Current golden-boy of cycling, Greg Van Avermaet, is hoping his midas touch continues at this week’s Amstel Gold Race following his incredible win at Paris-Roubaix last weekend.
The Belgian rider is hoping to add Amstel to his ever-growing palmarès, a race in which his best is fifth in 2015.
“A lot has happened since then, a lot of big wins, and with my win at Paris-Roubaix I’m definitely going in confident,” Van Avermaet said.
Van Avermaet is hoping to carry on his winning spree at Amstel Gold Race this weekend after taking victory at Paris-Roubaix (Sunada)
“I’ve said it many times; winning breeds confidence and when a leader is confident, the team is also confident.
“I hope to stand on the podium [at Amstel Gold] for the first time in my career.”
Unlike Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold throws up its own challenges with the amount of climbing riders must overcome.
This year’s race won’t be the same to the one that GVA faced in 2015 with the final climb of the Cauberg being cut as the final climb, now situated less than 19km out from the finish line it won’t affect the outcome as much.
Breaking from tradition, the Cauberg has been dropped from the 2017 Amstel Gold Race
Despite the last climbs of Geulhemmerberg and Bemelerberg at 14.2km and 7.3km respectively, organisers have opted to go flat for the route finale, which may work in the BMC rider’s favour should he still be in contention by this point.
BMC Sports Director, Valerio Piva, couldn’t praise Van Avermaet high enough. “We know that we have a champion in Greg Van Avermaet” he said.
“At Paris-Roubaix we saw how well we could work as a team to protect Greg and position him well in the finale. I hope to see this team spirit again at Amstel Gold Race,” he continued.
>>>Read our TV guide for the race this weekend
Philippe Gilbert will look to stop GVA’s dominance with another win at the 2017 Amstel Gold Race
However, GVA will still have to fight off former colleague and compatriot in Philippe Gilbert who has won the race a whopping three times in his career.
Gilbert has also shown to be a good bit of form after taking the Tour of Flanders this year with a breathtaking solo effort 55km out.
