Vansummeren - Astarloza is an idiot

While Mikel Astarloza's breakaway heroics at Sunday's Amstel Gold Race drew praise from the majority of the cycling community, there was one rider who wasn't best pleased with the Euskaltel Euskadi rider.

Johan Vansummeren formed part of the original breakaway along with Astarloza, but the Garmin-Sharp rider was forced to give in when the 33-year-old from San Sebastián upped the pace and went for broke inside the final 40 clicks.

Upon crossing the line, the lanky Belgian let his frustration be known in a rare moment of straightforwardness.

"What an idiot Astarloza is", he told Danish cycling website Feltet. "We'd been riding together all day and suddenly he decides to go solo. Did he have any chance whatsoever in staying away? With that headwind, what he did was like riding straight into a wall. I struggled a bit at the Gulperberg, but if he'd just slowed down a bit we would have caught up again and we could have worked together against the wind on the flats".

And it gets worse.

"Well, he is a Spaniard after all. It's not for nothing they're experiencing an economic crisis. It's what happens when you don't use your head. He was also causing trouble before he took off. He was continuously leaving small gaps, sitting at the back and not taking turns. And then suddenly he just leaves us behind...".

For the record, Astarloza is yet to offer any sort of reply. And it'll probably stay that way.