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As the dust settles following the culmination of the cobbled Classics at Paris-Roubaix, the peloton and cycling world will turn their attention to the Ardennes Classics that begin with Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, April 14, resume at Flèche Wallonne on April 17 and conclude with Liège-Bastogne-Liège on April 21.
Amstel Gold Race is the youngest of the three races in the men’s Ardennes Classics series, now celebrating its 58th edition while the women’s race will celebrate its tenth.
This year, all eyes will be on World Champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to see if he can add a second Amstel victory to his thrilling triumph in 2019, while Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) lines up to defend her title after winning the Ardennes Classics triple last year.
Cyclingnews highlights the key favourites for the 2024 edition of Amstel Gold Race.
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Spring Classics- including reporting, breaking news and analysis from Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and more. Find out more.
Six years on from one of his most famous wins, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) returns to the Amstel Gold Race for the third time. With six Monuments and a road world title now to his name, Van der Poel has come a long way from the man who came out of nowhere to win one of the most thrilling editions of the Dutch one-day race since it started in 1966.
Since then, Van der Poel has become the outright best Classics rider in the world and as the odds-on pre-race favourite in 2024, he will be expected to add a second Amstel Gold Race to his illustrious palmarès. The absence of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), unable to start after breaking his collarbone and scapula in the horrific Itzulia Basque Country crash, only heightens that expectation around what he can acheive.
Fresh off reclaiming his Tour of Flanders crown and taking his second successive Paris-Roubaix, Van der Poel looks stronger than ever, winning both fabled Monuments with huge solo attacks 44km and 60km from the line, respectively.
Should Van der Poel maintain his form from the cobbled Classics, the 33 climbs that line the 255km Amstel Gold Race route will be well within his reach even against the best puncheurs, especially with last year’s winner and fellow superstar Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) not taking the start.
The winner of the triple crown of Ardennes Classics in 2023, Demi Vollering will once again target all three events, starting at Amstel Gold Race. She’s had a slower start to the season compared to last year, though, when she had already secured two victories and two runner-ups before the Ardennes Classics.
So while Vollering is undoubtedly in pursuit of a second consecutive victory at Amstel Gold Race, she might be somewhat of a wildcard for SD Worx-Protime.
She’s had strong performances at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (6th) and Strade Bianche (3rd), Tour of Flanders (8th) and Brabantse Pijl (2nd), and she took some time in between to attend an altitude training camp, all part of her longer-term plan to peak mid-season, especially for the Tour de France Femmes.
There are no doubts about her strength and ability to win the Amstel Gold Race, especially after replaying her late-race attack to net the victory in Berg en Terblijt last year. However, there is speculation around the cohesion at SD Worx-Protime during the Spring Classics after it was reported during Dwars door Vlaanderen and ahead of the Tour of Flanders that she is expected to depart from the team at the end of 2024.
Only time will tell whether SD Worx-Protime will continue to work together as a unit to achieve another Ardennes Classics triple crown with Vollering.
Tom Pidcock was one of the top performers in the Ardennes Classics last year, just a few per cent off Pogačar’s level. He’s taken a different approach to the Ardennes this year, opting out of most of the cobbled Classics aside from last week’s Paris-Roubaix to ensure he’s at the top level for the hilly one-day races and beyond that, his summer goals.
Pidcock faded to third behind Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) in last year’s Amstel Gold Race, but he was the last rider to get dropped on the Keutenberg when the dominant Slovenian made his eventual race-winning move. Pidcock came even closer in the past in 2021 on his debut in Amstel Gold, where only a controversial photo finish separated him from victory behind Wout van Aert (then Jumbo-Visma).
Joining him on the start line will be a former two-time Amstel Gold Race winner, Michał Kwiatkowski, and a strong Ineos Grenadiers team.
In 2023, he admitted that he “struggled with the distance” towards the end of the 255km race. But with 260km in the legs from the fastest Paris-Roubaix ever, perhaps he’ll be better placed to find that top step of the podium. He’ll have to drop or live with and outsprint fellow multi-discipline star Van der Poel if he is to do so, however.
