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Enrico Gasparotto of Team Wanty – Groupe Gobert has taken out the 2016 Amstel Gold Race ahead of Tinkoff’s Michael Valgren.
It is the Italian’s second victory at the event, having previously won the 2012 edition ahead of Jelle Vanendert and Peter Sagan, when the race finish was located on the Cauberg.
Pointing his arms into the sky as he crossed the finish line, the Italian rider dedicated his win to late teammate Antoine Demolitié, who died last month following a crash with a motorbike at Gent-Wevelgem.
After 35 kilometres of racing and several unsuccessful attempts to form a breakaway, a group of 11 riders was eventually able to get clear. By the time they reached the base of the Cauberg for the first time, the group had built up an advantage of five minutes, the largest time gap of the day.
However, with the pace in the peloton being driven hard by Orica-GreenEDGE and Team Sky, the leading group’s advantage was reduced with each ascent of the Cauberg, eventually falling to about three minutes by the second approach.
Despite the high tempo, a second group of four riders broke clear from the peloton with less than 70 kilometres remaining. They came within one and a half minutes of the leading group, however they found themselves quickly reeled back by the main field due to the work being done by Orica-GreenEDGE and Team Sky.
Yet it wasn’t just the chasing group of four that found the pace of the peloton too high at this point, with pre-race favourites Philippe Gilbert and Michal Kwiatkoswki also unable to keep up with the tempo, dropping from the main field following the acceleration.
Following several subsequent attempts, Tim Wellens of Lotto Soudal was eventually able to open up a 13-second gap on the main field with seven kilometres remaining, increasing his lead to almost 20 seconds with less than four kilometres to go. With the pre-race favourites in the peloton failing to launch any counter-attacks by this point, Gasparotto and Valgren took their chances and accelerated from the pack in pursuit of the Belgian.
It proved a crucial point at which to put in the counter-attack. As many had predicted, the final ascent of the Cauberg again provided the scene for the winning move of the day, with Gasparotto and Valgren attacking and overtaking Wellens on the ascent.
After the pair overtook the Lotto Soudal rider, it became apparent that the group behind was unable to work together, with no one willing to sacrifice their chances in the eventuality of a reduced bunch sprint.
In a somewhat similar situation out in front, Gasparotto let Valgren do the majority of the work to keep the chasers at bay during the final few kilometres. As a result, the Dane ultimately didn’t have much left in the tank for the final sprint, which allowed Gasparotto to easily move out his slipstream in the final hundred metres to take the win on the line in Valkenburg.
Behind them, Sonny Colbrelli of Bardiani-CSF rounded out the podium, finishing ahead of Direct Energie’s Bryan Coquard and Orica-GreenEDGE’s Michael Matthews in the sprint for third place.
With only two WorldTour teams making the top five, this year’s race may leave some of cycling’s biggest teams to re-evaluate their tactics and the way the race unfolded.
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