2022 Amstel Gold Race – Highlights, Report, & Results
Highlights
Report
Michal Kwiatkowski edged a thrilling edition of the Amstel Gold Race, winning a two-up sprint by the finest of margins.
Kwiatkowski beat Benoit Cosnefroy in a sprint that required a photo finish to determine the winner, with the AG2R Citreon rider initially being announced as the victor before the decision was official.
The former world champion had in fact edged past Cosnefroy just before the line to win the team’s first Amstel Gold title in dramatic fashion after a superb team performance.
The Grenadiers had led from the front for the whole race, keeping the early break in check throughout the initial phases with Luke Rowe and Laurens de Plus working hard in the peloton.
This helped position the team in key technical sections, allowing Ben Turner to attack and setup the decisive move. Turner pushed the pace on the Kruisberg to reduce the peloton significantly, before Kwiatkowski accelerated on the Keutenberg climb to create an elite lead group which also contained Tom Pidcock.
This group quickly amassed a strong lead over the rest, with numerous accelerations failing to succeed. This was until Kwiatkowski escaped with 20 kilometres remaining.
The chase group were unwilling to co-ordinate a chase, so Cosnefroy bridged to the Grenadier in the closing kilometres, with the pair managing to stay away and decide the race in a dramatic sprint finish.
Results
1 | Michal KWIATKOWSKI | INEOS GRENADIERS | |
2 | Benoit COSNEFROY | AG2R CITROEN TEAM | |
3 | Tiesj BENOOT | JUMBO-VISMA | 10″ |
4 | Mathieu VAN DER POEL | ALPECIN-FENIX | 20″ |
5 | Alexander KAMP | TREK – SEGAFREDO | 20″ |
6 | Kasper ASGREEN | QUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM | 20″ |
7 | Michael MATTHEWS | TEAM BIKEEXCHANGE – JAYCO | 20″ |
8 | Stefan KÜNG | GROUPAMA – FDJ | 20″ |
9 | Marc HIRSCHI | UAE TEAM EMIRATES | 20″ |
10 | Dylan TEUNS | BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS | 20″ |