Remco Evenepoel has proclaimed his first ever Amstel Gold Race win among his best ever victories.
The Belgian superstar won a two-up contest with defending champion Mattias Skjelmose to take his first ever win at Amstel Gold Race.
In a finish reminiscent of last year’s, the pair came to the finish line together. In 2025 Skjelmose saw off Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar but this time he was no match to Evenepoel who had him beaten metres before the line.
It’s the former World Champion’s eighth win of the season.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the race he said: “It was a flashback to last year. I have more confidence now, I felt on the climbs I was the strongest today and that he [Skjelmose] was on the limit when taking pulls. I had a lot of confidence I could finish it in a sprint.”
Skjelmose said: “Last year I was lucky and this year he beat me with legs”
Evenepoel said he is a big fan of Amstel Gold’s “short hard climbs”.
He added: “It’s the most beautiful victory of the season but every week there’s a new beautiful one.
“This race, other than the monuments, is very high on my list. It’s in the top eight victories in my career.”
Evenepoel and Skjelmose had escaped the peloton alongside Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United) and several other riders with 40km to go.
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed heavily on a descent as he tumbled over Kevin Vauquelin (Ineos Greandiers) who had slid out on a corner. Huub Artz was also taken out of the race in the same crash.
That left just a trio of Grégoire, Evenepoel and Skjelmose chasing the remains of the day’s break.
The Frenchman was distance on the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg by the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader’s pressing and by the top of the climb he had lost 10 seconds.
They proceeded to increase their gap over the final lap of the race’s finishing circuit and had a minute and half in hand as they came to the Cauberg for the final time.
The Belgian tested the Lidl-Trek rider up the climb but the pair came to the line together.
When Evenepoel launched his sprint Skjelmose had no answer.
Behind them Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Emirates-XRG) won the sprint for third.
The Belgian is next scheduled race is Liège–Bastogne–Liège next Sunday but he said he may yet race La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday too.
He said: “We’ll analyse the race and maybe decide tomorrow. We’ll see how I recover from today. They’re predicting nice weather and it’s always nice to have good weather in Flèche Wallonne but first I’m going to enjoy this one.”
Result: Amstel Gold Race: Maastricht > Valkenburg (257km)
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 5:59.40
2. Mattia Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, at 1s
3. Benoît Cosnefroy (Fra) UAE Emirates-XRG, at +1.59
4. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
5. Emiel Verstrynge (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech
6. Mauro Schmid (Sui) Jayco AlUla
7. Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
8. Albert Withen Philipsen (Den) Lidl-Trek
9. Ewn Costiou (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
10. Marco Frigo (Ita) NAN Cycling Team, all at same time
