Amstel Gold - *spoilers* for any idiot who thinks it may be about yellow beer

[Apollonius]

Nice to see the rainbow jersey come in first, and he deserved it. Looks like Boonen's day is done. Nibali had little to offer, apart from looking good on the bike. Keldermans continues to disappoint - I really thought he would kick on this year. Matthews went too soon, for me, and had done a bit too much before the final sprint. I still thought he would win it, but he didn't!

 

[Rustybucket]

https://www.strava.com/activities/288648247

Pretty amazing stuff

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It was Nordhaug. Finished 16th

Quite right - Henao was in the second group, finished in the 30s. Pretty poor by Sky all round today. Etixx and Orica did much better today, as did some of the smaller teams - Wanty and CCC, in particular.

 

[The Couch]

BMC should have let Van Avermaet work together wih Fuglsang.
One would expect him to beat Fuglsang on a punchy climb like the Cauberg and it wouldn't have been too bad for BMC to put some extra pressure on the other teams (who would have needed to quickly work together to bring them back)
I understand GIlbert was plan A (and plan A almost worked), still... it's never bad to anticipate on the actual race situation

I also wanted to highlight Alaphilippe who had a great result despite his young age and he actually still had quite a lot in the tank for the sprint, he was just sitting at the wrong side of the group to overtake a lot of people and was hindered by less strong men.

 

[oldroadman]

BMC should have let Van Avermaet work together wih Fuglsang.
One would expect him to beat Fuglsang on a punchy climb like the Cauberg and it wouldn't have been too bad for BMC to put some extra pressure on the other teams (who would have needed to quickly work together to bring them back)
I understand GIlbert was plan A (and plan A almost worked), still... it's never bad to anticipate on the actual race situation

I also wanted to highlight Alaphilippe who had a great result despite his young age and he actually still had quite a lot in the tank for the sprint, he was just sitting at the wrong side of the group to overtake a lot of people and was hindered by less strong men.

It will be a good lesson then. races are not always won by the strongest. Race craft plays a big part too.
Matthews had too much to do, and it looked like the tank was almost empty with about 100 metres to go, he did well to get close.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Best analysis I've seen is (as usual) by Inner Ring - he also thinks that the course should be changed to remove the "large, wide open roads in a final loop" that separates the two climbs of the Cauberg. He says it kills the racing and I agree.

http://inrng.com/2015/04/the-moment-the-race-was-won-amstel-gold-race-2015/

 

[oldroadman]

Best analysis I've seen is (as usual) by Inner Ring - he also thinks that the course should be changed to remove the "large, wide open roads in a final loop" that separates the two climbs of the Cauberg. He says it kills the racing and I agree.

http://inrng.com/2015/04/the-moment-the-race-was-won-amstel-gold-race-2015/

We'll have to disagree on that. A team has to race to the course as it is. Which is race craft (see above).