Race Breakdown: The 2024 Amstel Gold Race maybe told us more about why it will be difficult for Mathieu van der Poel to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège next weekend, than how Tom Pidcock won the Dutch Classic. The World champion was trapped in the peloton without much team help. What did we learn from the Amstel Gold Race?
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Pidcock’s win, but Van der Poel couldn’t dominate like he did in the cobbled Classics
In the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Alpecin-Deceuninck was the best team, tactically and in rider strength. Despite being the favourite at the start of the Amstel Gold Race, Van der Poel and his team took a back seat. Other teams had said in the build-up that they wanted to make the Dutch Classic as hard as they could to wear down the World champion and his team. This worked as Van der Poel was isolated in the finale, but everyone must have the memory of 2019 when MvdP came storming through the race to take the win.
No repeat of 2019 for Van der Poel
The Alpecin-Deceuninck Amstel team was strong, although Jasper Philipsen had ended his Classic season, he might not have been much help in the finale anyway. The biggest problem was the abandonment of Gianni Vermeersch, who had been sick during the night. The Belgian had been the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider for the finals. This was where Van der Poel was missing an important element and left him isolated when he needed help. Quinten Hermans had crashed earlier and Axel Laurance couldn’t do anything.
Van der Poel was trapped in the chase group without any workers
The Classics change with the Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race, from then on we see new faces in the peloton from the cobbled Classics. Amstel is an important indicator for who will perform in the Ardennes Classics. From the Top-10 in last year’s Amstel, five were also in the Top-10 of Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège within a week later. So we should expect to see Pidcock, Hirschi, Benoot, Vansevenant & Co. at the front in Wallonne and Liège.
Are these the guys we’ll see in Liège?
This might not be the case this year, as the favourites for Amstel were not in the final action. The question has to be; were they hiding their form for next week, or were they unable to do anything? This could well be the case for Van der Poel, he has won Amstel before and Liège would fit in nicely to his palmarès. Amstel is more of a tactical race and riders were caught in a team game. Many teams had a man in the front group of twelve, so there wasn’t much of a chase. This could be seen when Mikkel Honoré was dropped by the leaders, then EF Education-EasyPost were forced to work as was Intermarché-Wanty, but it was too late. Van der Poel was in the position of not having any men to put on the front.
Healy and EF tried, but it was too late
So, were Mattias Skjelmose, Maxim Van Gils, Dylan Teuns, Benoît Cosnefroy and Romain Grégoire saving themselves for Liège?. Then there was Juan Ayuso, Andrea Bagioli, Ben Healy and Quinten Hermans, the same story or were they at ‘full gas’? Pidcock, Hirschi, Benoot, Bilbao and Michael Matthews were all in the action in the Netherlands and will be in Wallonia. And don’t forget Madouas, Mollema and Pacher, they will also want to show that Amstel wasn’t a ‘one off’.
Don’t rule out Mollema and Madouas
There was only one of ‘The BIG Six’ started Amstel last Sunday; Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard were all missing. But that shouldn’t take the shine off Tom Pidcock’s win, remember he nearly won two years ago and only lost to van Aert by a tyre tread. Young Pidcock only has five professional victories to his name and isn’t quite on the same rung of the ladder as the ‘the six’. Although all his wins have been big: Strade Bianche, the Queen stage in the Tour de France, Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race. And he isn’t one to look at other riders, he does his thing… win or lose. Last Sunday he didn’t wait for Van der Poel, threw down his gauntlet and got on with racing – ‘He who dares wins’.
Tom Pidcock took the race by the neck
Of course Pidcock also has World titles in cyclo-cross and mountain biking and an Olympic title off-road. The 24-year-old is going in the same direction as Van der Poel, but he can tolerate the longer climbs. Wednesday’s Flèche Wallonne will suit him and remember he was second last year in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He wants to show well in the Tour de France, if he can do that, he will join the select group and we will be talking of ‘The BIG Seven’.
Paul Lapeira was at the front for most of the day – Here with Vervaeke and Frolich early on
In the Amstel Gold Race we also saw some new young faces: Paul Lapeira (23) took 5th place and was a strong rider in the lead group. Then there was 21-year-old talent Romain Grégoire who was 12th. Marijn van den Berg (24) was also there. Roger Adrià (25), Kévin Vauquelin (22) and Vito Braet (23) all had good races. We have to also mention Mauri Vansevenant. The 24-year-old Belgian has been suffering from a knee injury, but he had a storming ride in the Gold race. He is aiming at the Giro d’Italia and having only ridden the dutch Classic once before, he put himself into a leader’s position in the absence of Remco Evenepoel. Vansevenant took a very hard fought for 4th place, Soudal Quick-Step’s only bright spot of the spring so far.
Mauri Vansevenant – the savour of Soudal Quick-Step?
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* Thanks to ProCyclingStats and WielerFlits for facts and figures. *
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