Velominati Super Prestige: Amstel Gold 2013

He earned those stripes around Limburg.

Yes it is a race named after a barely drinkable Dutch beer. I have enjoyed Amstel beer, brought to our table by a nice waitress, sitting outside in the Dutch spring. Atmosphere is everything. Do the Dutch brew awesome beer? I drank some good stuff in Amsterdam last spring but I’m pretty sure it was Belgian.

Now we begin the Ardennes three race-fest of Amstel, La Fléche Wallone and LBL. Peter Sagan has been resting up, Phil Gil is looking for his 2011 form (or his cortisone), Andy Schleck is suiting up for da ‘Shack. The big Spring Classic boys have moved on to the couch. They are not welcome here. Riding up to the start line now are the tough riders who can climb and climb again. Power to weight ratios must be honed to the razor’s edge to win these Ardennes races. Cancellara has talked of losing weight to be competitive in Liége-Bastogne-Liége. Just winning Ronde van Vlaanderen does not qualify you to win in the Ardennes races. Unless your first name was Edddy and last name Merckx.

Enjoy the start list. The betting window is open. Do not let Pedro Delgado sit on your couch.

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Gianni

Gianni has left the building.

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View Comments

Mirko says:

Apr 15 2013 at 12:34 pm

@piwakawaka

@wiscot

@The Oracle

My third Delgado in four weeks. I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of the VSP this year from the sidelines, drinking Maltenis and yelling obscenities.

No, no, no! You have to stay in the game! I owe you beer from last year and if you drop out that means we don't have the opportunity to even the VSP competition or even let you go 2 up. Given my form lately ( I swapped out Valverde from the Amstel VSP at the last minute) you can catch up - there's long way to go. Pulling out now would be a real Schlecky thing to do.

Could we make this a verb? Too Shleck- give up, pull out, quit? Is five times already this season?

The thing is, schleck already is the root form of a German verb and means lick, suck or eat ice cream. No joke.