Remco Evenepoel has proclaimed his first ever Amstel Gold Race win among his best ever victories.
The Belgian superstar won a two-up contest with defending champion Mattias Skjelmose to take his first ever win at Amstel Gold Race.
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It’s the former World Champion’s eighth win of the season.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the race he said: “It was a flashback to last year. I have more confidence now, I felt on the climbs I was the strongest today and that he [Skjelmose] was on the limit when taking pulls. I had a lot of confidence I could finish it in a sprint.”
Skjelmose said: “Last year I was lucky and this year he beat me with legs”
Evenepoel said he is a big fan of Amstel Gold’s “short hard climbs”.
He added: “It’s the most beautiful victory of the season but every week there’s a new beautiful one.
“This race, other than the monuments, is very high on my list. It’s in the top eight victories in my career.”
That left just a trio of Grégoire, Evenepoel and Skjelmose chasing the remains of the day’s break.
They proceeded to increase their gap over the final lap of the race’s finishing circuit and had a minute and half in hand as they came to the Cauberg for the final time.
Behind them Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Emirates-XRG) won the sprint for third.
The Belgian is next scheduled race is Liège–Bastogne–Liège next Sunday but he said he may yet race La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday too.
He said: “We’ll analyse the race and maybe decide tomorrow. We’ll see how I recover from today. They’re predicting nice weather and it’s always nice to have good weather in Flèche Wallonne but first I’m going to enjoy this one.”
ResultAmstel Gold Race: Maastricht > Valkenburg (257km)
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 5:59.40
2. Mattia Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, at 1s
3. Benoît Cosnefroy (Fra) UAE Emirates-XRG, at +1.59
4. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
5. Emiel Verstrynge (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech
6. Mauro Schmid (Sui) Jayco AlUla
7. Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
8. Albert Withen Philipsen (Den) Lidl-Trek
9. Ewn Costiou (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
10. Marco Frigo (Ita) NAN Cycling Team, all at same time
