There were some starkly contrasting emotions on the podium of the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday afternoon. On the third step, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) looked a little peeved with the missed opportunity, but the way he hopped onto the podium and nodded to the crowd with a wry smile, it was clear this was a man who is on form and knows it. Two metres to his right, the world champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), looked outright despondent — gracious as always but nonetheless gutted with the way the race panned out. In-between the world and Olympic champions stood Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) shyly, humbly, charmingly struggling to lift the winners’ trophy. The Dane almost appeared to be walking on eggs shells, he couldn’t believe it. He had just beaten the two best Ardennes Classics riders in the peloton.
Reading the demeanours of athletes on the podium can be futile. These are athletes who can hide how they are feeling when their heart rates are at close to maximum, let alone when standing around post-race. However, what can be analysed is what played out over the course of the last hour of racing, which was one of the most intriguing battles this year, with a bucketful of that thing that all fans crave, which makes bike racing exciting: uncertainty. After a cobbled Classics campaign where the final podium result followed the betting markets in almost every race, on the rollercoaster roads of Limburg there was jeopardy for every single rider for the whole final hour.
A race of multiple narratives, one of which was appearing to shape up to be the usual, familiar script — Pogačar putting in a long range attack and soloing to victory. It wasn’t quite like that when with just under 48km to go, a similarly adventurous rider Julian Alaphilippe, launched on the Gulperberg and the world champion followed — although he appeared to be working hard to do so. But this alliance was short-lived, on the next climb a seated Pogačar rode the Frenchman off his wheel. Chapter one done. We got the gist and perhaps were thinking of skim reading to the end. Or was it the usual script? Was Pogačar’s bucking back and forth a sign of a chink in his armour? It’s easy to say yes in hindsight. He did manage to expand his gap to 30 seconds at which point it seemed like the race was all over.
Even when Skjelmose attacked the chase group with 32km to go, it looked like he was racing for second. But then 5km later, Evenepoel escaped the clutches of an uncooperative group and joined the Danish rider. Suddenly the race for the win was on. What ensued was a fascinating chase on the bergs of southern Netherlands, which ebbed and flowed but always in the favour of the two pursuers, who eventually caught their man — the world champion — with 8km to go. The trio duked it out in the sprint, where Evenepoel launched first, Pogačar kicked passed but both were overcome by the plucky Skjelmose.
Again in hindsight, it is easy to say these were the best riders of the day but things could have played out differently — on the approach to the Gulperberg with 48km to go, both Evenepoel and Skjelmose were in terrible positions, way back in the bunch. If they had been there they almost certainly would have been able to follow Alaphilippe and Pogačar’s move. But in not being there, at least for Skjelmose, it won him the race. Pogačar burnt several matches trying to stay away alone on a breezy day, and when Skjelmose was joined by one of the most powerful soloists in the sport in Evenepoel, he worked well with him and then he played the joker card of being the weakest in the sprint behind two riders with bulging palmarès. Skjelmose was the weakest sprinter, until he wasn’t.
It was a back-and-forth, chaotic day of racing, which ushers in what promises to be a week of unpredictable Ardennes racing at La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. All the podium finishers took very different routes to the startline in Maastricht. Skjelmose told TV broadcasters that he lost his grandfather a month ago, dedicating his win — the biggest of his career — to him. He has endured a tough season so far, after being concussed in a crash at Paris-Nice in March. It is a reward for a rider with so much promise, often overshadowed by the achievements of his compatriots Jonas Vingegaard and Mads Pedersen. It was also a reward for his Lidl-Trek team, which has had a fantastic season so far.
For Pogačar, the Ardennes triple crown dream ends, beaten on the line by barely the width of a tyre. Two weeks in a row, he has finished second, but while at Paris-Roubaix, he could take heart in his showing over the cobbles, today was a blow. If last week it felt like he could have won, today it seemed like he should have. But despite the disappointment, Amstel doesn’t say much about Pogačar other than the fact he is human and perhaps a little fatigued after an incredible spring.
The last time he was caught after getting away solo was on stage 11 of the Tour de France when another humble and quiet Dane, Vingegaard memorably clawed his way back and surprised everyone — including himself — by winning the sprint for the stage. It may have only happened on one or two occasions but Amstel proved that when Pogačar gets caught after going solo, he doesn’t win the final sprint. He goes all in to win when he launches his move and it makes the racing all the more exciting when he does. He will be up at the pointy end again at Flèche and Liège but he may have company.
As for Evenepoel, the Remcomeback torches on, relentlessly and aerodynamically. Forty-eight hours ago he won his first race of the season, outsprinting Wout van Aert for a commanding victory at De Brabantse Pijl on Friday. Even before that win, Evenepoel had hinted that he was in good shape after coming back from the “hardest battle” of his life following an injury in the offseason. After Sunday’s show of strength, where for an hour he and Skjelmose chipped away at Pogačar’s lead, there is no doubt about it, Evenepoel is up for the fight at Liège.
Although unable, or unwilling, to chase the trio down, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Van Aert (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Joe Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech), Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty), Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco Alula) all looked strong at certain points in the final hour. What does this all mean for La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, and more importantly Liège on Sunday? First and foremost: uncertainty. Pogačar is still likely to start as the favourite but not an out-right one, and judging by his bleak expression on the podium, he knows it. There’s a chink in his armour and they are coming for his Liège crown. There’s a Monument there for the taking.
