Teams meet in Maastricht, eight to start Dutch Classic short
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Team directors of the 24 teams for Amstel Gold Race meet on Saturday(Image credit: Stephen Farrand)
Team managers leaving the pre-race meeting in Maastricht(Image credit: Stephen Farrand)
The management of the 24 teams entered in Amstel Gold Race met in Maastricht on Saturday afternoon to submit their final rosters and discuss the fallout from European travel restrictions that will see eight teams start without their full compliment of riders.
178 of the originally 192 riders are expected to sign-on in Maastricht on Sunday morning.
Spanish squad Caisse d'Epargne have been the worst affected by the extensive closure of European airspace that has followed the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Wednesday. They have been granted special permission by the International Cycling Union (UCI) to start Amstel with only three riders.
Under UCI regulations, teams would ordinarily be required to start Sunday's race with no fewer than five riders.
Cervélo TestTeam will start with five riders, HTC-Columbia with six, while RadioShack, Francaise Des Jeux, Euskaltel-Euskadi, AG2R-La Mondiale and Team Sky will all begin the race one rider short.
The widespread disruption to air travel has seen a significant number of riders endure long ground-based journeys to the Netherlands. RadioShack's Chris Horner told Cyclingnews on Saturday afternoon that he and teammate Thomas Vaitkus had driven 17 hours through Friday night to complete the 1800 kilometres from Spain.
View the start list for the 2010 Amstel Gold Race.
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