Sunday, April 16, 2006

Amstel Gold 41st Birthday


I came home a bit late last night from a darts sesh in the Bensons, thinking hey I'm gonna follow the Amstel Gold Race tomorrow. As the start is at 10 on the Markt I set my alarm for 9. Woke up at 11. And set off to Cadier en Keer bout 2 mins from my house for 12.15 the first time of passing. Very Poor!

Anyway i then had the plan to go to Vaals to see how it was progressing but missed it. And took me almost 2 hours to get back to Cadier en Keer stuck in cycling/Easter traffic for 5 kms. But arrived in Cadier en Keer to see the 2nd passing. 3 riders had broke away from the peleton and after that I popped home to watch the finish from the sofa. I've been doing this for about 8 years now and i still haven't learnt. You should either sit in Valkenburg on a terrace, or stay at home with the TV.

Anyway it was a pretty good race and the usual switching of leaders to peleton went on. And of all the 200 odd competitors the only Luxembourger in the field won the race. Frank Schleck.
Funnily enough i was having a conversation 2 days ago at work with a Luxembourgish colleague at how rubbish they are at Football and sport in general. So Frank has saved the day. Now they will not only be known for errmmm, what are they famous for?. Oh yeah having shitloads of cash.

Boogerd came 3rd, always the bridesmaid!



After finding a very quiet spot in Cadier en Keer, the whole Lotto team decides to park right in front of me to take photos of the support team with their vehicles. Tossers!



Cadier en Keer (2nd time) the three breakaway leaders, 1 Michael Albasini, SUI (Iquigas ITA);
246 Erwin Thijs, BEL (Unibet.com BEL); 146 Bram Schmitz, NED (T-Mobile Team GER).


And here is a nice video of how scary it is to be at the side of the road....http://www.atc-network.com/site/movie.wmv . Watch the cocky guy showing off to his son when the peleton comes past and a support car near runs over his feet and his expletives thereafter.

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