April 19, 2026
While not technically in the Ardennes, the Heuvelland of Limburg hosts the Amstel Gold Race, the first of three Ardennes Classics that culminate in a week's time with the final Monument of the Spring at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. GC riders tend to come off a mountain from altitude camps to race these classics because of the hilly, attritional nature of the courses. At 257 km long with over 3,400 meters of elevation, many riders have said that they have the highest kilojoule day of the entire year at Amstel. When the flag is dropped, the riders will follow the Meuse River for a few kilometers before turning East to find the hills. The route is almost impossible to describe. There are so many turns and loops which make it easy to get disoriented. There are over 30 climbs on course but the first passage of the Cauberg with 85 km to go is a good landmark to start counting down from. The Geulhemmerberg and Bemelerberg follow, and this sequence will be repeated two more times before the finish. The last 60 km are packed with 10 climbs, the first crucial point coming at 32 km to go on the Keutenberg with slopes over 15%. The penultimate ascent of the Cauberg comes 10 km later, followed by the Geulhemmerberg and Bemelerberg and one last trip up the Cauberg before 1,500 meters through Vilt to the finish line. There is no bluffing in Amstel and we always see an aggressive, action packed race with a worthy winner at the end.
Highlighted Riders:
Mattias Skjelmose, Quinn Simmons, Remco Evenepoel, Tim Wellens, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tibor Del Grosso, Ben Tulett, Matteo Jorgenson, Pello Bilbao, Antoine L'Hote, Alex Baudin, Romain Grégoire, Kévin Vauquelin, Georg Zimmermann, Mauri Vansevenant, Anders Foldager, Mauro Schmid, Frank van den Broek, Alexander Kamp, Andreas Leknessund, Clément Champoussin, Quinten Hermans, Ion Izagirre, Alex Aranburu, Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi
Race Summary
Periods of rain and sun made for a damp morning in Maastricht at sign-on but the beer was flowing in the VIP areas at the finish as the crowd were gearing up for a festive afternoon. A strong break formed early on that included Warren Barguil of Picnic-PostNL, Huub Artz of Lotto Intermarché, Marco Frigo of NSN Cycling, Filip Maciejuk of Movistar, Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5, Abram Stockman of Unibet Rose Rockets, Valentin Retailleau of TotalEnergies, Siebe Deweirdt of Flanders-Baloise, and Joseba López of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA. They had a maximum advantage of 5 minutes but with 97 km to go, their lead had been cut to just 1 minute 40 seconds with Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe setting a hard pace behind on the Vrakelberg.
Moves started to go in the peloton over the top of the Vrakelberg but Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe regained control and pushed on towards the Sibbergrubbe. Sun was peaking out as the break reached the Sibbergrubbe but their future was none too bright because the peloton were charging behind and splitting under the pressure. UAE-XRG and Bahrain Victorious were massing at the front up the Sibbergrubbe with the first passage of the Cauberg just ahead.
The crowd was enormous as the break descended into Valkenberg. The bunch came barrelling down for the tight left corner 1 minute later and were greeted with raucous cheers. The bunch largely stayed together on the Cauberg but the break split up with Artz, Frigo, Barguil, Azparren, and Retailleau going forward through the finish line with two more passages to come. The Geulhemmerberg put an end to Barguil and Retailleau, leaving just three in the front with 80 km to go. The bunch went into a posturing formation with teams wanting to be together near the front but not necessarily pulling all-out.
Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE-XRG decided to spend the energy to get into position for the Bemelerberg. They weren't interested in kicking off the finale quite yet however but Pepijn Reinderink of Soudal Quickstep wanted to get ahead of the action and went on the attack over the top of the Bemelerberg. Reinderink quickly built a 20 second lead but no one went with him and his progress stalled at around 40 seconds from the front group.
