Some Amstel History The Amstel Gold Race was first run in 1966, making it one of the youngest Classics. The Dutch race was a dream of Herman Krott who ran the Amstel Bier team, a team which nurtured riders like Fedor den Hertog, Joop Zoetemelk, Gerrie Knetemann, Gert-Jan Theunisse and Leo van Vliet, but he was working on a Dutch Classic. He wanted a race that would be on a par with the Tour of Flanders and Milano-Sanremo. His intended route was from Amsterdam to Maastricht, but that turned out to be unfeasible. Breda was the start town and the finish was in Meerssen and held on Queens Day (Koninginnedag) 1966.# You can see the ‘PEZ 2025 Amstel Gold Race Preview` HERE. #The first Amstel winner Jean Stablinski, here with Jacques AnquetilThe winner of the first edition was Jean Stablinski. A Polish, naturalised Frenchman, was also a World champion, a Classics and Vuelta a Espaa winner. It was Stablinski last big win, for Krott he was a big fish to start the list of winner. The Amstel Gold Race is not one of the Monuments, but the list of winners contains all the big names: Eddy Merckx (twice), Gerrie Knetemann (twice), Freddy Maertens, Jan Raas (five times), Steven Rooks, Joop Zoetemelk, Jelle Nijdam, Eric Van Lancker, Adrie van der Poel, Frans Maassen, Johan Museeuw, Bjarne Riis, Michael Boogerd, Erik Zabel, Erik Dekker, Michele Bartoli, Alexandre Vinokourov, Davide Rebellin, Frnk Schleck, Philippe Gilbert (four times), Enrico Gasparotto, Mathieu van der Poel,…
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