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Michal Kwiatkowski strikes at the Amstel Gold Race

michal kwiatkowski
April 19, 2015
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It took the WorldTour calender to move from the Cobbled Classics to the Ardennes Classics, but Etixx-QuickStep finally got the spring win it desired when world champion Michal Kwiatkowski seized his and Poland’s first Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. Kwiatkowski emerged the fastest in a sprint of 17-riders to take his first road race triumph wearing the rainbow bands.

Six escapees shook loose at the 40-km mark following a failed attempt. The sextet tipped over the top of the first passage of the Cauberg with a six-minute gap and had a maximum of 9:30 over the BMC, Movistar, CCC and Nippo-Vini Fantini-led peloton.

The route followed four circuits of decreasing length, each featuring the Cauberg. With 92-km remaining, the gap was back down to 6:00. The peloton got down to the heavy lifting and reduced the lead to a minute before the Gulpenerberg, where the breakaway split in half. Laurens De Vreese (Belgium/Astana), Jan Polanc (Slovenia/Lampre) and Linus Gerdemann (Germany/Cult Energy) beat on alone a minute ahead with 48-km remaining.

Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) suffered a mechanical before a crucial positioning pinch-point leading to the Kruisberg (700-metres, 8.3%). A bridging chase duo formed on the Eyserbosweg and overtook the fugitives. Gerdemann fell off but Polanc and De Vreese carried on with Aussies Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) and David Tanner (IAM). Behind them was a high-powered seven-man chase containing Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana), Tony Martin (Germany/Etixx-QuickStep) and Wilco Keldermann (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo) as the race headed towards the Keutenberg with 31-km to go.

Keldermann drifted off the road but remounted to chase. The Aussie breakaways dropped their mates on the Keutenberg. Martin and Nibali’s group moved closer as the first of two final passages of the Cauberg loomed. Two men in the Martin-Nibali chase crashed in a corner just before the junction was made. Nibali immediately attacked the new quintet, the fifth man being American Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin).

Nibali couldn’t tear away and then exhorted his breakmates to work together, with Howes apparently sitting in. The gap was 32-seconds as the break hit the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg (900-metres, 7.5%) as Movistar and BMC drove the still-large peloton. Howes cracked but Nibali led the escape on the steep, narrow slope.

Two climbs on the final lap separated the two Cauberg scrambles. The peloton drew too close on the day’s third passage up the Geulhemmerberg, so Nibali surged again, but could find no allies in labour. The break had failed, with Clarke the last man caught on the penultimate climb, the Bemelerberg, with 8-km remaining.

Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Astana) attacked over the top of the Bemelerberg, bringing Greg van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) with him, but the Belgian wouldn’t work, simply nullifying the attack. Meanwhile, the positioning game was frantic in the peloton. It was all together with 4-km and the last haul up Cauberg to go. The mob hit the foot of the Cauberg, Orica-GreenEdge in the lead. Ben Hermans (Great Britain/BMC) attacked with Maciej Pakerski (Poland/CCC), but reigning champion Philppe Gilbert (Belgium/BMC) and Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) swamped them and crested in the lead.

Valverde made the junction as did Kwaitkowski and several others on the 1.8-km before the finish. Seventeen men contested the sprint and it was the world champion taking the spoils. Valverde was runner-up for the second time in three years, while Matthews made it four podiums for Orica-GreenEdge in the last five editions.

Matthews’s Canadian teammate Christian Meier was one of dozens who didn’t finish the race.

2015 Amstel Gold Race
1) Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland/Etixx-QuickStep) 6:31:49
2) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) s.t.
3) Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) s.t.

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