The Moment The Amstel Was Won

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A long sprint, Remco Evenepoel has launched with 250m to go and Tadej Pogačar seems to have the measure of him. But out of the slipstream comes Mattias Skjelmose to deliver the surprise, sprinting past the two stars to take a fine win. Indeed the more you watch the sprint, the more convincing Skjelmose’s win proves.

Luckily the race started. There had been talk that an upcoming NATO summit in The Hague would demand so much police protection that officers were compelled to take time off in the spring or autumn to supply the summit, although this always sounded excessive, surely a squadron of motorcyclists could surely be found for the only day of World Tour racing in the Netherlands?

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If the police were there, the broadcast wasn’t for the whole race so the early split in the peloton and a crash for several contenders including Wout van Aert went unseen. A break of eight riders went away with Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ), Michel Heßmann (Movistar), Rob Stannard (Bahrain), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jelle Johannink and Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets), plus Cedric Beullens and Jarrad Drizners (Lotto). One curiosity was Heßmann and Stannard, both back after respectively serving minor and major doping bans.

After the first time up the Cauberg the breakaway were in sight. Hereafter the racing started to resemble a sprint finish as riders jostled for position on the narrow roads, dodging the panoply of street furniture on the often suburban course.

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Alaphilippe launching up Gulperberg with 48km to go looked bold. Le grand Julien of old? Even back in his pomp he wasn’t making such long raids, this seemed to be more a chance to get ahead of events. But Brandon McNulty had done a big turn and Pogačar looked ready to launch and so he and Alaphilippe seemed to rise up together.

Alaphilippe though was dropped on the next climb and with five kilometres caught by the chasers. Ahead Pogačar seemed to be flattening the course, seated to tackle slopes that had everyone else wrestling with their bikes, the only thing moving were his legs and, visibly, his lungs. Yet he struggled to get beyond 30 seconds lead.

The chase behind was led by Ilan Van Wilder for Evenepoel with few other workers left to help. Up the Keutenberg, the hardest climb of the course, and Evenepoel led but did not quite attack and over the top as Tom Pidcock looked around Mattias Skjelmose jumped clear while his team mate Thibau Nys marked Ben Healy’s attempt to follow.

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The Dane was dangling off the front with only a handful of seconds and seemed on the brink of being brought back with 25km to go when Evenepoel made his move and bridged across.

Skjelmose did not seem like much of a help for Evenepoel but acted at first as a target to aim for then once the Belgian got across the two worked together.

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Up ahead Pogačar kept looking over his shoulder like a poker player checking their hand again and again, conscious he wasn’t holding royal flush. Then he reached for his bidon and took a long swig, a tacit concession to the chasing pair and they formed a trio.

Behind Ben Healy and Tom Pidcock traded moves, with Intermarché’s Louis Barré the surprise of the day as he tracked most of their moves while others too marked the moves, they were all racing for fourth place and knew it but this was still a result to aim for.

Coming into the finish Evenepoel had tucked away Wout van Aert in the Brabantse Pijl days before, Pogačar has won sprints before. But they were all tired and the “glorious uncertainty of sport” meant nothing was certain. Still Skjelmose seemed the third man against the World champion and the Olympic champion.

Evenepoel went first, opening up a long sprint soon after the 300m to go sign, diving to the right to ensure the stiff crosswind from the left would deprive his rivals of what was left of his draft. Pogačar moved to the right to overtake Evenepoel and this created a brief shelter for Skjelmose. The world champion had to sit down for the final metres and as he struggled to get past a fading Evenepoel Skjelmose came around.

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The Verdict
A surprise win for Skjelmose. Few would have picked him before the start, few would have picked him with a kilometre to go. Even he was overwhelmed with the result.

But to rewatch the sprint over and over is to see how Skjelmose was able to sprint to the line when Evenepoel and Pogačar were fading. Indeed show the sprint to a non-cycling fan unbothered by Evenepoel and Pogačar’s monstrous status and they might just conclude Skjelmose was the sharpest.

