Coming up today, the best race finish we have seen in years. As well as the men’s and women’s Amstel Gold Races we’ve got the Tour of Turkey, Brabanste Pijl, and a new World Hour Record. Check out the GCN Shop:
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Mathieu van der Poel. He has just elevated himself to Dutch royalty, winning the biggest race in the Netherlands, in the Dutch champions jersey, and white shorts, with one of the best race finishes you will ever see. It’s hard to know where to even start with this one, but let’s go back to 44kms to go.
That was when van der Poel couldn’t hold his excitement back any longer, going on the attack, Gorka Izaguirre the only man able, or willing, to join him. His father, Adri, who has been trying to tell his son to conserve a bit more energy, must have had his head in his hands at that point. It was a novice move, although we shouldn’t be too critical about that - after all this was his first participation in the race, and only the 4th WorldTour event he’s ever ridden.
Regardless, after Izaguirre was told to stop working he was caught 6kms later, just before what is often the decisive part of the race, the Kruisberg. That is where Deceuninck Quickstep accelerated and Alaphilippe made his attack, joined a little later by Fuglsang. Nobody was able to follow them, not least, understandably, van der Poel, who was paying for the efforts he’d already made.
Despite the efforts of Kwiatkowski and Trentin behind, nobody was able to catch the front two. With 2.5kms to go, they had close to half a minute’s lead. The win was theirs, it was just a matter of which one of them would take it.
And then Fuglsang sat on. Quite rightly so in my opinion - the Dane is no match for Alaphilippe in a sprint finish, his only chance of victory was to make the Frenchman do the work, and hope that that would sap his energy enough to give him a chance at the finish.
Only Alaphilippe wasn’t prepared to do it on his own. The pace slowed, the gap fell. It was tantalising stuff. Kwiatkowski, who’d dropped Trentin, closed in, and eventually caught the leading duo.
And then, as we got a long shot from the finish line, we could see another group in the distance. The win was still between the three of them, surely. That gap couldn’t be closed, could it?
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Photos: © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Bettiniphoto /
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