42 behind the leaders), and Trakhov, Di Maggio, Ponzi, Storer, Ulissi, Vincent and Higuita (+3’19).
With 42 km to go, we assist to the first attacks in the break. Kenyeres, Jones and Agrotis are the one to go. The pack is mostly back together, 1’20 behind them.
30 km to go, and Jones and Agrotis now have a 16’’ lead on Van Gestel. Girdlestone will soon be taken by the 40 men peloton, 1’05 behind the two leaders. Yates, Koretzky, Turgis, Valter and Van der Poel missed the split and are 1 minute behind the favorites. Higuita’s group already is 5’ down the leaders.
Jones goes alone as the 4 leader regroup. He’s got a 12’’ gap.
Koretzky’s group’s gap is down to 54’’ thanks to the work of Ackermann and Morin.
With 25 km to go, Jones is the only survivor of the break. He has a 24’’ gap. Koretzky and Yates made it back and are going near the front of the peloton.
Skujins attacks before the catch is made.
That goes nowhere and a 60 men group is now leading the race.
20 km! Moser with a fast pace uptfront, preparing the field for Sagan.
The peloton is down to 29 men after the Eyserbosweg. Madouas, Bagioli and Quita are caught on the wrong side. Moser is still setting the pace.
14 km to go, and Kwiatkowski and Mohoric attack!
4 km later, and they still have a 25’’ gap. The Swiss teams are working to bring them back with Gerts and Müller.
7,7 km. The leaders hold by nothing.
Gerts is spent, Müller is working alone now, with all the favorites in his wheel. The gap is 9’’ with less than 5 km to go.
3,2 km to go. Now there is a steep downhill section, and then it’s the Cauberg (1,2 km, 5,2%) to the finish line. The leaders still have a 10’’ gap, and Mohoric is an excellent descender. Nobody really wants to help Müller making the catch.
Izagirre, Buchmann and Koretzky are at the back of the favorites’group.
1,6 km to go and Müller is done for. The gap is 12” and Lutsenko attacks!
On the red kite, Lutsenko is catching on the leaders, who have an 18’’ gap on the rest of the favorites’group. Yates and Koretzky are once again being dropped.
800 m. Lutsenko is way faster. The gap has gone up to 21 seconds.
600 m to go and Lutsenko is now leading the race.
400 m. The leaders are in the hardest slopes of the finish. The last 200 m are nearly flat.
200 m. Mohoric seems to find a second wind, as Lutsenko is fading. The favorites are still 13 seconds behind.
100 last meters! Kwiatowski also comes fast. Behind the three leaders, Skujins, Sagan and Vakoc are the fastest now.
Great victory for Mohoric! He’s a wheel ahead of Kwiatkowski and a bike ahead of Lutsenko, who maybe helped them to resist to the pack by hauling them onto the last hill.
Skujins is the best of the rest.
Bobridge can take 5th, ahead of Lopez, Eiking, Vakoc and Sagan.
Last year winner De Bie can’t do better than 10th.
Turgis, McCarthy, Formolo, Yates and Buchmann round of the top 15. The teams who worked to catch the winning attackers are not quite rewarded for their effort.
That’s all for us, as we wait for the last riders to arrive. Thank you for being with us, we’ll see you next month in the MGUCI roads!
