Amstel Gold Race

Victory for Marta Cavalli and FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope at the Amstel Gold Race highlights the ever-growing depth of talent in the Women's ...

Yet the 24-year-old Cavalli has a background in the individual pursuit and with top tens in the Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix last season, she has been knocking on the door. In her baggy insulated long-sleeve jersey and toe warmers, the odds didn’t exactly appear to be in Cavalli’s favour. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio – at the head of the race and, with her SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering, part of the only squad to have two riders in the front group – looked over her right shoulder. Annemiek van Vleuten, who had wrung out every last watt in her ultimately futile attempt to break free on the Cauberg, was glued to the wheel, with Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma, Liane Lippert and Mavi Garcia behind. As the seven paused for breath on the false flat over the summit, Cavalli could see her six rivals across the road. Marta Cavalli was one of seven riders to come out clean from what she called the "washing machine" of the final descent into the foot of the Cauberg and the ascent up it.

Italian star attacks out of stellar lead group to stun favorites and secure biggest win of career.

10:45 Despite her best climbing efforts, van Vleuten settled for fourth. Van Vleuten’s acceleration drew out a group of seven riders – including Vollering, Lippert and Cavalli – who quickly stretched out an advantage over the main group, but it was a well-timed attack from Marta Cavalli that proved to be the winner. At the 10km mark, the remaining three leaders were caught as the peloton began to up the pace for the finale. Rooijakkers was joined by Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Sierra (Movistar), who rode with a bloodied leg after a spill earlier in the race. An unidentified break of three managed a short-lived and small advantage in the early stages, but it wasn’t until nearly 50km completed that the serious moves began.

Ineos Grenadiers rider wins the Ardennes classic for a second time by the barest of margins.

The leaders had an advantage of just 22 seconds as they summitted the Bemelerberg, the final climb of the day, with 6.5km to go. With 20km to go, and a numerical advantage in their favour, Kwiatkowski attacked as they crossed the finish line for the penultimate time. Kwiatkowski and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), alongside van der Poel, were joined in the lead group by Tiesj Benoot, Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Alexander Kamp (Trek-Segafredo), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Victorious), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën Team), Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange-Jayco). But it was the Ineos Grenadiers that put the final nail in the coffin for the remaining breakaway riders on the steep slopes of the Kruisberg and Eyserbosweg. Rastelli was dropped from the front group as their advantage diminished to 90 seconds, just as Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) and Nathan Van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) attacked from the peloton. Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) won Amstel Gold Race by the narrowest of margins, beating Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën Team) on the line by just a few inches.

After finishing second and third in the past two editions, Annemiek van Vleuten will be hungry for glory on Sunday at the Amstel Gold Race.

The field will have a challenging route on their hands this year with the iconic Cauberg being climbed four times. We join the coverage with 69km to go and there are nine riders in the breakaway group. Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange - Jayco), Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon - SRAM) now have a lead of about 40 seconds. They currently have a 25 second advantage over the bunch. The leaders are just about to get to the Bemelerberg and the group of eight now have a lead of over a minute. The eight at the front didn't work well together and didn't seem united in their efforts. They have a lead of 25 seconds on the peloton and 15 seconds on Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) who has attacked from the pack. They get within 25 seconds of the leading trio, however, once again they are quickly swallowed up by the peloton. Perhaps this is because of how quickly they have been able to reel in the leaders earlier in the race. As predicted the race is now back together with 7km to go. Van Vlueten is on the front as the riders reach the Cauberg for the final time. She held on in the final few hundred metres to secure an impressive win.

Tratnik was strongest on the Cauberg from the chase and he crosses next, but the rest of the small chase group is not far behind. 07:05:41. 22km to ...

I know the roads and the climbs. We reach kilometre-zero and the race is waved underway. This is our breakaway of the day. In truth, things start to become serious once we pass through the finish in Valkenburg for the second time and take on the Geulhemmerberg and Bemeleberg for the first time - they're the two climbs on our finishing circuit. 100km on the clock and the peloton calls another nature break. The gap falls to four minutes. UAE have started to join the chase. Finally we have a lift in pace in the bunch. This is the 25th of our 33 climbs. He has lost contact with the break as a result but the gap was already down to 25 seconds. He nearly went into the back of it on a downhill through a short tunnel. Wellens and Fuglsang are also in the chase.

