Wiebes rues celebration as Vos wins eves Amstel Gold
VALKENBURG: Marianne Vos grabbed victory on the line in a shortened Amstel Gold women’s race on Sunday as Lorena Wiebes sat up, raising her arms in victory, just before the finish.
Vos, who rides for Visma, exploited the error by her Dutch compatriot Wiebes of SD Worx to win the sprint. Norwegian Ingvild Gaskjenn was third.
“It’s a shame for Lorena, but I’m happy with this victory. I’ve been through a similar situation myself,” said Vos, 36, who also won the Amstel in 2021.
It was her third success of the season ater victories in Het Nieuwsblad and the Tour of Flanders.
“This is such a stupid mistake and I’m really bummed. I didn’t feel Marianne Vos coming and thought I had free lane. I will sleep badly from this,” said Wiebes.
The race was held up for an hour, ater an accident involving a police motorbike escorting the peloton.
A policeman “was injured following a collision with a car on the Bergseweg while supervising the Amstel Gold Race”, tweeted the Limburg police on X.
The riders held an improvised picnic before seting off again on a shortened route that avoided the crash site.
Earlier, Tom Pidcock won a three-man sprint to finally seal his first victory at the prestigious Amstel Gold Race one-day cycling classic on Sunday.
The Briton banished previous near misses as he edged Swiss rider Marc Hirschi at the line, with Belgian Tiesj Benoot rolling in third to complete the podium.
Last year Pidcock was third. In 2021 he lost in a long-delayed photo-finish to Wout van Aert, amid suggestions that the camera had not been aligned with the finish line.
“I was going to say ‘It’s great to win for the second time’ but that might create some controversy,” Pidcock said.
“It feels really good, this year’s been so tough, I made big sacrifices at the start of the year, been away from home so much, so now to finally put it together, to get the hands in the air means a lot and this race I’ve always loved racing, it’s prety special.”
The podium trio had been part of a quartet who escaped from a late breakaway and stayed just clear to the line.