Highlights
Men’s Race
Report
Women’s Race
Marianne Vos has won the Amstel Gold Race for the first time in her career. In a thrilling final sprint, the leader of the Team Jumbo-Visma women’s team rushed to her team’s first win on Dutch soil.
From the start in Maastricht, the riders immediately started to ride a high pace. Initially, two riders chose the escape, but a large group with Teuntje Beekhuis quickly joined them. The chasing peloton with Anouska Koster and leader Vos did not let them gain a big advantage and the groups came back together. Vos then showed herself several times to make the race hard. During the last time on the Cauberg she seemed to have to give in, but in the two kilometres that followed she fought her way back to the front. In the end she crossed the line with her hands in the air.
It is the second win of the season for the women’s team of Team Jumbo-Visma. Vos previously won Gent-Wevelgem in the yellow-and-black team colours. “Since this ‘home race’ is on the calendar, winning the Amstel Gold Race has always been a big goal for me”, Vos said. “I’ve already experienced great editions, but this is really cool. It feels different without spectators, but you notice that people care about this race. I hope we have made the people at home happy. In any case, I enjoyed it, even though it was very hard.”
“It was really a very open race, which I had expected beforehand”, Vos continued. “It was a continuous race from the start with a lot of different groups that were able to get away. In the final sprint I fortunately had some energy left to finish it off.” The race winner feels good in her new team. “There is a really good spirit within the team and I feel completely at home.”
Men’s Race
Wout van Aert has won the Amstel Gold Race after a sprint that will not soon be forgotten. The Flemish rider of Team Jumbo-Visma beat Englishman Thomas Pidcock by a minimal margin. It is the fourteenth victory of the season for the yellow and black formation of manager Richard Plugge.
On the closed course in the hills of South Limburg, Team Jumbo-Visma always kept control of the race. Partly thanks to Paul Martens, who particated for the 15th time, the early breakaway only got limited space. At less than one hundred kilometres from the end the race really broke open. Team Jumbo-Visma was always in the forefront and with Jonas Vingegaard, Sam Oomen and Primoz Roglic almost always had a rider in the attack. On the last climb of the Cauberg Van Aert, together with world champion Alaphilippe and others, went full on. In the last lap Pidcock, Van Aert and the German Maximilian Schachmann had to decide who would win the Amstel Gold Race.
In a particularly exciting and nervous sprint the winner of Gent-Wevelgem ultimately won. The victory in the Dutch classic is Van Aert’s fourth of the season. “I didn’t dare believe it. I sprinted the last few meters with my eyes closed”, a relieved Van Aert said. “The jury only told me just before the podium ceremony that I had won. It was very difficult to say, that was clear from the time the jury needed to make it final. I have never experienced this before.”
“I could always count on Jonas, Sam and Primoz just before the final”, the best one-day rider of 2020 said. “They jumped well with almost all the attacks. It was a shame that Primoz had a mechanical problem in the final. The team really rode for the win today.” Allowing Van Aert to finish his last race of his classic spring in style. “I am very proud of this victory and my my performances in the classics. I have competed for this victory in almost every race and have always been in top shape. I am very happy to go into the holidays with this victory. The bike will be put aside for a while now.”
Van Aert end his spring programme with wins in the Amstel Gold Race and Gent-Wevelgem, two stage wins and a second place in the final classification of Tirreno-Adriatico, the second place in the Brabantse Pijl and the third place in Milano-San Remo.
Results
Women’s Race
| 1 | Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team | 3:00:20 |
| 2 | Demi Vollering (Ned) Team SD Worx | |
| 3 | Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar Team Women | |
| 4 | Amanda Spratt (Aus) Team BikeExchange | |
| 5 | Soraya Paladin (Ita) Liv Racing | |
| 6 | Mavi Garcia (Spa) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana | |
| 7 | Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope | 0:00:01 |
| 8 | Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | |
| 9 | Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) Team SD Worx | |
| 10 | Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM Racing | 0:00:02 |
Men’s Race
| 1 | Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma | 5:03:29 |
| 2 | Thomas Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | |
| 3 | Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe | |
| 4 | Michael Matthews (Aus) Team BikeExchange | 0:00:02 |
| 5 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | |
| 6 | Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep | |
| 7 | Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix | |
| 8 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers | |
| 9 | Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain Victorious | |
| 10 | Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal |