Remco Evenepoel accelerates up the Cauberg. Both he and Mattias Skjelmose are looking at the road ahead but Romain Grégoire is fixated on the two riders in front of him as he is about to be dropped. With Evenepoel able to ditch the Frenchman finisseur here, all that would be left would be to out-sprint Skjelmose and this time there was no surprise. This was the moment the race was won.
An early breakaway of nine with Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarché), Filip Maciejuk (Movistar), Marco Frigo (NSN), Warren Barguil (Picnic-PostNL), Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5), Joseba Lopez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Valentin Retailleau (TotalEnergies) and Abram Stockman (Unibet Rose Rockets).
RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe led the bunch for a long time but less of a pursuit and more a chaperone role, containing their advantage with Tim van Dijke and Danny van Poppel on hand to prevent the lead going beyond four minutes. Textbook stuff.
Indeed by the time the TV coverage started the status quo persisted. Having been spoilt by long range moves in the Ronde and a relentless Paris-Roubaix this was more subdued.
With less than an hour to go Romain Grégoire attacked on the Kruisberg. Remco Evenepoel followed and along came Mattias Skjelmose, Matteo Jorgenson, Kévin Vauquelin, plus Mathieu Burgaudeau who soon vanished. It saw four of the top-five picks from this blog’s preview were going clear. This isn’t to seek applause for perception, more that the obvious names in the action.
The plot twist came when Kévin Vauquelin crashed, seeming to resume pedalling too soon after taking a left hand bend and grounding his pedal causing him to wash out. This took out Artz – who’d come back from the early breakaway – and Matteo Jorgenson to crash, the American broke a collarbone, ruining his long-held plans for the Ardennes. A surprise but not a shock on a tight course that often feels like it’s one turn away from taking an alley behind a row of houses.
This left Grégoire, Skjelmose and Evenepoel clear. With the Frenchman the fastest on paper for a sprint, Evenepoel rode hard the penultimate time up the Cauberg to eject him. This climb is unremarkable but after 230km it was a mountain to climb for Grégoire. Evenepoel did not need to attack, just set a pace too high for Grégoire. Having been on the receiving end of this in the Ronde now it was Evenepoel’s turn to look back and adjust his pace accordingly to keep the rival at bay.
It was déjà vu with Evenepoel and Skjelmose away again in the finish of the Amstel. But how could the Dane win this time? His turns were looking shorter and less applied. They rode together up the Cauberg with nobody behind in sight to panic their sprint.
Evenepoel had Skjelmose in front and as the finish got closer, a flicker of doubt: what if Skjelmose’s lighter build could be an advantage in a late sprint, to go from low speed to high. Evenepoel was leaving it late but with 150m he launched in a low gear, almost too low for a sprint but this saw him accelerate, pass and go clear while Skjelmose looked to have the same kind of spaghetti legs endured by Pogačar in Roubaix and could barely sprint.
Benoît Cosnefroy won the sprint for third, he joined a counter-move and was the quickest. This group eased on the last lap to give the lead two almost two minute’s lead. A nod to Marco Frigo of NSN who was away all day but still able to latch onto this group and even had the audacity to launch the sprint.
The Verdict
The course had plenty of twists and turns, alas the racing did not. The early break went, it splintered and Remco Evenepoel won from the breakaway. The host production seemed to have limited means – one helicopter, fewer motos – as well which meant viewers saw less of the other parts of action at times.
If Evenepoel made it look easy, it’s a credit to him and his team. They controlled before he rode the perfect race, covering Grégoire’s move, towing the break clear, ejecting Grégoire on the part of the course where their differences were exposed the most and then sapping Skjelmose to ensure the sprint was barely contested.
Evenepoel was expressing an interest in the upcoming Flèche Wallonne, and having worked on his sprint and short efforts over the winter it’ll be interesting to see what he can do, does he bank on this or is his speciality of going clear before a tactic to be tried even in the Flèche, a race that has ended more often in a bunch sprint this century than the Scheldeprijs? Trying to convert the Amstel’s plan into next Sunday’s Liège will be harder too given more opposition. All this though feels eminently possible but he’s changed teams over the winter with the stated aim of tackling the Tour de France.
Skjelmose is in a similar situation to Evenepoel only with a fraction of the pressure and public scrutiny. A career project on the team to take him towards grand tour success has been derailed by injury but also results and now he’s on a team invested in Juan Ayuso so has to find results at other times too.
Grégoire impressed for the audacity to launch the move but seems to have a ceiling when it comes to competing with the very best but if the team wanted more they’ll bank on his fourth place and the 275 UCI points with a further 100 for Ewen Costiou covering in ninth place. Cosnefroy put UAE on the podium again and having been plagued by knee injuries apparently it’s all gone. Albert Withen Philipsen made the counter move and the finished 8th, impressive for a 19 year old even in these times.
Sadly, the beer won.
The Vauquelin/Jorgenson crash more or less sucked the oxygen out of this one.
Bring on the Mur de Huy …