The first round of the famous Ardennes Triptych, also valid for our special three-race trophy, is the Amstel Gold Race which takes place tomorrow on the Dutch roads in front of the fans of Mathieu Van der Poel, considered the man to beat.

The route - S trade narrow, brick houses and the famous côtes. The beer race is the youngest of the classics in the North but already has a very respectable palmares, in which the Italians have stamped success five times.

This year the race will return from Maastricht , the capital of Limburg, with the riders who will make their first rides on a track that will offer very little flatness in its 254.1 kilometers and 33 very short 'climbs' but some with significant slopes.

When the -60 km from the finish will start, the riders will have to face five tears in rapid succession, along which the race will definitely explode. We will start with the Gulperbergweg , then Kruisberg , Eyserbosweg (also with peaks of 17%), Fromberg and Keutenberg , which in the hardest stretch of its 1600 meters will even reach 22%. After about ten kilometers, almost all of them slightly downhill, there will therefore be the third and last passage on the Cauberg , probably no longer decisive as in the past given that, at the top, there will still be 23.9 kilometers to go.

The runners will only have to climb two walls: the first will be the Geulhemmerberg , faced for the third time, while the second will be, a dozen kilometers later, the Bemelerberg , crested just 7300 meters from the finish.

The favorites - Obviously one above all: Mathieu Van der Poel, fresh winner of Flanders and first at the Amstel in 2019. The lineup of opponents is still quite large. A test of redemption is expected from Quick Step with Kasper Asgreen, Florian Senechal and above all Andrea Bagioli , who returns to racing after the stage victory at Catalunya.

The Ineos Grenadiers is very formidable with the presence of Thomas Pidcock , second for a few thousandths last year behind Van Aert (absent), Dylan Van Baarle, Michal Kwiatkowski and a Ben Turner not to be underestimated.

But there is no lack of other competitive teams: this is the case of Jumbo Visma with Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot (Tom Dumoulin at the start), Groupama Fdj with the revelation of Flanders Valentin Madouas and Stefan Kung who will do the dress rehearsal for Roubaix, the Bahrain Victorius of Matej Mohoric, Dylan Teuns, Ian Tratnik and Fred Wright, and the UAE Emirates which ranks one of the main favorites, Marc Hirschi, with Juan Ayuso and Matteo Trentin .

Other names to be circled in red include Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Dsm), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Michael Valgren (Ef Education EasyPost), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Benoit Cosnefroy (Ag2R) and Michael Matthews (Team Bike Exchange ).

Possible outsiders could be Warren Barguil (Arkea) and Simon Clarke (Israel) who could share the captain's ranks with Jakob Fulgslang , still far from the best condition.

The Italian patrol at the start is discreet: in addition to the aforementioned Bagioli and Trentin, there are also Filippo Baroncini (Trek), Samuele Battistella (Astana), Alberto Bettiol (Ef) and Filippo Zana (Bardiani) .

We will talk about the results of the Amstel tomorrow evening, April 10, at 9 pm live on the Youtube and Twitch channels of Fantacycling.

We are waiting for you.

In the image (from the official website of the race) the arrival of 2021 with Van Aert's victory over Pidcock at the photo finish.

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