Amstel Gold hills boasts of strong field

Maastricht, Netherlands: Cycling’s spring classics roll into the Netherlands on Sunday with a powerful cast of pretenders in the Amstel Gold Race where champion Philippe Gilbert will hope to make up for last week’s flop at Paris-Roubaix. World champion Peter Sagan triumphed in the Roubaix velodrome last Sunday with a long-range break from 55km out in a race overshadowed by the heart failure and death of 23-year-old Belgian rider Michael Goolaerts. Ahead of last Wednesday’s De Brabantse Pijl race, the peloton held a minute’s silence and wore black armbands for their fallen colleague with winner Tim Wellens pointing to the sky in his memory at the finish line.