A surprising but well-deserved third place in Amstel Gold Race has left Bardiani-CSF sprinter Sonny Colbrelli undecided if his proverbial beer glass was half empty - having come so close to victory in a top World Tour event - or half full.
At the end of a tough, unpredictable and wide-open Amstel Gold, the Italian led in the shattered remnants of the peloton behind winner Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty - Groupe Goubert) and Michael Valgren (Tinkoff).
“It’s my first podium finish in a big Classic, so I can’t be too unhappy, but at the same time I didn’t win, so I’m not pleased about that,” Colbrelli said afterwards. “I’ve got mixed feelings.”
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Colbrelli said he had come into the Cauberg climb ideally placed, just three riders back in the main peloton, but that he had made a mistake when Gasparotto went for it half way up the climb. “When I saw him go, I hesitated a bit, because I was expecting QuickStep and BMC to pull him back. If I’m honest, I waited for too long.
“Many great riders finished behind me, though, and this is the proof I did a great race.”
Reading the race, Colbrelli said, had in any case proved very tricky since the moment when Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing), always a key factor in the Amstel Gold since 2010 and his first of three wins, surprisingly faded from the front end of affairs in the final hour. “It was a very different race, on the Cauberg things would have played out very differently if Gilbert had been there,” he observed.
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