Founded in 1966, the Amstel Gold Race marks the point in the calendar where the cobbled classic specialists hand the baton over to the puncheurs and ...

There are multiple reasons why Mathieu van der Poel is the firmest of favourites to win today’s race. We join the race just shy of 150km in, with 100km and 14 brutal bergs to race. Tim Wellens comes to the front and Christophe Laporte marks him well(ens). They briefly have a gap but it's quickly snuffed out. Third is the absence of Wout van Aert, still sidelined by illness. The pace is really high now, with riders struggling just to stay on the wheel. Tim Wellens is back on the front on the descent. We have a selection of eleven riders at the front with Van der Poel “lucky” says Carlton to be among them. Mohoric among the riders to have missed out on the selection. "Are they clutching at straws at the moment?" With his team-mate on the march, Pidcock can just sit on, which means Van der Poel has to take it up himself. They're about to go through the finish for the last time and it's really kicking off now… The Polish man has a lead of just over a corner.

The Italian attacked after the Cauberg and rode the final 1.7 km solo to take her first WorldTour win.

The Italian immediately got a gap, with Vollering looking to her teammate Ashleigh Moolman Pasio to chase. With so many heavy hitters the breakaway group was unable to cooperate and the peloton caught up to them. SD Worx was particularly keen to bring the race back together before the final ascent of the Cauberg.

Italian rider wins with a perfectly timed attack winning solo ahead of a group of favourites.

This instigated a period of aggression, moves from Van Dijk and Holden putting thinning the bunch. As the final lap developed the peloton swelled, but with SD Worx doing the work, the lead began to drop slowly. A large peloton hit the bottom, and equally predictably Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) attacked at the bottom. The circuit’s first climb, the Geulemerberg brought more aggression, Henderson’s Jumbo-Visma team mate and Anouska Koster leading another group away, before Rooijakkers went solo. Cavalli is one of the most promising riders in the bunch. SD Worx then played their first card, Niamh Fisher-Black going, with Marlen Reusser then attacking over the top. Le Col-Wahoo’s Lizzie Holden was also aggressive, attacking on each of the final two laps. Van Vleuten though, continued to ride, leading another breakaway up the road. While the gap was closed she was not caught, Liane Lippert (DSM) taking the final podium place. Not only did she time Sunday’s attack to perfection last year she was perhaps unlucky to finish sixth at last year’s Giro d'Italia Donne after a stellar performance in the mountains. With Ashleigh Moolman Pasio keeping the pace high for team mate Vollering, it eased when no one responded to her flicked elbow. It was a huge effort from the Dutchwoman, but she was unusually unable to gap her rivals, Lippert glued to her wheel the entire climb.

Marta Cavalli (FDG) has attracted the best candidates in the Amstel Gold Women's Race. The 24-year-old Italian walked away from the elite group just after ...

Van Vleuten became the fourth. Cavalli took advantage of the moment and made an attack. It turns out that Vollering has the fastest two legs in the sprint. The moment they were caught, Van Vleuten gave the order again. Garcia wanted to drive to the trio, but got stuck in the famous Patate chase. Every time the seven seemed to have been caught, they ran again.

The hilly classics are here! This is what some of the top favorites for the Amstel Gold Race said at the startline Sunday.

It’s not always possible to make the difference with a two-minute climb, and it’s quite explosive climbing – I’m more for the longer climbs. I’ve been a bit ill this week which has been very frustrating to say the least. It’s a lot of up and down and left and right, and a lot of traffic islands. That’s the challenge for me, to have a hard race and I cannot do it myself, so I need some help with that. Amstel is a bit different, there’s no cobbles … for sure it’s going to be a hard race, and I think we’ll see some different names in the front in the end. For sure I know the race quite well because I trained a lot here when I was younger.

Olivia Baril the top Canadian · The Course · The Canadian contingent was Magdeleine Vallieres and Sara Poidevin of EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, Leah Kirchmann of Team ...

It was the toil of SD Worx that sewed up the race on the final lap just before the Bemelerberg. On the Geulhemmerberg, the fugitive group received a reinforcement. It was Marta Cavalli’s Norwegian FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope teammate Stine Borgli who made the next surge. But on the Eyserbosweg with 70 km remaining, a high-powered group containing Annamiek van Vleuten and packed with SD Worx riders bridged over. Each circuit contained a combination of Geulhemmerberg, Bemelerberg and Cauberg. From the crest of the last Cauberg climb, there were only 1.6 km to the finish line in Berg en Terblijt. Olivia Baril was the top Canadian.

