Van der Poel favourite for home glory at Amstel Gold Race – Preview
An early start to the Ardennes Classics brings the cobbled specialists and ♔puncheurs together🌼 on Sunday

After two years away💖, including a year in which the race wasn't held at all, the Amstel Gold Race returns on Sunday, welcoming back some of the sport's biggest Classics riders.
In the wake of his Tour of Flanders victory, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mathieu van der Poel looms large over the 56th edition of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Amstel Gold Race, with a repeat of his 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:comeback 2019 triumph almost expected in the absence of his longtime rival Wout van Aert and his Flanders rival Tadej Pogačar.
The Dutchman has confounded doubts since making his surprise early return to racing at Milan-San Remo in the𒆙 middle of March. A lingering back issue dating to last May appears resolved, hopefully for good but at least for the near future.
Immediately, he placed third in San Remo before winning a stage at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali, triumphing in a non-stop finish at Dwars door Vlaanderen and then out-thinking the stronger Pogačar at the end of a brutal 272km at Flanders last weekend.
Of the 175 men set to line up in Maastricht on ♛Sunday morning, then, Van der Poel꧅ is the number one favourite.
He is the sole representative at the race of the four superstar all-rounders who have emerged in recent years – Van Aert and Pogačar among them, with world champion Julian Alaphilippe the fourth.
This year, Amstel Gold Race represents something of an early crossover between the cobbled Classics and the Ardennes following its calendar switch with Paris-Roubaix. There's a healthy mix of those hopin🅺g to hold form for next week and those aiming for the Ardennes, with Van der Poel himself something in between as a contender for both races.
Another man in a similar position, and another multi-disciplinarian who threatens to muscle his way into that group of four, is 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tom Pidcock, the Ineos Grenadiers leader who finished second last year by a near-imperceptib༒le margin.
The Briton has only shared race days with Van der Poel 11 times during h🥀is short career, with Milan-San Remo, Dwars, and Flanders the three occasions in 2022.
Seemingly the greatest threat to Van der Poel on Sunday, the 22-year-old has recovered from stomach problems that set him back in March, even if a relative lack of ജtop-end condition hindered him at the end of over six hours of racing in Flanders.
The twisting race route
With 33 climbs lying on the mazy 254km route around Maastricht and Valkenburg at Am🔯stel Gold Race, Pidcock will be hoping to recover that endurance that he didn't quite have last week.
It's probably fair to say that the race is among the less mythologised of the spring Classics, and even among the Ardennes Classics. As a result, there are few climbs among those 33 hills that evoke the same emotions as the likes🍎 of the Cipressa, Pogꦓgio, Muur van Geraardsbergen, Paterberg, Oude Kwaremont, La Redoute, or Mur de Huy.
There is the Cauberg, though. Once the finale to the race, but now one of several hills nestled in th♑e finale 24km from the line. It♏ also crops up after 53.8km and 162.7km. Many an Amstel Gold Race victory has been launched there but, much like the Muur in Flanders, a modern route change has seen it cast away from being a point on which the race hinges.
As climb 31, it faces the riders on their penultimate passage through the fini𓂃sh line, though a short final circuit bypasses Cauberg. That loop, which is tackled once, instead takes in Geulhemmerberg (19.3km out) and Bemelerberg 𒐪(7.3km out) before the finish.
That spiced up final, moved past the top of Cauberg in 2013 and altered again to excise a f♛ourth ascent of the hill in 2017, has seemed to change the race for the better, though. While previously, late surges up the climb would predictably secure the win (similar to La Flèche Wallonne, in that regard), nowadays it is small groups who contest the finish year after year.
Van der 🔜Poel and Pidcock are the outr🌸ight favourites to triumph in Berg en Terblijt but, of course, there are plenty of contenders and outsiders ready to challenge them.
The Contenders
Jumbo-Visma might be without Van Aert, but they will still boast one of the strongest lineups at the start. Little else needs to be said about 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Christophe Laporte and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tiesj Benoot, the new additions to the Dutch squad having impressed alongside the🌃 team leader numerous times through the spring.
The pair look to form a classic one-two punch, with Laporte able to cope with the hills and rely on a formidable sprint, while Benoot is more suited to attacking on the climbs. They'll have 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tom Dumoulin in the team, too. The 𝓀man from Maastricht has struggled with illness so far this season but showed signs of decent form with sixth at the nearby Volta Limburg Classic earlier this week.
Pidcock can rely on a strong team, with former race winner 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Michał Kwiatkowski ready to ride in a super-domestique role and possibly go for it himself if the situation calls for it. British neo-pro Ben Turner also starts, continuing his impressive spring, while Flanders runner-up 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Dylan van Baarle is in ♉top form and sh🌃owed at the Leuven Worlds last year that he can be as strong as anyone in hills like these.
With Alaphilippe racing in the Basque Country to peak for the Belgian A💛rdennes races, QuickStep-AlphaVinyl aren't built for this race, but in the midst of a very disappointing Classics campaign they will surely grasp any hint of success.
The cobbled Classics leaders 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Kasper Asgreen, Zdenek Stybar, Florian Sénéchal will be racing with an eye on Roubaix, with the Dane best-placed of the trio to succeed on this kind of terrain. Climber Andrea Bagioli could also take his chance, the Italian 💝in form having won the punchy final stage of the Volta a Cataluny🍌a recently.
Four-time race winner 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Philippe Gilbert heads up Lotto Soudal as the veteran seeks to equal Jan Raas' victory record on what will be his final outing at the race. Given his results so far in 2022, though, he's best considered an outsider. Tim Wellens, whose form has seemingly fizzled following a superb February, and time triallist turned Classics man Victor Campenaerts are also worthy of ಌbrief consideration.
French squads AG2R Citroën and Groupama-FDJ come with a couple of strong options in 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Benoït Cosnefroy and the in-form 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valentin Madous, who podiumed at Flanders. Both men are well🤪-suited to this terrain, and both are backed up by a couple of cobbled Classics men aiming to keep their form up ahead of Roubaix in Greg Van Averma🔯et and Stefan Küng.
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Matej Mohorič is another rider who has enjoyed a stellar spring with his win at Milan-San Remo. The Slovenian is well-suited to the Ardennes and finished fourth at Liè𒈔;ge-Bastogne-Liège two years ago. His Bahrain Victorious squad will have multiple options, too, with Dylan Teuns (sixth at Flanders) and Jan Tratnik (12th) both ꦗlooking very good recently.
Amstel Gold Race is among 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Michael Matthews' favourite races - something of a rare admission in the pelot♔on. The Australian has finished in the top five three times and in is ไgood form, so he's well worth a shout.
So too is 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Marc Hirschi, who leads UAE Team Emirates following a late start to the se🧜ason due to hip surgery. He won his first race back at Per Sempre Alfredo, finished third at Coppi e Bartali and was top 10 at the GP Larciano and GP Indurain, so he's clearly in nice shape and will count promising teenage climber Juan Ayuso among his support riders.
EF Education-EasyPost look good on paper, but Alberto Bettiol's spring has so far been ruined by illness, while 2018 winner Michael Valgren has shown worryingly few signs of form this year. DSM leader 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Søren Kragh Andersen's shape is also in question after illness ruled him out of Flanders l🌱ast week.
Movistar, with no Alejandro Valverde, also come with a duo of outside shouts in Alex Aranburu and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Iván García Cortina. The two Spaniards are aꦿdept on the hills and both have a good sprint, too. Their collective palmarès inclu🎃des stage wins at Itzulia and Paris-Nice, but neither man has yet proven himself as a major contender in this kind of Classic.