If you could replay the sprint again and again it’s unlikely Skjelmose would win each time as Evenepoel or Pogačar might have preferred to launch later but he took his opportunity and delivered and that’s the charm of cycling, tactics, skill and timing still count for plenty. But the Dane has won from a group several times, this was a surprise but not a shock, let alone a fluke.

It all made for a lively final hour. Pogačar’s solo move never saw him get a minute, most of the time he had 30 seconds or less and even he was signalling with body language that it wasn’t certain.

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A loss for Pogačar is notable, it’s easier to list his defeats than his wins. Too used to winning races, this was on hilly terrain to suit but his attack was premature and left him with 45km to do alone, and after a period where he’s had to be in form for the UAE Tour, aimed for Sanremo, won the Ronde and rinsed himself in Roubaix. Perhaps if he’d waited a bit longer, bluffing even, until the Keutenberg, then he could have gone clear and stayed away. The same tactic worked a treat when he won in 2023. The good news for his rivals is he can be beaten, the bad news is that he’ll acknowledge this and probably race next Sunday’s Liège less extravagantly.

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49 thoughts on “The Moment The Amstel Was Won”

  1. Didn’t understand Pogacar’s decision to go with Alaphillipe. He’s a busted flush these days, one attack and then the gurning and the spitting starts (just to be clear I don’t have a problem with riders spitting but it is just a clear tell from Alaphillipe that he has nothing to give). Even for Pogacar, 40km on his own into a headwind, after his efforts of the last month was always going to be too much of an ask.
    Does Skejlmose’s easy win over Remco ask even more questions about WvA’s (lack of) sprint on Friday and at Dwars door Vlaanderen?

    • I think you could see Pogačar was going to move at the same point, Alaphilippe just went a second before. He’d nodded to McNulty after he’d done a big turn. Alaphilippe could have been a good ally but he’s obviously older and less sizzling these days but he’s been ill and chasing his form too.

  3. Wonderful race and a even better outcome! At least if you view it from the vantage point of professional cycling. Skjelmose (Jensen?) was not the strongest, but the smartest and it is exactly this kind of victories we need just once in a while. I had lost hope when Pogacar left with 40+ km to go, but what a pleasant race that followed!

  4. Evenepoel indicated that he was also significantly affected by the early crash and used it as an excuse of sorts for his tiredness at the finish.

    It’s a common armchair complaint, but with the headwind and the steady gap, it seemed frustrating the EF and Visma (the only teams with two strong riders each in the chase, I think) didn’t organise a chase more effectively. Healy was like a coiled spring but his repeated attacks just seemed to disrupt the rhythm and the gap eventually opened. Perhaps everyone was cooked, but once it was clear that Pog wasn’t disappearing at the usual speed (and there was the other chase to potentially bridge too), it seemed well-suited to some organisation.

    • I find Healy, from his excessive devotion to aerodynamic equipment to his annoying jack in the box riding style, one of the least enjoyable riders to watch.

      • Healy wins when he can get clear – longer range solo attacks are his strength (course, 1 or 2 certain others also are really good at that) – Giro, Basque Country, Tour of Luxembourg, his Irish Championship win (he held off a very hard chasing group that included Mullen (pretty good at TTs), Townsend, Bennett and Corkery for over *100* kms). So he has to attack try force that gap, shake off the others, and get into a hard rhythm. The guy is obviously naturally aerodynamic, and you need aero on your side to succeed in those long range attacks.

  5. The question is whether this ride has added to Pogacar’s condition or hampered his recovery for LBL. It will be interesting to see.

    • If I were his manager I would pull Pogacar from Fleche Wallonne and rest him for Liege. He actually looked a bit laboured (to my eyes, others may disagree) when he bridged to Alaphilippe. And he wasn’t peddling as smoothly as normal when out in front alone.