Another edition of the Amstel Gold Race comes down to a photo finish, with the Ineos Grenadier edging Benoît Cosnefroy for his first Classics win in five ...

Kwiatkowski simply timed it better, with the Frenchman lunging for a phantom line half a wheel too late. But when Kwiatkowski squeezed the throttle to the ring of the bell and found himself out front, he pressed ahead. The Amstel Gold Race is open to a much wider cast of stars, each one of them with different ways of winning and different strengths to help them achieve it. The Polish former world champion was a victor here in 2015 when riding in the rainbow jersey for Quick-Step and has since become one of the most versatile riders in the peloton. On paper, unlike most of his rivals, Kwiatkowski could have won this race in any number of different ways. Kwiatkowski looked like he knew it too.

Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) won his second Amstel Gold Race by a few centimetres with a well-timed lunge across the line.

The scenes beyond the finish line looked very familiar as Kwiatkowski and Cosnefroy came to a stop metres from one another, waiting for the result. The 2015 winner came alongside Cosnefroy very late and the pair crossed the line together. The group had a buffer of about 25 seconds going into the final lap and, bored of all the stalling, Kwiatkowski jumped clear as the bell rang.

Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski won the Amstel Gold classic on Sunday for the second time in his career after being judged the winner following a thrilling ...

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A thrilling finish to the men's Amstel Gold race on Sunday saw Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos Grenadiers) narrowly edge out Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen ...

The answer was Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen). Cosnefroy was careful not to take anyone with him, though, and made it across to the experienced rider on his own. A sharp weave across the road and Cosnefroy launched his sprint. With the final ascent of the Cauberg looming, often a launchpad for winning moves in this race, it could only ever be brief. On the Keutenberg, with 34.5km remaining, Kwiatkowski raised the level once again. Into the final 50 and the riders of Ineos Grenadiers took charge. Gradients into the high teens caused riders to fall away in all parts of the race. Through the final 30km, Kwiatkowski’s team-mate and the second favourite for the race, Tom Pidcock, was in a position to do less than others, save his legs for the sprint that never came. A thrilling finish to the men’s Amstel Gold race on Sunday saw Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos Grenadiers) narrowly edge out Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen Team) for the win. The second trip up the Gulperbergweg, which came with one fifth of the race remaining, proved especially caustic. With the pace increasing each climb, though topographically much the same as the last, had an accumulative effect on riders legs and heads. Twenty kilometres later that group was reduced by a seventh, as Davide Gabburo (Bardiani–CSF–Faizanè) dropped back to the bunch. With everyone watching him, Mathieu van der Poel was left with it all to do.

The things we learned after a day of two exciting finishes in the Netherlands.

Both made the selection having only registered one top five finish between them so far this season, and appear to be coming into form just in time for the Ardennes Classics. His sprint finished off a dominant performance from Ineos Grenadiers, who were the only team with more than one representative in the decisive 12-man selection that was made on the Keutenberg climb. Given her team’s superiority and high expectations, plus the fact that she’s already finished a frustrating second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad already this season, that will come as little consolation. Optimism heading into today’s race had nevertheless been diluted by an outbreak of illness in the team that meant all three of these riders did not compete. SD Worx had ridden typically aggressively earlier in the race, with almost their entire roster going up the road. With Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) bridging up to join and help him, that was the last they saw of him.

For any up-and-coming racer or fan of the sport wondering how to properly throw down a late-race attack, look no further than the winning move made by Marta ...

She could be seen on the attack at Trofeo Alfredo Binda earlier in the season and was active at last year’s Giro Donne, but it wasn’t until Amstel Gold Race that her efforts finally paid off. It was a perfectly timed attack and her all or nothing effort delivered Cavalli and FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope their first WorldTour one-day victory. With Vollering present, the chasing group left Moolman Pasio to do all the work. Moolman Pasio looked over to Kasia Niewiadoma who was looking at Mavi Garcia. Van Vleuten’s pace up the Cauberg whittled down the size of the peloton until only seven riders were left. When it comes to winning bike races, there are many different factors at play that have to go right to put a rider on that top step.

