April 17, 2005 – After a spate of classics in Flanders and northern France, where the roads are ugly and the people tend towards uncomplicated earthiness, the Amstel Gold Race brought the ProTour to Holland, a place known more for colder detachment and precise calculation. On home turf, Rabobank was under pressure to deliver a win, and they went about doing so in typical Dutch style, with a thoroughness of planning and precision that was truly inspiring to behold. Inspiring”¦ except it didn’t work.

The first break of the day formed after 50km, with Erwin Thijs (mrbookmaker.com) making his second long-range effort after being the driving force in the early break last weekend at Paris-Roubaix. He was joined by Ukrainian Andrei Grivko (Domina Vacanze); Frenchman Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole), an experienced rider and solid time triallist, and not a bad man for a long-range break; and Alain Van Katwijk of the Dutch/Japanese joint venture Shimano-Memory Corp. team.

Working diligently, they built more than 12-minute lead, and observers were feeling a repeat of the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen earlier in the week, where an early break built a big lead and was only seen again when they stepped onto the podium. As if to reinforce the comparison, Van Katwijk was dropped with 100km left in the race and Grivko punctured, and while they tried to give chase they were doomed to be swept up by the peloton. The gap was still a hefty nine minutes. And there were two in front just like at the Scheldrprijs – Moreau, who again is a solid long-range threat, and Thijs, who at Paris-Roubaix spent no less than nearly 200km in breaks and among the race leaders.

But the sprinters’ teams would not be left out twice in a row, and certainly not in a classic. Serious work in the bunch, especially by the home-turf Rabobank, brought the gap down and with just under 50km left a counter-attack by Leon Van Bon (Davitamon-Lotto), eventually joined by Steffen Wesemann (T-Mobile) got clear of the chasing bunch and built a sliver of a lead. That sliver would hold for twenty kilometers, when Van Bon would drop away to be replaced by local Limburg boy Marc Lotz (Quickstep), David Etxebarria (Liberty Seguros), and Karsten Kroon (Rabobank). But the foursome could never build a gap…Rabobank and the others were careful about that.

A last-ditch effort by a ten-man group including favourites Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) and his teammate Oscar Freire, defending champ Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) and Danilo Di-Luca (Liquigas) made a try with just under 10km remaining, but the pace was too high and the pack buried their effort with just under 3km left.

As they hit the Cauberg Rabobank veteran Erik Dekker was leading the pack and it looked like a perfect set-up: a Dekker lead-out (how many thousands of strong lead-outs in his career?), followed by a massive Boogerd effort, then the final launch of Freire for the sprint win. Dekker’s massive pull ended and Boogerd took over with Freire on his wheel, driving the final effort to launch Freire despite what must have been a hankering to erase the disappointment of two straight second places and a third after his win in 1999. But the third stage of the Rabobank three-stage rocket was out of fuel, and couldn’t hold Boogerd’s wheel.

The disappointment that would be erased on this day was not Boogerd’s, but Danilo De Luca’s. Third and fourth place finishes in the Amstel Gold the past two years had undoubtedly left him playing the finishing stages in his mind, and this time the scenario unfolded as planned. As Freire ran out of legs Di Luca snuck in behind Boogerd, who was trying to convert his lead-out into an effort of his own. Davide Rebellin tucked in behind Di Luca as Freire fell to fourth, and then out. When you can’t follow the lead-out’s pace, the race is not yours and prepare for hard looks in the team bus post-race.

Di Luca came around for a well-played win ahead of the amazing Boogerd, who almost managed to convert his effort and instead finished second for the third year in a row, a victim of team sprint tactics gone wrong.

Amstel Gold Race

1. Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas – Bianchi
2. Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank
3. Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze
4. Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
5. Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems
6. Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) Quickstep
7. Bj̦rn Leukemans (Bel) Davitamon РLotto
8. David Etxebarria Alkorta (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team