Organizers of the Amstel Gold classic have announced the last of six wildcard teams invited to the April 18 event. Twenty four teams will participate. The new wildcard teams announced Monday by race director Leo van Vliet are Cervelo TestTeam, BMC Racing Team, Topsport Vlaanderen and Landbouwkrediet. Earlier, the Dutch pro continental teams Skil-Shimano and Vacansoleil received a wildcard.
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Lance Armstrong will be back in the spring classics this year in a big way. RadioShack sport director Johan Bruyneel told Biciciclismo that Armstrong will race Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
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Spaniard Carlos Sastre, winner of the 2008 Tour de France, will compete in the 2010 Giro d’Italia.
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Holland’s biggest race is relatively new to the international calendar, having first been held in 1966.
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Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck has pulled out of Wednesday’s Fleche-Wallonne race and is doubtful for Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege after his fall in the Amstel Gold Race, his Saxo Bank team revealed on Tuesday.
Schleck was taken to hospital after falling spectacularly during the Dutch race on Sunday but was discharged shortly afterward.
The 29-year-old had hoped to compete in all three Ardennes classics this season, but his team said the seriousness of his fall prompted them to take extra precautions.
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Beer wasn’t atop my list of cravings as I inched up the Cauberg, rolled under the jumbotron and crossed the final finish line of the Amstel Gold Race cyclosportive. Pedaling 250 kilometers through Hollands hilly Limberg region had me wanting to get off my bicycle – pronto. The freezing rain that fell for the final two hours also didn’t exactly put yours truly in the mood for some chilly suds. And after stuffing waffles and the sugary Euro sports drink Isostar down my pie hole for 10 hours, I craved something salty: corn chips, popcorn or frites.
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Even though he didn’t race this weekend, Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam), retained the top spot in the UCI world rankings.
The German-Aussie sprinter headed to the beach following his impressive spring campaign and skipped Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, but he held enough of a margin to retain the lead of the updated rankings released Monday.
In fact, there were no major shakeups, with the exception of Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto), who catapulted from 21st to ninth after finishing fourth in the Dutch classic.
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Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Matt Lloyd (Silence-Lotto) crashed heavily in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race and left the course in ambulances, wearing cervical collars around their necks.
Schleck, who won here in 2006, never lost consciousness and was later diagnosed as having suffered a mild concussion, according to his team. There was no immediate word on Lloyd’s condition.
“It is not as serious as we first feared,” said Saxo Bank sporting director Kim Andersen. “Frank is fine and that is the most important thing. I was really concerned for him when I saw him lying on the ground!”
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Sergei Ivanov (Katusha) won the 44th edition of the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday in a dramatic two-up sprint with Saxo Bank’s Karsten Kroon as a frantic chase fell just a few seconds short of success.
“For me it’s the biggest win of my career,” said a clearly delighted Ivanov after emerging the strongest of a final three-man break that also included Robert Gesink (Rabobank), who hung on for third on the steeps of the Cauberg, just a few seconds ahead of the charging peloton.
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Defending champion Damiano Cunego is among the favourites going into Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, the only spring classic which takes place in the Netherlands.
The 258.6km road race leads from Maastricht to Valkenburg in the hilly Limburg region in the south of the country, near the borders with Belgium and Germany.
It features 31 torturous climbs, culminating in a 1000m ascent of the notorious Cauberg, and makes a grim mockery of the Netherlands’ reputation as a flat country.
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