Five conclusions after the Amstel Gold Race 2024

• Monday April 15, 2024 at 10:55 AM

It was written in the stars that Mathieu van der Poel would win the Amstel Gold Race 2024. The only question was where in the race he would start a long solo. But none of that. The world champion could not impress again. Tom Pidcock did and he won. Five conclusions after the Amstel Gold Race 2024.

Alpecin-Deceuninck is missing a key figure

In the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Alpecin-Deceuninck was the best team in the race, from start to finish. Despite the favorite status of leader Van der Poel, the Belgian team did not take full control. Other teams did not benefit from this either. UAE Emirates, among others, had announced that it wanted to make the race tough in order to wear down the MVDP team. That worked, because in the final he had to rely on himself.

A full work team had been chosen in advance, after Jasper Philipsen had decided to end his spring. However, a hard blow was the early retirement of Gianni Vermeersch, who had woken up sick. The Belgian was the driving force for Alpecin-Deceuninck in the finals in the last matches. That turned out to be the missing link for the isolated Van der Poel in the final. Quinten Hermans (partly due to a fall) and Axel Laurance could not get in there.



We are not much wiser towards Flèche Wallonne and Liège

In the Brabantse Pijl and certainly the Amstel Gold Race, we always see a new, fresh peloton. The Amstel is therefore often an important indicator for the Ardennes classics shortly afterwards. Of the top 10 in the AGR last year, no fewer than five of them were also in the top 10 of the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Tiesj Benoot (fifteenth) and Valentin Madouas (eleventh) also scored well in the Ardennes later that week after the Amstel.

That chance now seems a lot smaller in advance. The top 10 of this Amstel Gold Race does not seem to be the strongest. Many of the predicted favorites kept their powder dry (or couldn’t they do better?), partly because they were caught in a team game. Many strong teams had men in the anticipatory group, which meant that there was hardly any racing behind the twelve men. Only when Mikkel Honoré dropped back did they get going thanks to EF Education-EasyPost and later also Intermarché-Wanty. But too late.

In other words, the Ardennes favorites kept their cards close to their chest. Only then will we know what men like Mattias Skjelmose, Maxim Van Gils, Dylan Teuns, Benoît Cosnefroy and Romain Grégoire are worth later this week. The only conclusions you can make is that Juan Ayuso, Andrea Bagioli, Ben Healy and Quinten Hermans looked less strong than expected. Pidcock, Marc Hirschi, Benoot, Pello Bilbao and Michael Matthews will be at the meeting later this week. In the case of Madouas, Bauke Mollema and Quentin Pacher, who were not yet convincing until the Amstel, that is also questionable.



Pidcock is increasingly joining the ranks of the greats

In recent years, cycling has increasingly been about the big six: Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard. Amstel Gold Race winner Tom Pidcock is not yet one of them, but he is well on his way. Strange, because the youngster only has five professional victories to his name. But they are almost all big fish: Strade Bianche, queen stage in the Tour de France, Brabantse Pijl and now also the Amstel Gold Race. Daring, because he dared to lose with his anticipatory jump towards the leaders. Pidcock drove his own course and did not – like so many others – align himself with Van der Poel’s.

His victories also include his world titles in cyclo-cross and mountain biking, in addition to his Olympic title in the latter discipline. The 24-year-old Brit is well on his way to making a name for himself. On Wednesday he will find a course that suits him in the Flèche Wallonne and last year he also came second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. If he succeeds in his mission to ride a strong classification in the Tour de France next summer, the explosive pocket climber will gradually make his way to the greats.



New names break through and ‘oldies’ come alive

Due to the somewhat surprising outcome of the final, we also saw a number of ‘new’ names at the front. Man in shape Paul Lapeira (23, Decathlon AG2R) showed with a fifth place that he is a coming man for this work. This also applies to the 21-year-old super talent Romain Grégoire (twelfth, Groupama-FDJ). Marijn van den Berg (24, EF Education-EasyPost) can also face the future with confidence. We also saw strong performances from Roger Adrià (25, BORA-hansgrohe), Kévin Vauquelin (22, Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Vito Braet (23, Intermarché-Wanty).

The most striking name in the final was that of Mauri Vansevenant. The 24-year-old Belgian had a blazing start to his career, but a lingering knee injury set him back far. Having just returned from an altitude training camp towards the Giro d’Italia and without any route knowledge, the climber seized his opportunity in the absence of Remco Evenepoel. Vansevenant fought his way to a good fourth place, a bright spot in the darkness at Soudal Quick-Step this spring.

AGR is still too big for TDT-Unibet

The Amstel Gold Race was TDT-Unibet’s baptism of fire at WorldTour level. On the Geulhemmerweg they turned the crowd upside down and with Zeb Kyffin they had someone in the early breakaway. Mission largely accomplished for themselves, although they would have preferred to be in the early break with two riders. That will not have spoiled the fun for the Dutch ProTeam, which will undoubtedly deliver a more than slick YouTube video for their loyal fan base.

A critical note from a sporting perspective. A competition like the Amstel Gold Race appears to be too big for now. That’s not a problem, because the team has only been active at the professional level for four months. Moreover, Cedrik Bakke Chistophersen – perhaps their best asset – is injured, which made their assignment somewhat difficult. We’ll just never find out. Jelle Johannink was the best rider of Tour de Tietema in 55th place (more than three minutes behind the winner).



It is a fact that the team was the ProTeam in the race with the worst result. All other wildcard formations still had a rider in the group who sprinted for tenth place. Dylan Teuns (15th), Maxim Van Gils (20th), Gianluca Brambilla (23rd), Odd Christian Eiking (25th), Alexander Kamp (26th) and Kamiel Bonneu (31st) provided Israel-Premier Tech, Lotto Dstny, Q36.5 Pro respectively. Cycling, Uno-X Mobility, Tudor Pro Cycling and Flanders-Baloise achieve a better result.