photo credits @ Amstel Gold Race
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took an emphatic win in today’s Amstel Gold Race, after the Belgian rider vanquished defending champion Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) in a two-man sprint after the final summit of the Cauberg.
Evenepoel and Skjelmose were previously part of a small five-rider breakaway group that rode clear along the Kruisberg, where a crash took out Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers) and Matteo Jorgenson, leaving just Skjelmose, Evenepoel and Groupama-FDJ United’s Romain Grégoire at the front.
However, the Frenchman was eventually dropped, with Evenepoel and Skjelmose working together to build a gap that would later prove unassailable.
From there, Evenepoel did most of the pace setting, while Skjelmose appeared content to sit on his rival’s wheel. But, when the final kilometer came, the Dane had no response to Evenepoel’s fierce turn of speed, who easily breezed to victory.
“Today’s victory meant a lot. I mean, I’ve had a pretty good last month of April with Catalunya [where he was 5th overall] in Flanders [third], but to take a win is always a bit different,” said a jubilant Evenepoel.
“I think I mentioned already that I really love this race. [It has] lots of short, hard climbs, and actually, the race more or less opened in the same place this year again. So I was really confident. I felt much better than I did last year in the final. I think it was also shown in the sprint that my sprint was much better, that I had something left.
“I’m just very proud to finish off all of the teamwork. I mean, Danny van Poppel and Tim van Dijke had to control the whole race alone. Then my other teammates as well. They dropped me off in the perfect position always, and also, with the rain, it was not really easy to stay calm. But yeah, as I said, this is one of my favorite races in the season, and to win it in my second participation, it feels amazing.”
Earlier, the peloton kept things under control for most of the day, lasting until the final 40 kilometers before the deadlock was broken, with Grégoire animating the field with a bold attack, a move that was closely marked by Evenepoel, Skjelmose, Vauquelin and Jorgenson, who quickly locked onto the Frenchman’s wheel. But disaster soon followed for Vauquelin and Jorgensen, who both went down while trying to navigate a treacherous corner, bringing their race ambitions to a fast close.
Unhindered by the chaos, Evenepoel, Grégoire and Skjelmose pressed on, slowly increasing their advantage until just the two remained out front for a showdown in Valkenburg aan de Geul.
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