Amstel Curacao Race

The Amstel Curaçao Race was a cycling criterion that took place every November from 2002 to 2014 on the island of Curaçao (formerly the Netherlands Antilles ) and was popular with many top European riders as a relaxed end to the season. With the financial support of the Dutch brewery " Amstel ", which also gives its name to the famous Amstel Gold Race , racing drivers with big names were invited to the Caribbean island every year . The organizer was former professional cyclist Leo van Vliet , Tour stage winner and boss of the Amstel Gold Race, who brought the event to life together with Erik Breukink , also a successful professional cyclist and sporting director of the Rabobank team . The course has been changed once since the first edition of the criterion, but with lengths of 86.1 and 73.6 kilometers the distance remained within the usual range for criteria.

In 2014 the organizer Leo van Vliet announced that the upcoming 12th edition would be the last. The reason he named was the extended racing calendar due to the globalization of cycling, which made it more difficult to invite top riders to the race. In addition, the Saitama Criterium, which was organized by the financially strong Amaury Sport Organization , was a competition that it was unable to cope with with a budget of € 200,000.

All European professionals won the twelve events, the Spaniard Alberto Contador and the Dutch Niki Terpstra were the only drivers to make the list of winners several times with two wins each.

Winner list men

year	length	winner	Second	Third
2002	86.1 km	Michael Boogerd	Paolo Bettini	Stefan Van Dijk
2003	86.1 km	Peter Van Petegem	Alejandro Valverde	Michael Boogerd
2004	73.6 km	Óscar Freire	Max Van Heeswijk	Davide rebel
2005	73.6 km	Tom Boonen	Paolo Savoldelli	Pieter Weening
2006	73.6 km	Alejandro Valverde	Frank Schleck	Erik Dekker
2007	73.6 km	Alberto Contador	Thomas Dekker	Frank Schleck
2008	73.6 km	Andy Schleck	Stijn Devolder	Theo Bos
2009	73.6 km	Alberto Contador	Thor Hushovd	Koos Moerenhout
2010	73.6 km	Frank Schleck	Alessandro Petacchi	Niki Terpstra
2011	73.6 km	Marcel Kittel	Andy Schleck	Johnny Hoogerland
2012	73.6 km	Niki Terpstra	Marc de Maar	Thomas De Gendt
2013	73.6 km	Johnny Hoogerland	Jan Bakelants	Marc de Maar
2014	73.6 km	Niki Terpstra	Sebastian Langeveld	Tim Wellens

Winner list women

year	Winner
2011	Chantal Baak
2012	Marianne Vos
2013	Ellen van Dijk

Further ratings

In addition to the main ranking, there was often a separate ranking for the best non-European or local driver:

year	Best local driver
2002	Emile Abraham
2004	Corwin Nicolina
2005	Ivan Jonker
2006	Barry Bakker
2007	Johan van den Berg
2010	Gyasi Sulvaran

Since 2009, the Jan Thiel Criterium has also taken place two days before the main race:

year	winner
2009	Kenny Van Hummel
2010	Koos Moerenhout
2011	Johnny Hoogerland
2012	Lieuwe Westra

Others

For many television stations and magazines, the backdrop of the Caribbean was often an attractive setting for photo shoots and interviews with the drivers present.

Web links

• Official website
• Amstel Curaçao Race (Men) in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Amstel Curaçao Race (Women) in the Radsportseiten.net database

proof

1. ↑ Documentation of the Belgian broadcaster "Sporza". (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 22, 2011 ; accessed on July 18, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Message about the end of the race on the organizer's Facebook page
3. ↑ Press release on the first Jan Thiel Criterium  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Photo series by photographer Tim De Waele ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.