  6. Welcome back Remco, the peloton needed you. To me he was the star of the race. I don’t want to underplay what Skjel pulled off, hats off to him, but Remco did something that these days everyone seems to think is impossible – closing Pogacar’s gap. It’s always easy to talk from the comfort of my couch, but it does seem that every time Pogi sucedes in pulling off a 45km solo, the idea that he is uncatchable seems to ingrain more and more on the peloton. Some even publicly commented that, saying that when Poga goes, you start to plan for 2nd place. Today it was another example of that, with Pogi alone for 45km headwind hilly effort and a strong 15ish man group with WvA, Remco, Benoot, Healy, Alaphil, Skjelmose, and others! Some teams with 2 elements. Such a strong group, you’d think they would figure a way to mount a fierce chase. But the mind games for 2nd place clearly took over. Save for Remco really, that always seems to be the one with the biggest cojones, that does believe he is actually allowed to fight for first. He bridged to Skjel and almost literally brought him to the line. Top performance, as much mental as it was physical.

    I’m more a Poga fan than any of the others, and Skjel definitly deserved the win. But to me Remco stole the show.

    • I agree. A brilliant comeback week. Even though it’s hard to make riders such as Remco the underdog character, surely this week he was destined to be. But although still young, he has already bounced back from significant setbacks in his career – I underestimated him, ignoring all available evidence.

      And yet there was another underdog of sorts (Tour de Suisse winner, a 2nd to Pog at Fleche) that took the spoils here. What a brilliant finale, and winning against a stacked field of previous winners and Classics maestros, not least Pog and Remco.

      Amstel was once again a magnificent advert for bike racing. And no photo finish drama. Well, only the kind we wanted.

  7. A small group coming to the line together and a surprise winner. I didn’t think it was possible anymore!
    Just before Pogacar attacked Adam Blythe said on commentary that he didn’t look himself, and then took it back. But he was right, he never looked his usual effortlessly dominant self in this kind of race. Still he would have got away with it if it wasn’t for Remco, who is looking very sharp, noticeably so compared to Pogacar who has emptied himself all spring. Liege isn’t looking such a walkover anymore. It’ll be interesting to see if Pogacar does Fleche now he can’t get the full set.

    • So far this month Remco beating Wout at De Brabantse Pijl and Nelson Powless beating three Visma riders at Dwars door Vlaanderen should also count as surprise winners from small groups.

  8. I’m not sure whether Pogacar was or wasn’t his normal self. Yes, he was caught and beaten, but without the aero bullet Evenepoel to close the gap, he’d probably have won by a minute, as expected

  9. Funny but right before I clicked on refresh, the last inring article I was reading was “Roubaix – how the race was won”. Seeing the Roubaix photo there an instant before I realised my mistake, I wondered if you were implying he’d lost the race (Amstel) at Roubaix, because mistake or not, I think there’s something to this. Pog looked on his knees on those last few sectors, and even without the crash I think VDP would’ve dropped him like a stone on the Carefour . WVA commented on how Roubaix had left him physically drained and not recovered. Roubaix is a different beast with different requirements, probably more so to a lighter rider like Pogacar. At Amstel he looked decidedly jaded and tired, mentally and physically I think as the demands of the cobbled classics caught up with him. Whilst it’s great to see a GT contender genuinely enjoy trying to win everything, his team might be a little wary of his appetite outweighing even his capabilities. Everyone has a limit.

    • Van de Poel was also “on his knees” at the end, as he admitted. It was a complete slug-fest at Roubaix and everyone was completely shattered at the end (Pedersen used different words). We can’t really be sure that VDP would have dropped Pogi; and there is a chance that VDP would have been dropped. And funny things can happen in a sprint between two exhausted riders. The shame of the crash is that we didn’t get to see it play out.

  10. Great racing by Skjelmose. Let’s not forget that he was the one who refused to give up. He attacked out of the group, and hung out there for almost 5-10K before Evenepoel bridged the gap.
    There is a hope for cycling, when just a few riders refuse to give up when Pogacar is out front.