The Amstel Gold Race is one of the few races that Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) never won, and the 2022 edition was no different.

In that way we had a good situation with the team, I enjoyed that,” finished Van Vleuten. “I told Emma that this is a race she can win in the future. This one is hard for me to win; I only stand a real chance if we arrive at the Cauberg with a smaller group.

Perfectly executed bike-throw delivers Ineos Grenadiers star his first victory since winning a stage at the 2020 Tour de France.

“It was a very difficult start of the season for me. “I was trying to do the right thing. When Cosnefroy joined me, it was up to him to do most of the work to maintain the gap. “It was a rollercoaster, it was very emotional,” he said. It was great, it was euphoria.” “I was only there to win.

Sunday's 56th edition of the men's race ended with a desperate lunge for the line from two riders: Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) and 2015 winner Michał ...

The photos you see below appear courtesy of Kristof Ramon, Getty Images, and Cor Vos. And of course it wasn’t just the men racing on the roads of the Netherlands’ south on Sunday. The women’s race, too, delivered its share of excitement, with a last-gasp surge from Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) proving the winning move – the biggest win yet for the 24-year-old Italian. Sunday’s 56th edition of the men’s race ended with a desperate lunge for the line from two riders: Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) and 2015 winner Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers). Cosnefroy was announced the winner, but that decision was soon overturned, with Kwiatkowski taking the spoils.

The big names of the men's and women's peloton speak in Maastricht.

The shape is quite good but to be honest it's not the race that suits me the most, but I'll make the most of it." It's a bit of a different run in to the climbs. "For sure it will be super hard and I think at 60km to go we'll enter some steep, short climbs after each other. Of course, I'll try my best but it's going to be a hard race today. "Hopefully we'll be in the final and we can play our cards then. "It's a little bit diff race to last year obviously and the year before also. I think it's harder also than the years before when we had the same final. "For sure I know the race well because I trained a lot here when I was younger. I tried everything to stay healthy, but it just seems a bit like pot luck at the moment. For me the personal challenge is to make the difference on the sharp, short climbs. For sure it's going to be a hard race, and I think we'll see some different names in the front in the end." "It's going to be special.

Images of joy, despair, hills, beer and a photo finish from the men's and women's editions of the 2022 Amstel Gold Race, won by Michał Kwiatkowski and Marta ...

There could be no complaints about the winner. Demi Vollering won the sprint for second. The 2022 Amstel Gold Race delivered two thrilling races.

Dutch team races aggressively but Demi Vollering settles for runner-up for a second time.

“I came into the Cauberg maybe a little bit too far back,” Moolman Pasio explained. The race’s first big move came with 70km when ten riders escaped, four of whom were SD Worx riders. “We were doing our absolute best, but sometimes you can only do the best that your legs can.”

On Sunday afternoon, on the outskirts of Valkenburg in the Netherlands' hilly south, an exhausted Benoît Cosnefroy celebrated joyously with his AG2R Citröen ...

The upshot is this: in the five editions of the men’s Amstel Gold Race since the Cauberg was removed as the final climb, we’re yet to be disappointed. While the Bemelerberg has helped decide races since becoming the final climb in 2017, it seems harder now to save everything for that final ascent than it was at the Amstel of old. In fact, you could argue that organisers were a little harsh in labelling their race too predictable ahead of the 2017 changes. After the 2020 edition was lost to the maelstrom of COVID-19, the Amstel Gold Race returned in 2021 with another heart-stopping finish. Maybe the confluence of Van der Poel’s brilliance, and the coincidence of two bizarre photo-finishes in consecutive years has inflated our sense of just how good a race this is. Amstel Gold is a race famed for having more twists and turns than any other event on the calendar. Neither was as tough as the Cauberg, and with 6.5 km from the top of the final climb to the finish, it would be less a question of who was strongest up the final ascent. In the lead-up to the 2017 men’s event, race organisers felt they had to make a change. The Dane took a stirring win in a two-up sprint ahead of Roman Kreuziger. And with that, two consecutive editions of the men’s Amstel Gold Race had been decided by a finish line photo in dramatic and controversial circumstances. “In 2017 we saw that a simple change in the route led to a more attractive race,” course director Van Vliet said. By beating Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) in a two-up sprint at the end of the Amstel Gold Race, the Frenchman had just taken the biggest win of his career.