The 2019 Amstel Gold Race is 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 21 April 2019 in the Netherlands. It was the 54th 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 classics r ...

and the 18th event of the

2019 UCI World Tour The 2019 UCI World Tour was a series of races that included thirty-eight road cycling events throughout the 2019 men's cycling season. It was the first time since the World Tour was launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2009 tha ...

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.

Pre-race favourites

The main bookmakers' favourites before the race were

Mathieu van der Poel Mathieu van der Poel (born 19 January 1995) is a Dutch cyclist who rides for the UCI ProTeam . He competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, gravel cycling, and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport and is best known for winning ...

, who was set to make his debut in the Amstel Gold Race, and

Julian Alaphilippe Julian Alaphilippe (born 11 June 1992) is a French professional road cyclist, former cyclo-cross racer and two-fold UCI World Road Champion, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He is the brother of racing cyclist Bryan Alaphilippe. Career E ...

. Both cyclists had already been successful in the early season, with Van der Poel winning

Dwars door Vlaanderen Dwars door Vlaanderen ''( en, Across Flanders)'' is a semi-classic road bicycle race in Belgium, held annually since 1945. The race starts in Roeselare and finishes in Waregem, both in West Flanders. Since 2017 the event is included in the UCI W ...

and the

Brabantse Pijl The Brabantse Pijl ( en, Brabant Arrow, french: italic=yes, Flèche Brabançonne or ''Flèche Branconne'') is a Flanders Classics road bicycle race held annually in Flemish Brabant and in Walloon Brabant, Belgium. Since 2005, the race has been or ...

and Alaphilippe taking the victory in

Strade Bianche The Strade Bianche is a road bicycle race in Tuscany, Central Italy, starting and finishing in Siena. First held in 2007, it is raced annually on the first or second Saturday of March. The name ''Strade Bianche'' (Italian for ''White Roads'') st ...

and

Milan–San Remo Milan–San Remo (in Italian ''Milano-Sanremo''), also called "''The Spring classic''" or "''La Classicissima''", is an annual road cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy. With a distance of 298 km (~185.2 miles) it is t ...

. Other riders seen as contenders included Michael Matthews,

Peter Sagan Peter Sagan (; born 26 January 1990) is a Slovak professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for UCI ProTeam . Sagan had a successful junior cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing career, winning the junior cross-country race at the 2008 ...

Maximilian Schachmann Maximilian Schachmann (born 9 January 1994) is a German cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . In 2012, he was nominated Germany's 'Cyclist of the Year'. He rode in the 2018 Giro d'Italia, where he won stage 18. Early life Schachmann ...

Alejandro Valverde Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist, who last rode for UCI WorldTeam . Valverde's biggest wins have been the Vuelta a España in 2009, Critérium du Dauphiné in 2008 and 2009 ...

and

Jakob Fuglsang Jakob Diemer Fuglsang (born 22 March 1985) is a Danish professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Before turning professional for , he was a mountain biker racing for Team Cannondale–Vredestein, winning the Under ...

, as well as former winners

Philippe Gilbert Philippe Gilbert (born 5 July 1982) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who is best known for winning the World Road Race Championships in 2012, and for being one of two riders, along with Davide Rebellin, to have won the three ...

and

Michał Kwiatkowski Michał Kwiatkowski ( , born 2 June 1990) is a Polish professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Kwiatkowski is seen as a strong all rounder, with good sprinting, time-trialling and climbing abilities allowing him ...

. Defending champion

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 profession ...

also participated, but was not seen as a favourite due to his disappointing start of the season.

Race summary

Early in the race, a breakaway group of 11 riders escaped the peloton. Their lead would grow to eight minutes before Jakob Fuglsang's Astana team increased the pace in the peloton. Mathieu van der Poel was the first of the favourites to attack at 43 km to the finish together with

Gorka Izagirre Gorka Izagirre Insausti (born 7 October 1987) is a Spanish professional cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . He is the brother of fellow racing cyclist Ion Izagirre. Career Both Izagirre brothers were signed by the for the 2014 season, with I ...

, but their attempt was brought back by the peloton soon after. Julian Alaphilippe was the next to attack after the early breakaway was caught, joined by Fuglsang and

Matteo Trentin Matteo Trentin (born 2 August 1989) is an Italian professional road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career Professional career In 2014, Trentin took a prestigious victory on Stage 7 of the Tour de France, where he won the sprin ...

. Trentin was unable to follow the other two and would be joined by Michał Kwiatkowski, with a chase group containing most of the favourites following shortly behind them. After the final ascent of 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 or ...

, Alaphilippe and Fuglsang had a lead of 30 seconds over the two chasers and nearly a minute over the group behind. With 3 km to go their lead was up to 40 seconds over Kwiatkowski, who had left Trentin behind. At that point, the two in front stopped collaborating with each other, attempting to conserve energy for their final sprint. However, they were then caught in the last kilometer, first by Kwiatkowski and then by the other chase group led by Van der Poel. In the ensuing sprint, Van der Poel proved to be the strongest, while the other podium places were taken by Simon Clarke and Fuglsang.

Result

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amstel Gold Race, 2019 2019 in Dutch sport 2019 UCI World Tour April 2019 sports events in the Netherlands Amstel Gold Race