Maastricht (Netherlands) (AFP)
Photo-finish!
Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo) narrowly won the Amstel Gold Race, the only Dutch cycling classic, on Sunday near Valkenburg, after 216 kilometers of racing.
Van Aert was declared the winner at the expense of Briton Tom Pidcock after a lengthy photo-finish review.
German Maximilian Schachmann took third place in this three-man sprint, just ahead of the first chase group set by Australian Michael Matthews.
The world champion, the French Julian Alaphilippe, finished sixth, behind the Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde, soon 41 years old.
Van Aert, 26, won for the first time in the Amstel Gold Race, transformed this year into a circuit race due to the constraints linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Belgian, winner for the 4th time of the season after two stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and Gand-Wevelgem, found for the victory Pidcock who had beaten him in the sprint last Wednesday in the Flèche Brabançonne.
The young Briton (21) almost put it back again but failed very little to the point that the two men had to wait several minutes for the verdict of the commissioners.
In this 55th edition, a breakaway of 10 riders (Theuns, Bernard, Dewulf and Haga in particular), launched on the first lap, opened the race up to 35 kilometers from the finish.
The Belgian Loïc Vliegen extended the effort, imitated by the young Dutchman Ide Schelling ten kilometers further.
In the peloton, Slovenian Primoz Roglic played watchdogs for the benefit of van Aert.
But he was the victim of a mechanical problem on the last climb of the Cauberg, at the entrance of the last 20 kilometers, where van Aert set the pace.
Pidcock provoked the decision eight miles from the line, along with van Aert and Schachmann.
The trio secured a lead of twenty seconds and fought for victory despite the chasers coming together in the home stretch.
On the list, van Aert succeeds his great rival, the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, winner in 2019 but absent this time.
© 2021 AFP