Marianne Vos won her second Amstel Gold Race after Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) celebrated too early. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider was coming fast on the lefthand side of the former European champion, and with her compatriot already raising her arms, Vos threw her bike past Wiebes and took the win, with Ingvild Gåsjenn (Liv AlUla Jayco) finishing third.
The race, originally 157.6 km, was shortened early on due to a semi-race-related incident up the road – a police officer collided with a car on the Bergseweg. With only 54 km to race after the neutralisation, there were some weird tactics going on, as teams tried to cram 110 km of racing into a little over an hour.
- Unfortunately, with 110 km remaining the race was paused due to an accident up the road. Ultimately the women lined up again in Valkenburg, with only 54 km of racing to come, aka three circuits of the local course.
- As soon as racing resumed, Lidl-Trek were active, with both Shirin van Anrooij and Elisa Longo Borghini near the front of the peloton. The Italian champion attacked on the Cauberg and was followed by Elise Chabbey and Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon-SRAM, Amber Kraak of FDJ-Suez, and Anna Henderson of Visma-Lease a Bike. The five were joined by Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) soon after.
- It looked like a great move, but Uno-X were not pleased and, along with some other teams, they brought the group back to the peloton.
- The next move to go was a trio: Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Eva van Agt (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM). They were able to gain an advantage of almost 90 seconds within the final 25 km, but in the final lap, their cooperation faltered.
- They were caught on the final ascent of the Cauberg under the pressure of Lidl-Trek.
- Attacks flew on the Cauberg from 2019-winner Niewiadoma, but Vollering kept her on a short lead.
- After careful marking, a large group came to the finish line together, with Visma-Lease a Bike leading the way. Vos held tight to the wheel of Wiebes, and the two were led out by Longo Borghini.
- Wiebes looked like she had it, and threw her arms in the air, but it was too early and Vos took the win with a bike throw.
Top 10:
Quick analysis
- SD Worx-Protime were happy to sit back when the dangerous trio of Kastelijn, Bauernfeind and Van Agt were up the road. Not exactly keen to do the work for them, Lidl-Trek was also not about to raise their hands to chase. Movistar did a bit of work, but it was ultimately a series of attacks that brought the gap down to the leaders.
- For a while, it did look as though the winner would be fought out by the three ahead, with the calculated time-to-distance ratio favouring the break.
- It was Henderson’s first race back after she broke her collarbone racing in Spain in February. Her presence, as well as that of Reijanne Markus, made a big difference for their team leader Vos.
- A separate piece will be available on Escape Collective regarding SD Worx-Protime tactics and the finale of the race.
Dogs of the day
While the women waited for their race to resume, they were visited by some furry friends.
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