Amstel Gold - Enrico Gives it Full Gas

Amstel may not make the best beer, but they do make quite a good bike race. There were hills aplenty, not to mention narrow roads, “street furniture” and plenty of parked cars.

There weren’t as many crashes as there could have been, and the favorites mostly waited until the final climb up the Cauberg for the real action to start. Oscar Friere tried a sneaky last minute move, but it was all over when the remains of the bunch caught him before the line. Enrico Gasparotto was the canny winner..

No one picked Gasparotto, but the Roulers did have Jelle Vanendert in second place, while my boy Peter Sagan went a little early and faded to third. I also had Vanendert in my team, but unfortunately it was Dennis Vanendert. The bad news is, it does you no good to pick the wrong cycling brother, as I found out the time I bet on Prudencio Indurain to win the Tour.

So, to the overall. And the Roulers have a comfortable lead, with transfers to spare. The battle for second rages between the Bile Beans and Mungo Cycling. According to Velogames, I'm still in the lead, but a quick bit of "math", would suggest I'm lagging behind the Mungos. I’ve just used up my last 2 transfers, so I'm hoping for big things from Pip Gilbert and Dries Devenyns in the remaining races if I want to keep them at bay.

In doping news, Denis Galimzyanov has become the latest rider to test positive for EPO. He may be a cheater, but at least he had the decency to confess in this note.....well, I’m told it’s a confession note. My Russian is not so good however, so it may be his shopping list for all I know.

And so, with an out of competition test, D-Gaz (as I like to call him), has joined the roll-call of former Bile Beans who have been naughty. Yes, I hate to admit it, but there have been a few wrong ‘uns on my team over my many years of Velogaming. I’ll just add him to the list along with Rico, Basso, Valverde, Contador, Millar, Petacchi, Vino, some guys I’ve forgotten about, and of course, Lance Armstrong.