Kasia Niewiadoma, the reigning gravel World Champion, is always a contender for the Ardennes Classics with a special focus on Amstel Gold Race, an event that undoubtedly holds fond memories for the Polish all-rounder.
In an unforgettable victory in the 2019 edition of Amstel Gold Race, Niewiadoma made a late-race attack over the Cauberg to go solo with two kilometres to go, and just held off Annemiek van Vleuten of Mitchelton-Scott at the finish line to take one of the biggest wins of her career in Berg en Terblijt.
She comes into these Ardennes Classics with new-found confidence after finishing second at Tour of Flanders from a three-rider breakaway that saw Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) take the win.
The result seemed to have washed away her disappointment after finishing fourth at Strade Bianche and sets both her and Canyon-SRAM up nicely ahead of Amstel Gold Race.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
A breakthrough star of the 2023 season, Ben Healy leads the line for EF Education-EasyPost at the Ardennes again one year after he burst onto the WorldTour scene with second place at the Amstel Gold Race and fourth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
He dropped a fading Pidcock in the final 15km of the Dutch race last year and highlighted his strong time-trialling abilities as he made a strong impression on Pogačar’s in the chase, which, combined with a great punch, made him a perfect candidate for the hills in South Limburg.
Form-wise, he’s been looking good albeit without a win yet this season. Most recently, he combined perfectly with Marijn van den Berg at the Pays de le Loire stage race to pull back breaks and lead out the Dutchman to two stage victories and the overall prize.
After Van den Berg’s brutal display at Wednesday’s Brabantse Pijl, where he was caught by his fellow escapees in the final kilometre, he becomes a great option for Healy in the group behind should the Irishman attack solo on the hills.
It’s been a incredible early-season of racing for the Italian Champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), who has stood on the podiums at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche, then sixth at Dwars door Vlaanderen before then taking back-to-back wins at Tour of Flanders and Brabantse Pijl.
They say that when ‘you’re good, you’re good’ and so many questioned her decision not to race Paris-Roubaix Femmes last weekend, especially after her unbeatable ride at the Tour of Flanders.
However, Longo Borghini was not to be persuaded and stuck to the original plan to forego racing at the Hell of the North and keep a primary focus on the Ardennes Classics. What better way to show that she made the right decision for herself than by winning the mid-week Brabantse Pijl, in the run-up to the Amstel Gold Race?
Her best place at Amstel Gold Race was fifth in 2017 and then eighth in 2021, so it hasn’t been her best of the three events. However, if her winning form is any indication, she will be a contender for all three of the Ardennes Classics.
Matteo Jorgenson returns to the one-day racing calendar at Amstel Gold Race after missing Paris-Roubaix due to lacking fitness, where he’ll lead a strong Visma-Lease a Bike side alongside Tiesj Benoot.
Benoot was on the podium at this race two years ago, and he and Jorgenson combined well at Dwars door Vlaanderen, where their one-two attacks led to the American taking victory.
Jorgenson was also the closest rider to following Van der Poel when he soloed away to victory on the Koppenberg at the Tour of Flanders. The 24-year-old was just a few bike lengths off the Dutchman on the brutal berg but ultimately emptied himself as he tried to respond to the world champion, admitting that “the lights went out” in the final few kilometres while he fell out of the top 30.
Visma will have to play the numbers game again, knowing that if it comes down to a fair fight with Van der Poel up one final climb, he will burst away and take another victory. Without Van der Poel’s advantage on the cobbles, that should be more possible, but they will still need to get their tactics just right.
Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) has stood on the winner’s step of the podium in nearly every major race on the international calendar and has proven that she is still at the top of her game with recent triumphs at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Dwars door Vlaanderen, which was her 250th road victory.
An astonishing career that she defined as a collection of “memories of different highs and lows,” she recently faced what she considered a disappointing Paris-Roubaix, a race she hoped to win but ended up in fourth place out of a breakaway sprint won by Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in the famed Roubaix velodrome.
