Amstel Gold Race 2024: Pidcock wins the sprint, van der Poel comes away empty-handed

At the 56th edition of the Amstel Gold Race, Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) secured victory after 253.6 kilometres. The Brit won the sprint in Valkenburg in a four-man lead group against Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Tiesj Benoot (Visma | Lease a Bike), with fourth place going to Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick - Step). Pidcock is also the first Briton to win the Ardennes Classic. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who had dominated the Flemish classics, remained conspicuously inconspicuous this time.

>> How the women's race went

In a selective race with many attacks, the decisive group formed around 30 kilometres before the finish. On the Geulhemmerberg, an attack by Hirschi 13 kilometres before the finish formed the four-man group that ultimately decided the victory among themselves. They rode together into the final kilometre, where a chasing group almost managed to catch up at the end. Vansevenannt was forced to open the sprint at some point, Pidcock then rode past on his slipstream, initially blocking Hirschi's way on the inside and pulling away to the line. Pidcock finished third in the previous year and even finished the Amstel Gold Race in second place in 2021.

I love this race. I don't know what it is, but I always ride well here. Today I had the team fully behind me. Kwiatkowski gave everything for me - Tom Pidcock at the finish.

Van der Poel, who was without a team-mate in the final, finished in a group eleven seconds behind in 22nd place. The best German rider was Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche-Wanty) in 42nd place (+0:20).

Amstel Gold Race 2024: Results - the top 10

1. Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) 5:58:17
2. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
3. Tiesj Benoot (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:00
4. Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick Step) +0:00
5. Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:00
6. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
7. Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
8. Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
9. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
10. Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) +0:11

How the Amstel Gold Race 2024 went

After the start in Maastricht, the first attacks came quickly, but a breakaway group was only formed after around 30 kilometres. Tosh van der Sande (Visma | Lease a Bike), Zeb Kyffin (TDT-Unibet), Enzo Leijnse (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Alexander Hajek (Bora-Hansgrohe) subsequently built up a lead of just under 4:30 minutes, while Ineos Grenadiers and Alpecin-Deceuninck organised the chase in the peloton early on. The lead of the four escapees shrank accordingly quickly.

The race programme included 33 short, tough climbs. The most notorious, the Cauberg, was crossed for the first time after 171 kilometres, followed by the first finish passage before a second large loop through and around the finish town of Valkenburg. At this point, the escape group was only a few seconds ahead of the peloton, but shortly afterwards their endeavour was over.

A few kilometres later, Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick - Step), Mikkel Honore (EF Education EasyPost) and Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) formed a new breakaway quartet. The group of favourites still comprised around 40 riders at this point.

Van der Poel misses the decisive attacks

On the Fromberg, around 32 kilometres from the finish, Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Roger Adria (Bora-Hansgrohe) broke away from the group. On the following kilometres and climbs, they were joined by Vansevenant, Pidcock and Benott as well as Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious). The lead grew to 50 seconds over van der Poel's group, and the two remaining breakaway riders Honore and Lapeira were also caught in the meantime.

There was another selection in the eleven-man lead group on the Geulhemmerberg when Hirschi attacked and only Benoot, Vansevenant and Pidcock were able to follow. The gap to the group around van der Poel hovered around 40 seconds, with EF Education EasyPost and Lotto-Dstny in particular doing the chasing. However, the group did not get any closer.

On the last climb of the day, the Bemelerberg, Pidcock then tried to break away from his three companions, but was soon joined again by Benoot and Hirschi, and later Vansevenant also caught up again on the flat section. The victory was then decided in a sprint between the four riders.