Sunday April 14, 2024 at 3:00 PM
The 58th edition of the Amstel Gold Race is now in full swing! With Mathieu van der Poel we have a Dutch top favorite. Can the world champion win between the South Limburg hills, just like in 2019? Read here what you have missed so far and when you should be ready for the important passages.
What did you miss?
Here you can read what you have missed so far. Don’t want to miss anything from the start? Follow the entire match via it CyclingFlits Live blog!
– The women started at 9:55 am and the men at 10:45 am.
– Of course, at De Markt in Maastricht, all eyes were on world champion Mathieu van der Poel. What immediately stood out during the team presentation: he is wearing white pants, just like when he won in 2019!
– Due to a serious accident involving a motorcycle police officer and a passenger car on the Bergseweg, the women’s competition had to be neutralized for a long time. This also led to a diversion for the men: the Bergseweg was deleted. After a long break, the women were led to the finish, only to ride a few final laps of 18 kilometers around Valkenburg. How many there are will be determined later.
– After a small detour at the Bergseweg, the men were able to continue their match as normal. Four escapees broke away in the opening hour: Tosh Van der Sande (Visma | Lease a Bike), Enzo Leijnse (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Alexander Hajek (BORA-hansgrohe) and Zeb Kyffin (Tour de Tietema-Unibet). They drove away for more than four minutes.
– Around 12.45 pm the women’s race resumed in the finish street for a race of only 55 kilometers. They rode three more final rounds around Valkenburg and the Bemelerberg. A leading group with Eva van Agt, Yara Kastelijn and Ricarda Bauernfeind managed to pull away from the peloton by more than a minute. Several favorites had already mixed before that, including Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini.
– In the men’s race, Alpecin-Deceuninck and INEOS Grenadiers set the pace in the peloton, ahead of their leaders Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock. They gave the leading group five minutes.
– One lieutenant less for Mathieu van der Poel, because Gianni Vermeersch is no longer in the platoon. The man who was still so strong in Paris-Roubaix has had a bad night. He left the match ill.
– On the Cauberg we see some accelerations in the peloton. Bob Jungels opens the debates and is therefore the instigator of a group of fifteen attackers. However, this attempt did not last long.
– Just after the Geulhemmerberg, the four early escapees are well worth the effort. We are approaching the final, and so we see the big men driving forward.
– In an apparently quiet phase, Quinten Hermans and Pascal Eenkhoorn crash. However, the two riders can soon continue their way again.
– Louis Vervaeke, Mikkel Honoré and Paul Lapeira find each other in their attacking urge and create a maximum lead of about twenty seconds. However, there is certainly no standstill in the peloton.
What’s next for the men?
With thirty climbs, there are plenty of moments to keep a close eye on the course. The passage times of the hills in the final can be found in the overview below:
Cauberg, first passage
What time? between 2:50 PM and 2:55 PM
How far? 81.8 kilometers to the finish
Eyserbosweg
What time? between 3:50 PM and 4:05 PM
How far? 37 kilometers to the finish
Fromberg
What time? between 4:00 PM and 4:10 PM
How far? 33.2 kilometers to the finish
Keutenberg
What time? between 4:05 PM and 4:15 PM
How far? 28.8 kilometers to the finish
Cauberg, second passage
What time? between 4:20 PM and 4:30 PM
How far? 18.6 kilometers to the finish
Geulhemmerberg
What time? between 4:25 and 4:35 p.m
How far? 14 kilometers to the finish
Bemelerberg
What time? between 4:35 and 4:45 p.m
How far? 7.8 kilometers to the finish
Finish
What time? 4:45 and 4:55 p.m
