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Amstel Gold Race: SD Worx claims fourth 2023 WorldTour one-two

Olivia Baril top Canadian in wet ninth edition

After two years as the runner-up, Demi Vollering claimed her second victory of the 2023 WorldTour Sunday in the Netherlands’ souther region of Limburg, winning Amstel Gold Race Ladies to put SD Worx on the top step again. Her team has earned six of the last nine WorldTour rounds and have claimed four one-two placings. The Dutch rider also took Strade Bianche in early March. Olivia Baril was top Canadian.

The Course

Dominated by numerous short climbs, the women’s race held four finishing circuits, each containing the Geulhemmerberg, 800 metres of 6.4 percent; Bemelerberg, 600 metres of 5.3 percent; and Cauberg, 600 metres of 9.2 percent. The final Cauberg peaked 2 km from the finish line in Valkenburg. The ninth edition was a wet one.

Alison Jackson, who was 34th in Wednesday’s 1.Pro-rated De Brabantse Pijl after her famous Paris-Roubaix victory, headed up the Canadian contingent. Her EF Education-TIBCO-SVB teammate Magdeleine Vallieres was getting her first WorldTour start of the season. Olivia Baril was part of a UAE Team ADQ squad that included De Brabantse Pijl winner Silvia Persico.

After the early hills thinned out the peloton and elicited at least one crash, a nontet of fugitives including Marianne Vos and Lucinda Brand got clear. Just after the Keutenberg, Annemiek van Vleuten pulled a few others over. This new group didn’t survive for long.

Into the finishing circuits, Brand (Trek-Segafredo) and compatriot Sabrina Stultiens (Liv Racing TeqFind) took off in their own bid for glory, hopeful counterattacks being thwarted behind. By the time they hit the race’s third encounter with the Cauberg, they had a minute in hand.

The third passage of the Geulhemmerberg momentarily split the peloton and drew the intrepid Dutch duo closer. The penultimate trip up Bemelerberg saw Canyon-SRAM on point in the peloton. At the peak, the break was swept up by the 45-strong bunch. Baril was still there but not for long.

Olivia Baril with 23 km remaining.

American Kristen Faulkner attacked over the top of the Cauberg.

Final Circuit

Faulker was reeled in on the Geulhemmerberg. WorldTour leader Lorena Wiebes, who worked hard for SD Worx, dropped away. Several moves marked the kilometres between Geulhemmerberg and Bemelerberg. None stuck. Soraya Paladin took her leave on the Bemelerberg, joined later by Tour Down Under winner Grace Brown.

On the Cauberg, Paladin was the last to be lassoed as the race exploded. Going over the top, with 1.9 km to go, Vollering attacked. She yanked out a considerable gap and couldn’t be caught. Teammate Lotte Kopecky, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Tour of Flanders champion, came runner-up.

Vollering attacks on the Cauberg.

2023 Amstel Gold Ladies Edition
1) Demi Vollering (The Netherlands/SD Worx) 4:06:54
2) Lotte Kopecky (Belgium/SD Worx) +0:08
3) Shirin van Anrooij (The Netherlands/Trek-Segafredo) s.t.
81) Olivia Baril (Canada/UAE-Team ADQ) +7:47