    • In his interview afterwards, Skjelmose said he was racing for a podium and that he didn’t think that Pogacar could be caught once he was away.

      • Totally so!

        It was pretty obvious indeed. There was some comments on that in the previous blog post before the “right” one was published.
        Well done to Skjel for being so frank in the interview… apart from, well, winning 😉

      • Yes! But, he still went for it, and then when it came down to a sprint he never quit.

        Tadej might dominate, but these have been some very exciting races. He still goes for it 100% when he might not win… so the races are still very exciting to watch.

        Can’t wait for the rest of the Ardennes week races.

  11. What an incredible race?

    Is this currently ranking up there as one of the best classics seasons in the last few decades?
    If LBL is strong I’m struggling to remember a better one? MSR was an all time great. Amstel was also pretty close to an all timer, Flanders and Roubaix were both good if not great. But maybe if neither F or R are greats though the whole classics season takes a hit?

    Anyway – one thing for all the Pogacar hate out there (and Remco) – I think the boring walkovers are inextricably linked to these kind of mega results, for every solo demolishing we get an MSR’25 or Amstel’25 where either the uber-talents lock horns or a surprise package shocks us. Beating Pog (and the others) is just different gravy (even if he’s clearly a bit knackered from Roubaix) – I’ve enjoyed many Amstel’s but rarely am I jumping off my seat like Sunday. Huge huge congrats to Skjelmose, I’d get a mural of that podium in my foyer if I were him, was like beating Merckx and De Vlaeminck into 2nd and 3rd.

    Was looking for another great podium to be a (relatively unknown) winner on –
    1976 Roubaix had Moser&DeVlaeminck beaten by Marc Demeyer.

    1981 Roubaix has Moser&DeVlaeminck again but the winner isn’t so unknown:Hinault!!!

    What other great shock winner podiums have there been? Trying to find a race with Boonen and Cancellera 2nd & 3rd or similar.

    Brabantse Pijl was excellent also, always like that race.

    • Well, since he’s been named much recently, how not to cite Gianetti’s own underdog feat… after some promising juvenile years, in 1995 he was 31 and hadn’t won a race for some 4-5 seasons, I think. Working his way around as a gregario, he barely had collected two or three top-5 each year, mostly in minor races (his best feats had been runner-up at Mi-To or 4th at a Suisse stage).

      Suddenly, Spring 1995 he began showing form at Basque Country, then a couple of nice performances at Amorebieta and Huy. Yet nobody was prepared for whay was about to come…

      …he won LBL over a small group of chasers, with BUGNO and BARTOLI podiuming. 4th and last from the chase was JALABERT. The top-10 also included Lance Armstrong (still a Classics man), Casagrande, Rolf Sorensen and Chiappucci.
      Just outside the top-10, albeit 10 MINUTES BEHIND, you had, in this order, Fondriest, Tchmil, Musseuw, Zülle, Bortolami and Rebellin (Pantani and Berzin closing that group).

      I dunno if anything else can match that in this history of cycling, which helps to understand why people go a little hysterical about Gianetti ^___^

      (One week later he also won Amstel)

        • The miracle…with some “helpful preparation” that year. Not that I am particularly condemning Gianetti, it was the era for that kind of thing.

      • Another one from the UK that I heard since the sad death of Barry Hoban –

        1974 Gent Wevelgem won by Hoban with again Merckx and DeVlaeminck.

        Admittedly maybe Hoban had a few more wins to his name than some of the others mentioned to this point, but nice find a way to reference a British great here in the week of his passing.

    • Milan-Sanremo seemingly used to specialize in them!

      MSR 2011: 1. Goss, 2. Cancellara, 3. Gilbert
      MSR 2012: 1. Gerrans, 2. Cancellara, 3. Nibali
      MSR 2013: 1. Ciolek, 2. Sagan, 3. Cancellara

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