Amstel Gold Race

Pidcock wins cycling classic in the Netherlands

The Amstel Gold Race is a cycling classic.(Bild: APA/AFP/ANP/Vincent Jannink)

Briton Thomas Pidcock won the Amstel Gold Race for the first time on Sunday. Local hero Mathieu van der Poel came away empty-handed. 

The Olympic mountain bike champion from the Ineos team won the classic in the Netherlands in the sprint of a four-man breakaway ahead of Marc Hirschi, Tiesj Benoot and Mauri Vansevenant. World champion Mathieu van der Poel, who recently won the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, finished outside the top ten in his home country.

Thomas Pidcock(Bild: APA/AFP/Marco BERTORELLO)

Pidcock narrowly missed out on victory in third place last year and second place in 2021. The last major spring classic follows next weekend with Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The heavily shortened women's race went to Dutch rider Marianne Vos (Visma) because the supposed winner Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) had cheered too early in the sprint. The Tyrolean Christina Schweinberger (Fenix) finished 33rd in the second larger group, 26 seconds back. The peloton had been stopped for over an hour in the early stages due to a rescue operation following an accident involving a police motorcycle and a car. The men who started later were guided past the scene of the accident.