Up to now it's really been a "designer" season: the winners of the great spring classics have always been the riders who started with the greatest favors of the forecast. Cancellara hit the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix brilliantly. Peter Sagan made him the Ghent Wevelgem even having fun wheeling his bike across the finish line as an authentic two-wheel juggler. Only Sanremo, devastated by adverse weather, saw Cancellara and Sagan, the two great protagonists of one-day races, preceded in the sprint by an outsider like the German Ciolek. With these premises, the Amstel Gold Race, which takes place this Sunday on the roads and walls of Limburg, has all the airs of ending up in the carnet of Sagan, who has also recently won the Freccia del Brabant on Wednesday after deserting Roubaix. Absent Cancellara, the Slovakian from Cannondale will have the world champion, the Belgian Philippe Gilbert, as his most dangerous rival who last year achieved his most prestigious victory on this Valkenburg track.
As always, Amstel will probably still decide on the Cauberg, the last of the ten competitions included in the classic sponsored by the beer giant. Last year on the Cauberg the surprise success of an Italian, Enrico Gasparotto, proceeded Jelle Vanendert and Sagan himself. A 260 km route with a nervous altitude that could also enhance the qualities of the Spanish Joaquin Rodriguez, winner of the last Giro di Lombardia, with an explosive uphill sprint like few others. Some chance for the ardor he puts into every race also goes to the Frenchman Thomas Voeckler. Also keep an eye out for the Iberian Alejandro Valverde and the Australian Simon Gerrans. The Amstel is the only classic that is run entirely in the Netherlands and it is one of the greatest Dutch riders of all time, Jan Raas, who holds the record for victories, no less than five, including four consecutive (from 1977 to 1981) , so much so that the ride was renamed the Amstel Gold Raas.
In the last ten editions, five Italians have also been among the winners: Michele Bartoli (2002), Davide Rebellin (2004), Danilo Di Luca (2005), Damiano Cunego (2008) and Enrico Gasparotto who will start on Sunday with race number 1. With Cunego he is the athlete to whom the hopes of a new Italian success are entrusted. For the record, Armstrong's dismissal also had an impact – albeit marginal in terms of podiums – on the Amstel roll of honour, with the cancellation of the two second places that the Texan obtained in 1999 and 2001.
