Gallery: Gilbert continues dream Classics campaign with fourth Amstel title

Anna van der Breggen rides solo to women's title

Philippe Tremblay April 16, 2017

Anna van der Breggen won the first edition of the women's race in 14-years. Photo: Boels-Dolmans

Van der Breggen's teammate Lizzie Deignan finished second and Polish champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma rounded ouf the podium. Photo: Boels-Dolmans

It was Boels-Dolmans first Women's WorldTour win of the season. Photo: Boels-Dolmans

Colombian champion Sergio Henao at the start in Maastricht.

The men's peloton had 35 climbs on the day while the women's tackled 17

BMC did a lot of the work ramping up the pace for Paris-Roubaix winner Greg Van Avermaet

It was a windy day in the Limburg region of the Netherlands with gusts up to 34 kph

The peloton on the Cauberg which was removed from the finale of the race in a bid to make the racing less predictable

Michael Matthews leads Team Sunweb teammate Warren Barguil

Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet made his move on the Keutenberg which forced a selection

Philippe Gilbert has had an amazing spring and was there

Alejandro Valverde has won every stage race he's entered in 2017 and also stayed at the pointy end of the race

Michal Kwiatkowski launded the race winning move on the last climb of the day, the Bemelerberg

Only Philippe Gilbert could follow

The two have each won a Monument this spring and were a cohesive unit until the final kilometre

Michael Albasini sprinted out of the chase to take third

Of course Amstel beer is served

Gilbert made quick work of his glass of the Imperial Pils

The race organizers move to change out the finish of the 52nd Amstel Gold Race proved a success. Without the Cauberg many thought the race swung in the favour of the fast men who would climb but as the race organizers hoped instead it made the racing more aggressive.

With 41 kilometres still to race, the first decisive attacks were launched on the Kruisberg with Tiesj Benoot making a move which brought the strongest riders to the front including Philippe Gilbert and five others. With 30 kilometres remaining Greg Van Avermaet made his move dragging Alejandro Valverde and Michal Kwiatkowski. With a ten second gap to the front group. Kwiatkowski jumped across and on the race’s final climb was positioned to make the winning move with only Gilbert capable of following. The two former world champions joined forces and worked together admirably until the final kilometre when they began playing cat and mouse.

It appeared Kwiatkowski had timed his acceleration to perfection at first opening up a big gap to Gilbert in the sprint but the Pole faded and Gilbert dug deep confidently coming around for the win. Gilbert had enough of a gap to celebrate his fourth Amstel Gold Victory. Gilbert has already completed the triple winning La Flèche Wallonne which runs on Wednesday and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Gilber will look to continue his amazing Classics run which already includes wins at the Tour of Flanders, a stage and the overall at Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, and second places at E3-Harelbeke and Dwars Door Vlaanderen.

In the women’s race, aggressive racing on the penultimate climb of the Cauberg brought Lizzie Deignan, Elisa Longo Borghini and Katarzyna Niewiadoma. With 18-km to go the trio had 20-seconds but Coryn Rivera, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten were able to bridge. With strength in numbers, Van der Breggen attacked with Deignan sitting on. By the final ascent of the Cauberg which had not been removed from the finale of the women’s race, Van der Breggen had a 28-second lead which she would hold to the line.

As the defending La Flèche Wallonne winner and a strong climber, the Olympic champion will be looking to continue her success on Wednesday and hope to be well positioned to go for the triple at Liège-Bastogne-Liège next Sunday.