Amstel Gold Race men LIVE – Can anyone stop Mathieu van der Poel?

It’s easy to see why Pidcock fancies his chances today. He has a great record in this race, having been one of only two men able to stay with Tadej Pogačar when he launched the first of his two big attacks, and was only denied victory two years earlier by one of the closest ever photo finishes.

170KM TO GO

Ineos’ work has been enough to stabilise the gap. It’s now at around four minutes. 

Interestingly, it’s Ineos Grenadiers who are leading the peloton rather than Alpecin-Deceuninck. You’d have thought that the onus would be on Alpecin-Deceuninck, given Van der Poel’s favourite status, and just how superior they were to every other team last weekend at Paris-Roubaix. Evidently Ineos really believe in Pidcock, who skipped most of the cobbled classics in order to target this week of racing.

The break is using this rare flat section to further build their lead. It’s now exceeding four minutes, with the next climb not for another 10km.

The Rijksweg has come and gone without incident. There’s now a period of relative respite, with no climb for over 15km.

190KM TO GO

3-30 now for the leaders. Their advantage continues to grow as the peloton enjoys a rest. 

The slackening of the pace has given the peloton a much easier time than over the last two climbs, the Korenweg and Nijswillerweg. That’s four of the day’s 32 (down from 33, due to the removal of Bergseweg) completed; the next one will be Rijksweg, in about 4km.

200KM TO GO

The gap is indeed up to three minutes, with the pace relaxed enough for comfort breaks for those in the peloton. 

Here are the four riders out front. No sign of the peloton anywhere near behind them – it seems they aren’t going to be brought back any time soon.

210KM TO GO

It seems this quartet might be poised to become the break of the day. They’re lead is up to over a minute.

If a Visma-Lease a Bike rider had tried to get into the break in a classic at the start of the spring as Van der Sande is trying to do now, there would be far more panic from the peloton. It’s amazing just how much their stock has fallen since Opening Weekend, going from winning both of those classics to having highest finisher at Paris-Roubaix of just sixteenth Still, they have a strong looking line-up today, spearheaded by Tiesj Benoot and Matteo Jorgenson.

Four riders have now managed to establish some daylight between themselves and the peloton, with a thirty second lead. That quartet is: Tosh Van der Sande (Visma-Lease a Bike), Enzo Leijnse (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Alexander Hajek (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Zeb Kyffin (TDT – Unibet).

220KM TO GO

It’s been a quick start, and over 25km completed, still no sign of a break being allowed to go clear. 

There’s been a slight alteration to the course, with the scheduled third climb of the day, the Bergseweg, set to be skipped. That’s due to a road traffic accident that has caused a temporary neutralisation in the women’s race, which is taking place further up the road – and which, incidentally, you can follow here.

Weather-wise, it’s dry and fairly warm out.This can be a ropey race, with roads notorious for road furniture and hazards, but a lack of rain should minimise the risk of yet more bad crashes dominating the headlines.

240KM TO GO

The first climb has been completed, but still no break has been formed.

240KM TO GO

Attacks are coming thick and fast but so far none have stuck, and the peloton remains all together. 

Unlike Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders from the previous two weekends, there’s no initial early phase of the race without any obstacles. The first climb, the Maasberg, comes just 12km into the race, and the next less than 20km, and after that they keep arriving with increasing intensity throughout the day.

253.6KM TO GO

And they’re off!

The riders are in the neutralised zone as we speak, at the start in Maastricht. Not long now until the race begins and attacks start firing out of the bunch. It’ll be a long day for whoever gets into the break, but a prestigious one.

Only about a quarter of an hour until things get going. It’s to be a long, taxing day, with 253.6km and 33 climbs to complete, and one that recent history of the race suggests will be an exciting one.

Today, Van der Poel has the chance to become the first man in history to win the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold in the same season. In fact, only four men have ever won Flanders and Amstel Gold the same season (Pogačar, Gilbert, Raas and Merckx), and a mere three Amstel Gold and Paris-Roubaix (Raas, Hinault and Merckx). If Van der Poel can indeed pull this one off, it will be one of the all-time great spring campaigns.

That said, it’s the same man who dominated the cobbled classics season who is again the hot favourite today. Mathieu van der Poel’s supremacy extends beyond just the cobbles of Northern Europe, and in the absence of injured rival Wout van Aert and defending champion Tadej Pogačar, will be looked at as the rider expected to animate and control the race.

You join us today for the start of Ardennes Week – albeit not actually in the region of the Ardennes. Amstel Gold may not be geographically located in the Ardennes Forest as La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but it shares the same kind of abundance of short, tarmacked hills that characterises those races, thus beginning the part of the spring where puncheurs rule supreme.

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of Amstel Gold Race.