On the 12 km trip from the Bemelerberg to the Loorberg, Azparren dropped from the lead group while the peloton was slowing down. The gap went from 1 minute 10 seconds to 1 minute 50 seconds before things picked back up for positioning into the Loorberg. There was no action on the Loorberg but the pace continued to rise which brought Reinderink back into the fold. Redbull-Broa Hansgrohe looked to be setting up a move from Remco Evenepoel because the intensity coming into the Gulperberg was such that the German team was losing support riders. One by one, Evenepoel's teammates did their turns and pulled off, leaving just Jan Tratnik to lead the bunch over the top.
Up front, Frigo left Artz on the Gulperberg and the Italian was able to hold around 1 minute to the base of the Kruisberg with 42 km to go. The first real movement from the peloton came on the Kruisberg from Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ. The attack drew out Evenepoel, Kévin Vauquelin of Ineos, Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike, Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, and Mathieu Burgaudeau of TotalEnergies who joined Grégoire and went clear from a reduced chase group. Artz was picked up and the group was building a good gap.
Disaster struck in the favorites group shortly after the move was established when Vauquelin's front wheel went from under him on a damp, downhill left corner. As he crashed, he blocked the path of Burgaudeau with Jorgenson going over the bars, as did Artz. Vauquelin was the only one able to get going again but not until the peloton had gone by. Another crash on the same corner brought down Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling who was in the peloton.
Evenepoel, Skjelmose, and Grégoire continued on with Ion Izagirre of Cofidis, Mauri Vansevenant of Soudal Quickstep, Benoît Cosnefroy of UAE-XRG, Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla, and Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious driving the chase in group three. It wasn't until 36 km to go that Frigo was caught by the Evenepoel group at the top of the Fromberg.
At the start of the steep Keutenberg with 33 km to go, the lead group had 20 seconds on the chase. Evenepoel set the pace which popped Frigo off the back. Evenepoel, Skjelmose, and Grégoire worked well together as they made their way back towards Valkenberg for the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg. Umbrellas were hoisted by the roadside spectators as another heavy cloud rolled in overhead. The rain was more of a threat than anything else and the road remained mostly dry as the lead group plunged into Valkenberg with a 27 second lead over a fractured chase group.
Evenepoel gritted his teeth as he led the group under the bridge halfway up the Cauberg which was enough to distance Grégoire. The Frenchman tried to make his way back on but the gap went from a bike length to a chasm in the matter of moments. Evenepoel and Skjelmose took the bell just inside 20 km to go with Grégoire at 12 seconds and the chase group languishing at 50 seconds.
Evenepoel and Skjelmose swapped turns and built a lead of nearly 1 minute by the base of the Bemelerberg at 10 km to go. Only the Cauberg remained and the leading pair seemed content to dual on the slopes of the final hill of the day. Evenepoel took the lead on the descent and made the left turn at the bottom in first position. The Belgian stayed seated up through the hardest part and was given a turn by Skjelmose but neither showed any interest in attacking. Evenepoel took one final turn then flicked his elbow with 1,200 meters to go and, surprisingly, Skjelmose obliged. The speed went down as Skjelmose moved over to the barriers on his left side and kept a keen watch on Evenepoel who sitting on the Dane's hip. It was a stand-off, track sprint style, until just outside 200 meters to go when Evenepoel launched from behind. Almost immediately, he was over the top of Skjelmose who didn't have the punch needed to match the Olympic Champion. Evenepoel kept the power on to the line but Skjelmose had conceded with 50 meters to go and came across for second place after a valiant defense of his title.
A group of eight was racing for the final podium spot, including Frigo who had hung on to the chase group after being in the early break of the day. They went over the Cauberg and onto the flat final kilometer all together. Frigo started the sprint first from the back of the group at 400 meters but everyone was attentive and straight onto his wheel. The sprint looked to be in slow motion with the fatigue nullifying any burst of speed the riders would typically have. Endurance was the name of the game and the strongest remaining rider was Cosnefroy who took the final podium spot just ahead of Grégoire in fourth nearly 2 minutes after Evenepoel and Skjelmose.