Gent-Wevelgem

Andrey Amador (10th) leaves an impression again in the cobbled classics, comes up just 100m short for historic 2nd place for Movistar Team in Gent-Wevelgem

The bravery and background of Andrey Amador surprised everyone during the first week of big classics in Flanders, coming to an end this Sunday with the 2013 Gent-Wevelgem, with temperatures below zero and strong winds -though not with snow, that forced to shorten some of the originally planned route- over the 183 kilometers in western Belgium. The Costa Rican rider from the Movistar Team took the 10th spot of the day after a big show of class and strength in all phases of the race.

Already from the opening flag, Amador made it into a dangerous, 25-rider group -the bunch splitted in no less than five groups- including the strong likes of Boonen, Boom, Greipel or Cavendish. The attempt was chased down just before the first of nine ascents in the day, the Mont Cassel, with a 50-rider group forming up at the front as José Joaquín Rojas accompanied the Center American rider in his efforts. They eventually paid off after the steepest climbs -the route featured the hard slopes of the Kemmelberg-, when he joined an 11-man group that ended up fighting for victory.

Slovak Peter Sagan (CAN) attacked from that group with 3k from the finish to claim the solo win, while Amador, initially dropped by the move, brought his pride out and jumped away from the break into the final kilometer, a ‘finisseur’ action reached by the charge of the group with less than 100m from the finish. Andrey had to stay content with a 10th place that is still one of the biggest performances in Wevelgem from the telephone squad -equalled by Visconti’s 10th in 2012 and only beaten by Rojas’s 9th in 2007- and remains a moral boost before next Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen.