Amstel Gold Route goes back to BelgiumPreviously I had reported that the Amstel Gold race was to avoid the last few climbs in Belgium next year. This was bad news for me as I had taken lots of really snappy photos of these fabulous hills while out and about from my house in Maastricht last August. I was planning a big photographic review of the route for next year. Well Leo must have realised this and has now announced that the Belgium parts of the course are back.The final kilometres of the Amstel Gold race will once again pass through Belgium. The Race Director Leo van Vliet yesterday announced this during an inspection tour of the last kilometres of the 33st edition including the climbs of Saint Pierre (Bel), Muizenberg (Bel), Hallembaye (Bel) and a few kilometers from the finish in Maastricht over the Zonneberg. So next year I will have a detailed photographic analysis of all these hills and more about the route of the Amstel Gold Race. Van Vliet said the crux of the World Cup race was the route around Limburg. Yesterday's reconnaissance of the route was designed to reveal the possible problems. "This is especially as the route is narrow and winding. The climb of the Hallenbaye, with an average gradient of 18 per cent, was something I wanted to keep in the route. The decision for next year is to remain in Belgium. There has not been a single day that I haven't thought it over, but there shall now be no change." Compared with last season, when the Danish rider Bjarne Riis won the race in Maastricht after a solo breakway, the route of the 1998 Amstel Gold race will be changed in 4 ways. The start will be in Maastricht. The route will then go through the towns of Bunde, Geulle, Elsloo, Stein and Urmond (all north of Maastricht and close to the river - flat lands). Then it will go east to Geleen (where Wim Sanders dealt in drugs!) where the customary loop of the town has been deleted. This means that the easterly mining region will not be in the planned route. The Cauberg will be climbed twice next year because it is a major part of the World Championship route at Valkenburg. From 1993, the final phases of the Amstel Gold Race went through Belgium. Since then the successive winners have been Rolf Jarmann, Johan Museeuw, Mauro Gianetti, Stefano Zanini and Bjarne Riis all worthy riders. Riis has said at the introduction of the Telekom Team in Bad Neuenahr that he will be participating in the race next season. His teammate, 10 years younger than him, Jan Ullrich also has the race in his program for next season. The first German Tour Winner will also race at Milan-San Remo and Luik-Bastenaken-Luik. |