Extraordinary finish at the Amstel Gold Race
It looked like it was up to Alaphilippe and Fuglsang to battle it out for the win. With a 40-second advantage and 3 km to go, seemingly nothing could stop them. That was, however, before Mathieu van der Poel led a large group right to their wheels and launched a sprint neither of those two could answer.
“We made a huge mistake or the tactic was wrong to risk it because it was basically a safe win or second place,” Fuglsang admitted after being able to hold on to the third place. Alaphilippe slipped down to fourth.
“It’s difficult to explain actually, I thought the riders in front were gone,” van der Poel said. “They had a one-minute lead in the last lap. I don’t think anyone really believed we could win from our group and it’s just the last straight that I see the guys in front ahead of us.”
Amstel Gold Race 2019 results (265.7km)
1 Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) – 4:35:11
2. Simon Clarke (EF Education First)
3 Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)
4 Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick-Step)
5 Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe)
6 Bjorg Lambrecht (Lotto-Soudal)
7 Alessandro De Marchi (CCC)
8 Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)
9 Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale)
10 Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott)
