Watch all the action from the men's and women's 2024 Amstel Gold Race on April 14 LIVE and FREE on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.
Taking riders through the Limburg region, with riders heading out from Maastricht and circling to the nearby Valkenburg, Amstel Gold seeks out the Netherlands’ biggest climbs to get the riders in the mood for the hilly Belgian races to come – and even briefly passing through Belgium mid-race – with the headline hill being the Cauberg.
To get you in the mood for the 2024 race, SBS Sport has taken a trip down memory lane to revisit four incredible Amstel Gold finishes.
Mathieu’s Amstel Gold Miracle
The 2019 Amstel Gold Race will be remembered for the incredible display of Dutch superstar Mathieu van der Poel, who powered to the most unlikely of victories on the back of a determined attack from 40 kilometres out.
Coming into the race, the then 24-year-old was looking to cap off a busy Spring schedule with a victory at his home race of Amstel Gold, emulating his father Adri who won in 1990.
Van der Poel, wearing the Dutch national champion’s jersey on his Amstel debut, was dead and buried with seven kilometres to go. He’d attacked from the main chase group with a handful of others but, a minute down on leaders Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), it looked like any chance of victory had sailed.
However, in a remarkable finale - surely the most thrilling in the race’s 54-year history - the Dutchman dragged that small group back up to those chasing in between and then to the front of the race with just 300 metres to go.
He hadn’t quite made the junction when Alaphilippe started sprinting but after swooping left onto Fuglsang’s wheel, he ripped out to the right and moved clear to take a sensational victory.
Longo-Borghini and Niewiadoma’s costly game of cat-and-mouse
The 2021 Women’s Amstel Gold race is one Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo-Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) will not look back fondly on.
Polish star Niewiadoma and Italy’s Longo-Borghini attacked on the final ascent of the Cauberg and stretched out a huge lead with just over a kilometre to go, setting up for what should have been a battle between the pair for line honours.
Niewiadoma pushed hard but Longo-Borghini was more than happy to sit on her wheel, refusing to take her turn in the lead as the chasing peloton closed in at a rapid pace.
Despite many desperate attempts from Niewiadoma to get Longo-Borghini to work, the Italian had her mind set on powering to victory in a bunch sprint.
Unfortunately for the Trek-Segafredo star, it didn’t pan out that way.
The peloton reeled in the lead pair with less than a kilometre to go with the momentum of the chase helping eventual winner Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) to victory ahead of Demi Vollering (SD Worx) and Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar).
Longo-Borghini finished the race in eighth place, while Niewiadoma came home in tenth.
Photo finish controversy
Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma) edged Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) in the tightest of finishes that initially left the cycling community split as to who had won the 2021 Amstel Gold.
Replays showed the pair arrived at the line dead level, with organisers requiring a photo finish to award victory to van Aert.
The pair had broken clear with Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the final 15 kilometres, working well together to keep a swelling bunch group behind at bay.
The pace slowed in the final kilometre after it became clear they could not be caught, with van Aert positioned at the front of a three-way game of cat-and-mouse.
Van Aert led out the sprint with Pidcock locked on his back wheel, with the Brit pulling side-by-side in the final few metres. Indeed, Pidcock appeared to have snatched victory after throwing his bike across the line – only for the official photo finish to side with the Belgian.
Photo finish controversy, Part Deux
Only 12 months after the controversy of van Aert's photo finish victory, there would be yet another uncannily tight finish as Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed a sprint finish where the margin between first and second was so tight that there was initial confusion over who would be declared the 2022 Amstel Gold victor.
Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen) was first declared the winner, but the photo finish then revealed Kwiatkowski's late lunge toward the line had done the trick and it was in fact the Pole who should be celebrating victory.
The Keutenberg, 34km from the finish, was where the key group formed, with Kwiatkowski joined by teammate Tom Pidcock, Cosnefroy, Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Kasper Asgreen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Victorious), Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) and Alexander Kamp (Trek-Segafredo).
Kwiatkowski then launched after the Cauberg and the Frenchman Cosnefroy put on a powerful turn of speed to bridge later.
By the foot of the Bemelerberg, the final climb of the day, the gap to the chase was 30 seconds and the rest of the attempts to join the leaders had failed. So, it came down to a tight sprint to the line for the duo with Kwiatkowski eventually being crowned winner in a photo finish.
Amstel Gold Race on SBS
Sunday, April 14
Amstel Gold Race - Women’s
9:00pm -10:30pm (AEST)
Live on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand
Amstel Gold Race - Men’s
10:45pm -1:00am (AEST)
Live on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand
