Amstel Gold Race 2008

Well, we got the race winner wrong - we put five names in our weekly poll and not one was our winner. You voted in our 'Who will win the Amstel Gold Race?' poll - Stefan Schumacher 8%, Oscar Friere 25% , Frank Schleck 17% , Alejandro Valverde 33% and Phillippe Gilbert 17%. At least we had two out of the first three listed. (We had Cunego earmarked for Bastogne Liege)

Cungeo also leads the UCI Pro Tour Pic - fotoreporter sirotti- www.sirotti.it

Damiano Cunego (Lampre)had been a member of an eight man break and from it he sprinted ahead of Frank Schleck (Team CSC) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) to win - report

AFP report: Damiano Cunego (Lampre) said of his win; "This is a race where you have to keep calm and be in front in the closing stages. It's very nervy. I did myself damage in the last climb. I was waiting for the last 100 metres to pull out."

This was Damiano Cunego's debut in Amstel Gold Race and he commentated, “This victory is for the whole team and for the outstanding performances by all my team mates. I think my race was very good: the final part was not so easy, I had to be ready to control all attempts of the eight riders that were with me. I was feeling very good and when Schleck attacked, I understood that it was the right moment, so I followed him and then I succeed in obtaining the victory. The main target of the week was Liege-Bastogne-Liege, because it’s the race I know better; today this victory arrived almost as a surprise: I’m very happy, but now I want go on in this way”.

Guido Bontempi, Lampre’s sport director, said, “Damiano and the team raced very well. We supported the chase of the three early attackers (Vandewalle, Timmer and Krivtsov); then Cunego was helped in a perfect way by his team mates and then he was fantastic in the last kilometres”. Team mates that won with Damiano are Alessandro Ballan, Paolo Bossoni, Francesco Gavazzi, Marco Marzano, Daniele Righi, Simon Spilak and Paolo Tiralongo. Cunego is now leader of the Pro Tour classification.

CSC rider Frank Schleck revealed his end-game plan of being out in front in the closing stages didn't quite pan out as he'd envisaged. "I knew I couldn't do it in a sprint with Cunego and Valverde but with Cunego in control my fate was sealed.

"Now I'm targeting the next two classics, Fleche-Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. I'll be trying to win them. Let me repeat, I didn't say I was going to win them, I'm going to try."

Alejandro Valverde for his part said: "I'm satisfied, this is my best placing in the Amstel and I've been less prepared for these classics than in previous years."

Team Milram Manager Gerry van Gerwen: said; "That was a difficult race. Our riders showed a good performance up to the end. Unfortunately, at the end our young riders showed the lack of experience which you need to conquer this challenging course. But we are on the right way.“

Niki Terpstra, the Dutch rider for Team Milram: "It was my goal to be as far forward as possible. I tried to get away but wasn't fast enough. I absolutely wanted to get over the next climb in order to pick up speed on the descent, but I had too much wind in my face. When you go on your limit here in Limburg, you lose so much strength, that you can't quickly recover.“

Astana's Sergey Ivanov, finished in a strong way 7th in the Amstel Gold Race. Ivanov, having placed already 2nd in that race in 2002 and attacked 16 K from the finish. “It was a tactically perfect race,” commented Ivanov post-race. “On the Keutenberg I had cramps in both legs but I knew I had to stay with Christian Pfannberger (Bralow) if I wanted to be in the front group in the last kilometress."

"I knew that it would be impossible to win in the sprint when I took a look around and saw the composition of our group: two CSC riders, two from Caisse d’Epargne and Cunego.”