Amstel Gold Race
Sunday 10 April, Netherlands
The Cauberg will continue to be the deciding factor in the Amstel Gold Race, despite another small change to the race route that twists and turns around the southern Limburg region of the Netherlands. With the finish line situated two kilometres over the top of the famous 1.2km climb the race attracts both cobbled Classics specialists and those who excel in the Ardennes.
“I really like that climb, it suits me perfectly and that’s why I love the race so much – it allows me to show my strength,” Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-sram) explains. “If you can create a gap on the Cauberg and you have a tailwind, you’re likely to win, but that straight after the climb just lasts forever, it’s like a survival race.”
Though the 2022 race has swapped
Sundays with Parisroubaix, this year sees a return to relative normality for the Dutch Classic. The pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 race and continuing restrictions meant last year was ridden entirely on the closing circuit, reducing its length.
Niewiadoma , who won this race in 2019 after holding off a late charge by Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), doesn’t believe a return to the regular start in Maastricht will impact the way the race is ridden.
“All the roads round Maastricht are very hilly and very demanding,” she explains. “There are not many flat sections where you can cruise and relax, so I believe the dynamic of the race will be similar.
“It’s always super-hard from the beginning. Key moments are everywhere.
“In 2019, one of the main selections happened after 30 kilometres and took a
20-person group to the finish line.”
Amstel Gold has always been something of an anomaly. Lumped in with the Belgian Ardennes, it doesn’t enter the longer hills of southern Belgium; the Dutch climbs are shorter and punchier. This means a wide variety of riders can win.
“It’s not a Flanders-style Classic but it’s not like Liège-bastogne-liège,” continues the former Polish champion. “We’ve seen so many different scenarios in the last couple of years; the race is very unpredictable, there’s no script. In the women’s peloton we don’t have such specific riders, everyone’s an all-rounder, so it can be won from a reduced peloton, a breakaway or a solo rider.”
While in its four editions, the women’s race has riders who have won both it and its two hillier Belgian cousins, in the men’s event recent winners like Wout van Aert (Jumbo-visma), Mathieu van der Poel and Micheal Valgren (EF Educationeasypost) show that the route change has transformed Amstel Gold into a true all-rounder’s race.