The 2018 Amstel Gold Race was a

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes Recreational cycling, recreational, Road bicycle racing, racing, Bicycle commuting, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, ...

one-day race that took place on 15 April 2018 in the Netherlands. It was the 53rd edition of the

Amstel Gold Race The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classic ...

and the sixteenth event of the 2018 UCI World Tour. The race started in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

and finished in

Berg en Terblijt Berg en Terblijt (; li, Berg or ) is the official Dutch name of a village in the municipality of Valkenburg aan de Geul in the province of Limburg in the Southern part of the Netherlands. History The area now known as Berg en Terblijt has b ...

, containing 35 categorised climbs, covering a total distance of . The race was won by

Michael Valgren Michael Valgren Hundahl (né Andersen; born 7 February 1992) is a Danish professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . In 2018, Valgren won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race. Career He became a professio ...

() in a two-up sprint with 's

Roman Kreuziger Roman Kreuziger (; born 6 May 1986) is a Czech former professional road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI ProTeam . His father, Roman Kreuziger Sr., was also a bicycle racer who won the Tour of Austria in 1991 and the Cyclocross Junior Wor ...

. 's

Enrico Gasparotto Enrico Gasparotto (born 22 March 1982) is an Italian-born Swiss former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2020, for seven different teams. After retiring, he worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continent ...

finished third, two seconds behind the front pair.

Route

The race started on

's ''Markt'', the city's central market square, and finished in

, totaling . The route, similar to the 2017 edition, was made up of four sinuous loops centering around Valkenburg in the south of

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

. Only the final loop, long, was modified in order to search for more narrow roads. Organisers intended to make the race finale harder for a peloton to control. Maastricht and Valkenburg have been the start and finish locations of the Amstel Gold Race since 1998 and 2003, respectively, and engaged themselves to host the race until 2022. The route contained 35 categorised hills, usually short but with a varying gradient and coming in quick succession throughout the race. Since 2017, the uphill finish on the

Cauberg The Cauberg is a hill in Valkenburg aan de Geul, a town in the South Limburg region of the Netherlands. The hill played an important role in the early development of tourism in Valkenburg. Today, several major tourist attractions are situated on o ...

was abandoned, after it had been the last climb of the race for 14 years. Nonetheless, the Cauberg, the difficult and most iconic passage, was addressed three times during the race. The third crossing of the Cauberg came at to go and was followed only by the Geulhemmerberg at and Bemelerberg at from the finish.

Teams

As the Amstel Gold Race was a

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour (2009–2010: ''UCI World Ranking'') is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ...

event, all eighteen

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road cycling, the UCI World Tour or UCI ProTour ...

s were invited automatically and obliged to enter a team in the race. Seven UCI Professional Continental teams competed, completing the 25-team peloton.

Result

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amstel Gold Race, 2018 2018 UCI World Tour 2018 in Dutch sport Amstel Gold Race April 2018 sports events in the Netherlands