Cycling News

20 April 2009

It was a tough day in the saddle on Sunday with the 44th running of the Amstel Gold Race in Holland. 200 riders took to the start in Maastricht square with the sun shining and the fans out in force. Simon and his Cervelo team took to the start one rider down after Daniel Lloyd withdrew from the race due to illness.

After the breakaway was formed, the peloton cruised through the first 3 hours of the race with the average speed slightly less than the 40km per hour estimate. With the breakaway quickly gaining close to 12 minutes over the peloton, Caisse d'Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Rabobank reacted putting riders on the front to limit the leaders time gap. When the peloton reached the Cauberg for the second time and with only 76km until the finish, the race was on. 

Simon put in a gutsy attack on the Keutenberg and continued to follow the moves in the last 20km. He was, however not able to make the decisive break of Ivanov, Gesink and Kroon and finished 8 seconds behind winner Sergei Ivanov in 7th place.

Cervelo's Sports Director Jean Paul van Poppel commented on the race..."Our best guy was Simon Gerrans. He was the man who we protected from the start. He attacked on the second last climb, the Keutenberg. He did wonderfully, a great performance up there with the three rider breakaway. He caught them on the top where he had ten guys with him and there the attacks started. We had just one in and it was a pity as Simon has to gamble a little bit. Out of that he missed the three man breakaway again on the flats between the Keutenberg and the Cauberg, so we were lucky that Lotto had nobody in that group. Then they almost closed the gap but just at the start of the last climb they held back a bit. After that we did the best we could to get in the sprint for the fourth, fifth or sixth position. He got seventh. It was a good result, we’re really happy with it".

After 24 hours reflecting on the race, Simon was happy with his performance and acknowledges that when it comes to Amstel Gold, he still has more in him. "I did exactly what I wanted to do yesterday. My plan going into the race was to look after myself for the first 200km and then start firing. If I was with the leaders with 20km to go, my plan was to attack on the Keutenberg and get in the decisive move to set up the final sprint up the Cauberg. I unfortunately missed the move with Ivanov, Gesink and Kroon. At one point I thought we might catch the 3 guys up front but it wasn't to be. I'm happy with how I went today as I did the best I could".

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