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After the race was shortened to just three laps of the finishing circuit due to an incident involving a police motorbike, Marianne Vos took the victory in a thrilling edition of the Amstel Gold Race to take her third victory of the season for Visma-Lease a Bike.
After attacks from the favourites on all three ascents of the Cauberg, the race came down to a reduced bunch sprint, with Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) leading the group out for her teammate Lorena Wiebes as they entered the final few hundred metres.
An early sprint by Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) closed Wiebes to the barriers, but the Dutch sprinter was able to find a way through, opening her sprint with Vos on her wheel. The victory then seemed like a formality for the SD Worx-Protime rider, but she celebrated before the finish, allowing Vos come around and pip her on the line to take the win.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a reduced edition of the Amstel Gold Race this year. Due to a collision between a police motorcyclist and a car on the Bergseweg climb, the commissaires were forced to neutralise the race, as the local police opened an investigation into the crash.
The organisers then announced that the riders would go under neutral conditions to the town of Valkenburg to take on three laps of the finishing circuit. This shortened the distance of the race to around just 54km.
Racing then resumed about an hour after the neutralisation, as the riders passed the finish line to begin the first of their three laps.
As they hit the Cauberg for the first time, the favourites were keen to test the legs of those around them, as Elisa Longo Borghini drew a small group of six riders clear, which included the likes of Demi Vollering, Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM).
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They were brought back by the peloton over the top of the climb though, with three-rider group then going clear, with Eva van Agt (Visma-Lease a Bike), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM) launching a move off the front.
Behind them, there were more attacks in the peloton on the second lap, as Lidl-Trek were particularly active with Longo Borghini launching another attack on the Cauberg and although she was once again able to pull a group clear they did not have the cohesion to hold a gap on the rest of the peloton.
Onto the final lap, the trio at the front continued to work well together, as their gap hovered around 30 seconds over the main group. In the peloton, there was no clear and concerted chase from a particular team, with the riders clearly content to leave everything until the final two climbs of the Bemelerberg and the Cauberg.
With 10km to go, apprehensiveness in the peloton meant that the gap to the breakaway had gone up to around a minute. In the three-rider group, Van Agt attacked Bemelerberg, distancing Kastelijn, who had been struggling for some time by that point. She was able to get back on though and rejoin the group as the road began to level out.
Emma Wyllie (Liv AlUla Jayco) then came to the front of the peloton in the hopes of injecting some pace into the group on the climb. However, the favourites were simply happy to follow the wheels, with the gap to those at the front still not coming down.
Van Agt continued to encourage her breakaway companions to work together in the hopes of holding off the peloton, shouting at Kastelijn and Bauernfeind to do a turn at the front.
At this point, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) began to take matters into her own hands, as she had been hovering around the front of the group for a little while. The World Champion worked alongside her teammate Kata Blanka Vas to reduce the gap to the breakaway to under 30 seconds once again.
Lidl-Trek also began to commit riders to the chase, with Ellen van Dijk putting her teammates in good position ahead of the final ascent of the Cauberg.
As they reached the left turn at the bottom of the Cauberg, the gap to those out front was just ten seconds, as Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) attempted an attack, with the peloton making the catch to the breakaway.
They were not out of it though, as Bauernfeind continued to pull on the front, before her teammate Niewiadoma attacked, but that move was quickly shut down. A few more moves went, but none of them were able to get a gap over the favourites.
As they reached the final straight to the finish, Vollering began her leadout for her teammate Lorena Wiebes. Longo Borghini then opened her sprint and closed the Dutch sprinter to the barriers.
Wiebes managed to find a way through though and opened up her sprint with Marianne Vos on her wheel. It seemed almost certain that she would take the victory, but as she sat up to celebrate, Vos managed to throw her bike at the line and snatch the win away from Wiebes on the photo finish.
RESULTS
1. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 2:35:02
2. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
3. Ingvild Gåskjenn (Nor) Liv AlUla Jayco
4. Pfeiffer Georgi (GBr) dsm-firmenich PostNL
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek
6. Eleonora Gasparrini (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
7. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (SAf) AG Insurance-Soudal
8. Amber Kraak (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ
9. Yara Kastelijn (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck
10. Soraya Paladin (Ita) Canyon-SRAM, all at same time
