In-form Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert won the Amstel Gold race for the second successive year on Sunday to add to his win in the Fleche-Brabanconne earlier this week.
The 28-year-old came home well clear of Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez, while Australian Simon Gerrans was third in the 260km ride through the hilly Limburg region.
Gilbert, who has targeted the Liege-Bastogne-Liege next weekend as his main objective, seized command on the final climb after Rodriguez had made a vain attempt to go clear himself.
Photo: EPA
The first three home had overtaken two-time Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck on the climb after the Luxembourg star had gone clear 11km from the finish, but having looked set for -victory, he came unstuck on the steep ascent.
His older brother Frank Schleck — Amstel champion in 2008 — fared worse as he and Swiss star Fabian Cancellara were held up 23km from the finish by a crash, losing any chance of helping Andy in winning the race.
“The fall of Frank and of Cancellara ruined our plans,” Andy Schleck said. “If Frank had been there on the final climb, it would have been another matter.”
“I think I have performed well here and it gives me a confidence boost for next Sunday,” he said.
“Liege-Bastogne-Liege is more my type of race,” said Andy Schleck, who is eying a second win in the classic after his triumph in 2009.
Gilbert — who numbers two Paris-Tours and Tour of Lombardy races among his major wins — was helped in his challenge by the hard work put in by his Omega-Pharma teammate Jelle Vanendert, who managed to restrict Andy Schleck’s lead to just over 10 seconds.
CASTILLA Y LEON
AFP, MADRID
Spanish rider Xavier Tondo won the Tour of Castilla y Leon on Sunday after Britain’s Ben Swift won the fifth and final stage, a 167.7km ride round Medina del Campo.
Spain’s controversial three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador — a two-time winner this season — finished in 24th place overall, nearly three minutes adrift of Tondo.
Tondo, 32, laid the foundations for his triumph in the third and fourth stages, which had been highlighted by defending champion Contador as the keys to who eventually finished in the overall winner’s gray jersey.
Tondo finished fifth in the third stage, a mountain one that saw Contador’s hopes dented by two punctures, and then third in the time-trial, only three seconds off the winning time of Contador.
Contador — who had won the Tour of Murcia and the Tour of Catalonia earlier this season — had been hindered in a crucial race in his build-up to the Tour of Italy not only by the punctures, but also a cold.
Contador is racing under threat of a ban from the World Anti--Doping Agency (WADA) and/or the International Cycling Union (UCI) following a positive test for trace amounts of clenbuterol during last July’s Tour de France, where he claimed his third victory in the race.
He was cleared to compete in February when the Spanish Cycling Federation rescinded an initial -decision to hand down a one-year competition ban.
It accepted the rider’s claim that he had unknowingly consumed drug-contaminated meat and was therefore not negligent.
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