Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the Amstel Gold Race, throwing her bike perfectly to beat Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) on the line in a group sprint after a shortened race. Ingvild Gåskjenn (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) finished third.
The race was stopped after 46 km because of an accident involving one of the police motorbike outriders. After a one-hour break and a neutralised ride to the finish line, three laps of the finishing circuit with the Geulhemmerberg, Bemelerberg, and Cauberg remained.
Eva van Agt (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM) attacked on the penultimate lap and held an advantage of up to 1:30 minutes, but the gap shrunk quickly on the run-in to the last Cauberg ascent.
Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) was the first to bridge to the break, followed by a move from Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) that was followed by the other favourites and led to a front group of 19 riders at the top.
Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) held the group together into the sprint where Wiebes thought she'd won and posted up to celebrate, giving Vos the opportunity to squeeze past on the line.
“I’m always excited for the Amstel Gold Race, but the accident showed that there are more important things in life than cycling. For a moment we were just waiting and hoping for better news. But when the restart is there, you need to focus again and get ready for the final,” Vos said.
“It was full gas all the time from the restart. With Eva van Agt, we had a good rider up there, so for us it was a perfect situation, but you still need to focus and get ready for the last time up the Cauberg.
“Lorena Wiebes and I got boxed in on the left, and I actually thought we were not coming out again, but then Lorena found a gap. She was just too early to celebrate. Only at the jump did I feel that I had more speed, so I thought I could have had it. It’s a shame for Lorena, but I’m happy with this victory.”
How it unfolded
The first attackers of the day were Anna Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels) and Heidi Franz (Lifeplus-Wahoo). When they had been caught, Quinty Schoens (VolkerWessels) and Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale) went away. Schoens and Emond had just been reeled in when the race was stopped due to the accident, so everything was together at the re-start.
Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) attacked on the first ascent of the Cauberg with 40km to go, pulling away with Niewiadoma, Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), Amber Kraak (FDJ-SUEZ), and Anna Henderson (Team Visma-Lease a Bike). Vollering bridged to them after the climb, but the group did not cooperate well and was caught on the Geulhemmerberg where Van Agt attacked with Kastelijn and Bauernfeind on her wheel.
Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) went on a solo chase but never made it to the front group who were 1:30 minutes ahead on the Bemelerberg, 28km from the finish. Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) accelerated into the Cauberg with Elena Cecchini (SD Worx-Protime) on her wheel, then Chabbey and Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) went past them and led the peloton up the climb. Longo Borghini attacked over the top, but after a furious chase, Vollering closed the gap at the head of a group of seven riders.
Catching Koster on the finishing straight, they were 35 seconds behind the breakaway with one 19-kilometre lap to go, but the peloton came back in the descent before the Geulhemmerberg. On the climb, the advantage for Van Agt, Bauernfeind, and Kastelijn dropped to 21 seconds but increased to over a minute again afterwards as nobody wanted to commit to the chase.
Van Agt’s acceleration on the Bemelerberg dropped Kastelijn who made it back after the climb, and finally Lotte Kopecky and Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) took up the chase on the last six kilometres. When Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) joined in, the breakaway was doomed, starting the Cauberg only nine seconds ahead.
Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) went all-in from the bottom of the climb but was overtaken by Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini, Wiebes, and Vos who passed the break. The pace dropped a bit on the last part of the climb, and a group of 22 riders formed over the top. Vollering shut down attacks by Niewiadoma, Kraak, and Labous and then set a high pace, keeping the group together into the sprint.
Results
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