Sunday 14 April 2013 at 17h03

In the Amstel Gold Race 2013 it all started today with a leading group of 7 riders. The peloton, which let this group go for quite a while, slowly approached back to this rider and was disturbed at two occasions by a crash which split it up in smaller groups. At the head of the race, the 7 riders strong group gets reduced to 3 and then to one only rider with Mikel Astarloza who gets away in the upfollowing climbs in the final part of the race.

In this final part the race got back some suspense when 6 other riders get back together with Astarloza.

One of these riders was Roman Kreuziger and attacking at the right moment the rider of the Team Saxo-Tinkoff wins the Amstel Gold Race 2013!

The summary of the Amstel Gold Race 2013

The 48th edition of the Amstel Gold Race started on the Market in Maastricht this morning just after 10.15AM when Francesco Moser gave the starting shot.

Quite soon after the start, 5 riders got in a breakaway and while Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Johan van Summeren (Garmin-Sharp), Tim de Troyer (Accent Jobs-Wanty), Alexandr Pliuschin (IAM Cycling) and Arthur Vanoverberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) quite rapidly extended their gap, two riders decided to start chasing behind them before it was too late.

At the first crossing of the finish line, a bit over 56 kilometers after the start of the race, the gap between the leading group and the peloton is already above 10 minutes while Klaas Sys (Crelan-Euphony) and Nicolas Vogondy (Accent Jobs-Wanty) get close to the 5 leading riders, at 50 seconds, and a few kilometers after the first crossing of the finish line the junction takes place and we thus have 7 riders leading the race.

In this configuration the race went on over a big distance, with a peloton mainly driven by the teams Cannondale of the huge favorite Peter Sagan and Blanco which, as the local team, of course had to show off in front of the race. While approaching the point where the borders of The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany get together, the gap of the groupe of 7 leading riders gets to its maximum of 11 minutes and at 100 kilometers from the finish it still is 10 minutes.

While approaching the second crossing of the finish line, the peloton sees a big crash happening in which the world champion, Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team), and Laurens ten Dam (Blanco) get on the ground and where several riders test their cyclo cross qualities when they have to cross the field on the right side of the road in order to get past the road blocking crash. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) was also one of the riders who fell and the former French champion has to abandon and is transported to the hospital. Andy Schleck (Radioshack-Leopard) also abandoned the race following this crash.

At the second crossing of the finish line, at 87 kilometers from the finish, the gap is down to 7'25" and it continues to go down rather quickly from there.

At 55 kilometers from the finish, when the gap dropped a bit under 3'30", a trio gets away from the leading group when Vansummeren attacks together with Astarloza and when these two riders are followed by Pliuschin.

While Tim de Troyer disappears from the chasing group a few kilometers before this climb, Mikel Astarloza gets away from his two breakaway companions on the Gulpenerberg and in the approach of this climb a new crash occurs in the peloton, and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha Team) is one of the riders on the ground, just like the local rider of the race, Rob Ruijgh (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) who fell in a muddy waterflake.

In the upfollowing climbs in the final part of the race, Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) is the first rider to start the chase from the peloton and the Dutch rider rapidly bridges the gap with Alexandr Pliuschin, now chasing alone behind Astarloza and Weening initially takes over the place of solo rider chasing behind Astarloza. Behind him it was up to Andriy Grivko (Astana), David Tanner and Lars Petter Nordhaug to take back Pliuschin and to start chasing behind Astarloza and Weening. The last mentioned rider finally decides to wait for this group in order to better organise the chase.

Just after the 3rd crossing of the finish line, Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha Team) and Roman Kreuziger (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) joined this chasing group and at 17 kilometers from the finish Astarloza was taken back by the chasing group (which lost Pliuschin and Tanner in the mean time).

In the Bemelerberg this leading group again lost some elements after some succeeding attacks and at 7 kilometers from the finish Roman Kreuziger gets away alone from the peloton, followed at a few meters by Nordhaug and a bit further by Weening, Caruso and Grivko. Just before the final climb of the Cauberg, Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) joins this chasing group and Ben Hermans (Radioshack-Leopard) and the peloton follow not far behind.

From this peloton it's first Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) and then Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) who attack to easily come back on the first group and then start the chase behind Kreuziger. Too late however since Roman Kreuziger is no longer taken back and wins the Amstel Gold Race 2013!

The classification of the Amstel Gold Race 2013

Here's the top 10 of the classification of the Amstel Gold Race 2013:

1/ Roman Kreuziger (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - 6h35'21"
2/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - +0'22"
3/ Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE)
4/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
5/ Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team)
6/ Sergio Henao (Team Sky)
7/ Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
8/ Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE)
9/ Enrico Gasparotto (Astana)
10/ Bauke Mollema (Blanco Pro Cycling Team)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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