But there is always another bike race, and Vos will undoubtedly be prepared to add another win to her sparkling palmarés at Amstel Gold Race. In the event’s 10-year history, Vos won the 2021 edition from a small group sprint into Berg en Terblijt.
It is her strength and extensive tactical experience that make her a contender, but it is her fast sprint that makes her a favourite for the victory. Watch for Vos to add a 251st career road win to her list of achievements at the Dutch leg of the Ardennes Classics.
Benoît Cosnefroy was actually awarded victory at the Amstel Gold Race in 2022, only for it to be taken away and awarded to Kwiatkowski after a review of the photo finish revealed the Pole had pipped him by a tyre’s width.
He’s been tipped for huge success at the Ardennes as one of the top puncheurs on the peloton on his day but hasn’t quite fulfilled that promise as of yet. However, 2024 looks like it could be his year as he enters the hilly Classics in top form.
Cosnefroy triumphed at Wednesday’s Brabantse Pijl after bridging across to the group of leaders, holding his nerve as the attacks went and winning the small group sprint ahead of Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) into Overijse. He’s also won Paris-Camembert and the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes this season after going winless for all of 2023.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale have also been flying in 2024 with their new sponsor and new equipment appearing to be the difference, so confidence will be sky-high for the Frenchman.
AG Insurance-Soudal Team have a contender in Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio for the Ardennes Classics. She has been relatively quiet this spring campaign with 17th at Strade Bianche and more recently 21st at Brabantse Pijl.
However, she indicated on social media that she opted for a lengthy break and high-altitude training camp instead of competing at the cobbled Classics, which means she might be on solid form and fresher than her rivals as she contests the Ardennes Classics.
While the cycling world is eager to see how she will perform, so is Moolman-Pasio, who stated that, “Believe it or not, after many years in the saddle, this is the first time I’ve dedicated myself to a proper altitude block in preparation for the Ardennes Classics. I’m eager to see how this new approach impacts my performance on the road.”
We will soon find out as Moolman-Pasio lines up at Amstel Gold Race, an event that she has finished four times inside the top 10, including the previous three editions.
Albeit in the shadow of Pogačar’s and Evenepoel’s dominance, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was another star of the Ardennes in 2023, which makes him a great prospect heading into the trio of races in their absence. The young Dane finished in the top 10 of all there and took second at La Flèche Wallonne behind the Slovenian, and his good form continued right through the summer and into 2024, his third season with Lidl-Trek.
Now 23 years old, Skjelmose has more experience at the highest level and has shown he knows how to win the biggest races having claimed victories at the Tour de Suisse and Danish national championships last year and a thrilling stage of this year’s Paris-Nice.
Great punch and a powerful team will help the Dane make a strong impression at the Ardennes with the likes of Bauke Mollema, Toms Skujins, Andrea Bagioli and Quinn Simmons also set to join him at the start in Maastricht. Lidl-Trek showed great tactics to challenge Van der Poel in the cobbled Classics and they will need similar nous to contest him in the hills, but Skjelmose will certainly be up for the challenge.
SD Worx-Protime are likely to focus on Vollering for this block of racing, since she will line up as the defending champion in all three of the Ardennes Classics. However, World Champion Lotte Kopecky is fresh off a strong cobbled Classics campaign that saw her win Paris-Roubaix last weekend.
Although she might be feeling those gnarly cobbles in her legs, Kopecky will want to act as a wildcard at Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and alongside Vollering, she will want to figure as a contender.
It is unclear if Vollering’s reported departure from SD Worx-Protime will affect the team’s cohesion, but nonetheless, Kopecky is in great form and more than capable of being in the thick of the action over the Cauberg and into the final at Amstel Gold Race.
If last year is anything to go by, Kopecky finished second to her teammate Vollering as the team played their cards to perfection on the run-in to Berg en Terblijt. It was her first attempt at the Amstel Gold Race or any of the Ardennes Classics. So it would not be surprising to see Kopecky play a winning hand at this year’s Amstel Gold Race.
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Spring Classics- including reporting, breaking news and analysis from the Amstel Gold, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and more. Find out more.
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