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 …
Agree, I was a little surprised how favourable the general reaction I saw after was to the race, as it was interesting enough but having had weeks of race days kicking off from 100km out this didn’t quite have the same magic? Still good enough though.
I’m a big Vauquelin fan, he seems to have a lot of grit and always fights to stay in contention even when Onley has a stolen his thunder at Ineos. I see him being Ineos’ top finisher at TDF personally, despite Onley seeming to have a slightly higher ceiling? I bet they form a great double act this summer – repeating their top5s though will be tough with the calibre of riders heading to France this July.
Heart break for Jorgenson. He’s been pretty unlucky recently but sadly I wonder if he’s plateaued given the talent in this era peloton.
Good point on TV coverage. Many interesting things were happening behind for the long kms when the difference was kept around 20″. The chasers had the head of the race in sight many times, so there was a lot to wonder about. One could see Cosnefroy working a huge lot, Izagirre taking a big big turn in a key moment but nobody else building on that, Baudin lending a hand from time to time… it would have been interesting to have longer shots on the chase to better understand tactics and dynamics. Less resources for the production? Less skills or a different attitude for the new generation in the production truck?
It’s true that the current generation of athletes (and DSs) looks quite lacking from a tactical POV, perhaps not having forged those skills among U23 (the athletes) or as racers now in the team car (when racing, “just do what the radio says”); or maybe because everybody is now so used to racing for second (or third, or fourth…) that fighting to keep the race for victory open seems a masochist luxury, even more so as nowadays you can keep the management happy just grabbing points. Yet, I’d like all the same to watch what really happens… who’s refusing to work when Izagirre’s work is over? We’re told more by interviews, Del Grosso saying “I’m no Mathieu” and giving up on leadership as he hadn’t great legs (Alpecin had manpower and didn’t use it).
Plus, once again, a certain absence of big talent in this specialty, worsened by Healy or Pidcock taking care of their injuries.
Curiously, we sometimes complain about “talent concentration”, but if cyclists aren’t able to make the best of cooperation among rivals (the “A” letter in cycling A-B-C), no better racing is granted, quite the other way around. 11 different teams for the first 13 places, and those who “double up” don’t matter because they both had an athlete ahead (and podiumed, indeed) – while it’s not like the rest couldn’t work being afraid of W. Philipsen or Costiou (a great race for both, of course).
However, I also enjoyed some “expectant watching” of the front of the race, truth to be said. Less interesting with hindsight, but watching it live had one wondering what Remco would do, to attack or not to attack the psychological factor of having a rematch for last year’s sprint or trying to avoid it… the moments when he looked less energic, spinning a low gear, and you asked yourself if he was less at ease or just saving efforts for the finale – or next races. Generally speaking, I find it more satisfactory from a “sadistic spectator” POV, to watch as Remco drops everybody from his wheel out of mere exhaustion, or they resist but on the very limit, rather than the “single attack style” by Pogi (or Vingo – or A. Yates at Gran Camiño’s penultimate stage) when they go solo at a random point of a climb then cruise high speed to the finish. Roubaix’s pavé also offers that nice effect of “look as the rubber band snaps (or not)”. And it’s also different, equally good, when it’s on a wall or a short climb, because in that case there’s the factor “you have to drop them in a short space”.