{"id":205179,"date":"2026-04-20T05:24:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T05:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=205179"},"modified":"2026-04-20T05:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T05:24:02","slug":"i-wasnt-actually-even-scheduled-to-ride-this-race-paula-blasi-takes-surprise-solo-win-at-amstel-gold-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/04\/20\/i-wasnt-actually-even-scheduled-to-ride-this-race-paula-blasi-takes-surprise-solo-win-at-amstel-gold-race\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI wasn&#8217;t actually even scheduled to ride this race,\u201d Paula Blasi Takes Surprise Solo Win at Amstel Gold Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>It wasn\u2019t part of the plan, not even close. Paula Blasi wasn\u2019t originally meant to race the Amstel Gold Race Ladies. By the end of the day, she was alone at the front, holding off the favourites and riding into a win that didn\u2019t follow any expected script.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI really can&#8217;t believe it. I wasn&#8217;t actually even scheduled to ride this race, but due to some illnesses and injuries within the team, I got called up after all. And now this!\u201d said Blasi.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>From being dropped to going all-in<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The turning point didn\u2019t come from a position of control, quite the opposite.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt will take a few weeks before it really sinks in. I had actually been dropped, but I managed to make my way back and decided to accelerate. I thought to myself: let me try to be of service to the team in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What followed was a shift in approach. Rather than reacting to the race, Blasi forced it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI really struggled with my positioning all day long. I was also quite nervous about this race, seeing as it\u2019s my first time riding the Ardennes classics. I thought: I\u2019d better go on the attack; that way, I won&#8217;t have to constantly fight for position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even the timing of the move came with uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I crossed the finish line for the penultimate time, I didn&#8217;t even know how many kilometers I still had left to cover. I figured it was about five kilometers, but it turned out to be 22 kilometers. That\u2019s when I thought: there\u2019s still a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From there, it became a long solo effort over the rolling Limburg roads. It was measured, but far from comfortable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Behind, the favourites hesitated just enough. Not a complete standstill, but not a fully committed chase either.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Holding off the favourites<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gap never looked completely safe, but it never disappeared either.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blasi rode the final kilometres of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amstelgoldrace.nl\/en\">Amstel Gold Race<\/a> on instinct as much as information, committing to the effort despite not fully knowing what remained. The chasing group, stacked with bigger names and stronger teams, couldn\u2019t quite organise in time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the finish, the upset was complete.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Amstel Gold Race Ladies 2026 \u2014 Maastricht to Valkenburg (158.1km)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li>Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) \u2014 4:02:15<\/li>\n<li>Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) \u2014 +0:27<\/li>\n<li>Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) \u2014 +0:27<\/li>\n<li>Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<li>Noemi R\u00fcegg (EF Education-Oatly) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<li>Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<li>Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<li>Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<li>Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<li>Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) \u2014 +0:43<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It wasn\u2019t part of the plan, not even close. Paula Blasi wasn\u2019t originally meant to race the Amstel Gold Race [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":205180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[9007,9006,3771,8624,8872],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-205179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-2026-amstel-gold-race","tag-amstel-gold-race-ladies-2026","tag-demi-vollering","tag-kasia-niewiadoma-phinney","tag-paula-blasi","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Paula Blasi takes Surprise Solo Win at Amstel Gold Race<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It wasn\u2019t part of the plan, not even close. 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