Amstel Gold Race winner Paula Blasi was dropped just five minutes before she launched what would prove to be a race winning attack, she has revealed.
Blasi soloed away from a peloton that contained five former winners to win the Amstel Gold Race Ladies in Valkenburg today.
Asked after the race if she was confident she had the strength to win she told TNT Sports: “No, five minutes before I broke-out I was dropped. I just came back and said I’d give it go to help my team-mates.”
She added: “I just said to the team I would help with the positioning because it’s my first race here. I was a bit nervous because it was nothing like anything I’ve done before.
“This bunch is quite crazy it’s difficult to be in the front and that’s the most important part. I was struggling a bit, I was being dropped and coming back and being dropped and coming back because I was trying to always be in the front.
“I said I’ll just go in the breakaway because then you don’t have to fight for position.”
Blasi was a last-minute addition to UAE Team ADQ’s squad for the race after the team suffered injuries and illness.
Amstel, which she was racing for the first time, is the biggest win of the young Spaniard’s career so far. The only WorldTour win on her palmarès before today was the prologue time trial of the Tour de Romandie last year.
Blasi attacked with Vinke Nienke (SD Worx – Protime) as the race descended off the penultimate ascent of the Belemerberg, the second of three climbs on the 19km finishing circuit.
She then accelerated away from Nienke on the Cauberg and entered the final lap of the finishing circuit alone.
The chase from a reduced peloton behind was never committed or coordinated enough to bridge the gap back to the UAE Team ADQ rider.
Her lead had eked out to over a minute when she very nearly took a wrong turn at a roundabout in the final 5km but it didn’t derail her.
As the rain began to fall, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon/Sram zondacrypto) attacked the peloton up the Cauberg and was joined by Demi Vollering (FDJ United – Suez) to take the final two podium positions. Niewiadoma won the two-up sprint.
Result: Amstel Gold Race Ladies: Maastricht > Valkenburg (158km)
1. Paula Blasi (Esp) UAE Teaem ADQ in 4:02.15
2. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon/Sram zondacrypto, at 27s
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United – Suez, at same time
4. Letizia Paternoster (ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, at 43s
5. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly
6. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) UAE Team ADQ
7. Sarah Van Dam (Can) Visma-Lease a Bike
8. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Lidl-Trek
9. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)
10. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech, all at same time
