Amstel Gold sportive

sherlok

I'm planning on riding the Amstel Gold sportive in April and I'm looking for some advice on gearing from anyone who's done the ride in the past.

My lowest gear is a 39 on the front and a 27 at the back. What i'm wondering is will i get up the hills or should i stick a compact chainset on the front?

smurphy29

sherlok wrote: »

I'm planning on riding the Amstel Gold sportive in April and I'm looking for some advice on gearing from anyone who's done the ride in the past.

My lowest gear is a 39 on the front and a 27 at the back. What i'm wondering is will i get up the hills or should i stick a compact chainset on the front?

You should be grand, so long as you're a reasonable climber. The 'bergs' are reasonably pointy but not that long so they're short enough efforts. The Cauberg is plenty steep but you'll get over it. Sure Phillipe Gilbert did it in the big ring!

Lusk_Doyle

Raam did it. He can advise you.

Pieterblurb

I did the Amstel Gold in 2012 with a standard chainset. The hills are fairly short compared to Ireland, but it is the combination of the distance and the repeating short hills in the last 100 km that make it hard. If i would do it now it would be with a compact...

Raam

I was on a borrowed bike which had a compact and probably a 25 or 27 on the back. Some of the hills are tough, Keutenberg is nice but the steep part is really only short.



None of them are long, but yes, it is all the distance and repeated effort which wears you down.

It's a great route.

imskilguy

The Keutenberg is the only really steep bit. I actually used the granny at the stage :P
but the Cauberg isnt too bad. maybe just be ready to tackle the Keutenberg and its quite abrupt after the corner.
ill be there too!

sherlok

Thanks everyone.

gilleek2

sherlok wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

If you dont mind me asking, how did this go for you last year? Was the standard chainring okay for the steeper bergs? Were there big groups doing the 200 and 240 or were they very spread out? Doing it in a few weeks and toying with the distances. Dont know if i'm fit enough for the full 240.
Cheers

sherlok

gilleek2 wrote: »

If you dont mind me asking, how did this go for you last year? Was the standard chainring okay for the steeper bergs? Were there big groups doing the 200 and 240 or were they very spread out? Doing it in a few weeks and toying with the distances. Dont know if i'm fit enough for the full 240.
Cheers

I had a great old time!

I had plans to ride some of the LBL course when I was over that direction (which didn't pan out in the end) and as i had a compact chainset in the shed i stuck that on.

I only did the 150km course. After a bit of googling, it appeared that the 150 course had most of the interesting bits in it. I wouldn't have had the fitness to do the longer courses in any case .

As the other lads said, the hills are indeed fairly short and sharp but the cumulative climbs do eventually mount up. I think it's do-able on a standard chainset (especially if you have the fitness to be considering the longer courses), though i didn't regret doing it on a compact.

I found i was in a bunch all day. Even though there are two rather odd enforced stops in a field, i seemed to re-emerge with the same bunches each time. The people doing the different distances all shared a lot of the course, so even if the fields for the longer distances were probably a bit smaller, i'd expect you to have plenty of company.

If you have any more questions, fire away!