Second Time Around Equals Amstel Gold Success for Remco Evenepoel

Remco Evenepoel made up for third place last time around with a superb victory in the Amstel Gold Race Sunday, outsprinting defending champion Mattias Skjelmose to win.

Tadej Pogačar was missing this time around but the finale of the race was otherwise the same as a year ago, with Evenepoel and Skjelmose going all out for the line. However this time around Evenepoel proved the quickest, improving on his third place of last time around.

It was his first win in the Amstel Gold Race and adds to his two Liège-Bastogne-Liège titles, as well as his Olympic and world championship road race wins.

Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was best of the chasers, winning an eight man sprint for third 1’59 later.

“It means a lot. I have had a pretty good last month, the month of April, with Catalunya and Flanders, but to take a win is always a bit different,” Evenepoel said.

“I really love this race. Lots of short, hard climbs and actually the race more or less opened in the same place this year again. So I was really confident, I felt much better than I did last year in the final. I think it was also shown in the sprint that my sprint was much better, that I had something left. I am just very proud to finish off all the teamwork.”

Jorgenson crashes out of winning move

The first of the Ardennes Classics is a very complicated one for all who take part, both because of the 21 climbs and also because of tight, twisting roads which demand good bike handling abilities and full concentration.

Pogačar was absent this year due to his lighter racing program, while some other big names such as Tom Pidcock, Juan Ayuso, Ben Healy and Michael Matthews were also missing. That boosted the chances of the other big names but the usual long range move gave it a shot, with nine riders breaking the elastic 10km after the start and gaining more than four minutes.

Marco Frigo (NSN Pro Cycling) later pushed ahead of these riders, but Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and others had done a lot of work to keep the break within range. It seemed likely he would be caught once the big guns started firing.

Sure enough, Frigo was just 39 seconds ahead with 42km to go and on the Kruisberg climb, Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United) threw the hammer down. Evenepoel strained at first to follow him but did so; so too Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers) and, soon afterwards, Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies).

Vauquelin slid out on a left hand bend with 41km to go, bringing Jorgenson down. The American hit the ground hard and appeared the most badly hurt, withdrawing from the race. Marc Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling) also crashed close to the same location soon afterwards.

Evenepoel was driving at the front and he, Skjelmose and Grégoire caught Frigo with 36km left. Evenepoel imposed a difficult pace on the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg with 22km left, dropping Grégoire and putting Skjelmose under pressure, and continued softening up the latter between there and the finish.

‘I had a lot of confidence’

Being clear with Skjelmose was reminiscent of 12 months ago, when the duo went clear and reeled in Pogačar.

“A bit of flashbacks to last year,” Evenepoel said, “but I had more confident now. I felt that on the climbs I was probably the strongest today. I felt that he was a bit on the limit when he was taking the pulls, I felt that he was not as strong as in the beginning when we were gone.

“I had a lot of confidence that I could finish it in the sprint, so I am happy with the result.”

Indeed he was prepared to take more responsibility, driving at the front and also turning the screw the final time up the Cauberg. Skjelmose stayed with him and did ride after the summit, yet had nothing when Evenepoel went all in with 200 meters to go.

“For sure this is most beautiful victory of the season,” he said. “That is for sure. But every win is a new one and is a beautiful one. Like I mentioned a few days ago, this race is just under a monument so it is really high in my ranking.

“For sure it is in my top eight of victories in my career, probably. I am one of the lucky guys to win quite a lot. To win this one means a lot and I am very proud of it.”

Evenepoel is due to ride Liège-Bastogne-Liège next weekend, where he will clash with Pogačar for the first time this season, but before then Flèche Wallonne is possible.

“We are going to analyze the race and then decide it, tomorrow probably,” he said. “It is on the list but it is not confirmed yet. So we will see how I recover from today. But I felt pretty strong, so I hope to race. But first I am going to enjoy this one.”