For a split second, Tom Pidcock was hit with an unnerving sense of déjà vu. He was sprinting for victory at Amstel Gold Race against a rider in the yellow and black of Visma-Lease A Bike, and it was hard not to cast his mind back to his narrow defeat at the hands of Wout van Aert three years ago.
On that occasion, Pidcock was convinced he had taken the win, but after lengthy scrutiny of the photo finish, the race jury deemed that Van Aert had taken the spoils. This time out, the Ineos Grenadier rider found himself sprinting for victory against Van Aert’s teammate Tiesj Benoot, as well as Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep).
“When I went, and Tiesj and I were next to each other, I saw I was next to another Jumbo guy and I was like, no, not again,” Pidcock told reporters afterwards. “But then I said, keep going, make a gap. There was no photo finish today…”
Pidcock duly claimed victory ahead of Hirschi, while Benoot had to settle for third ahead of Vansevenant. The quartet had escaped from an initial break of twelve over the penultimate climb of the Geulhemmerberg, and they just about held off their chasers, thanks in part to Vansevenant’s willingness to open the sprint from distance.
“It was a headwind sprint, so we were lucky that Mauri went early because otherwise we might have been caught and it all might have been for nothing,” Pidcock said. “I can thank him – and my team too.”
“Michal Kwiatkowski was super today, and so were the rest of the guys. They all fully committed to me, so I was glad to be able to repay them for that. Kwiato and me work really well together, especially in this race, so he put me in perfect position.”
The turning point of the race came over the top of the Eyserbosweg with 35km remaining, when Hirschi sparked what proved to be the winning move. While most of the contenders were eagerly waiting for pre-race favourite Mathieu van der Poel’s response, Pidcock sensed the danger, bridging up to the front on the Fromberg in the company of Benoot.
The decision to race on the front foot paid dividends. Van der Poel, now bereft of Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates, was caught behind a front group that saw no fewer than eleven teams represented. The world champion would never get back on terms, finishing the day 22nd, 11 seconds down on Pidcock.
“Everyone’s human, he had two big goals, he smashed both of them, so don’t blame him for going off the boil a little bit now. I guess it’s good for him to give someone else a chance,” Pidcock said of Van der Poel.
“You can’t always base your race off him. Today if he’s not as good, you sacrifice your own race.”
“I knew that it was going to be tactical in the finale. it was important to be on the front foot. It’s always easier to race these races from the front. I just said no regrets when I’m racing, and that’s what I did.”
Pidcock attacked on the final haul up the Bemelerberg in a bid to avoid a group sprint, explaining that blisters on the palms of his hand had not yet healed after his surprise late appearance at Paris-Roubaix last month.
“I had a lot of shoulder pain because I couldn’t hold my bars properly, so I was not so confident for a sprint,” he said.
Pidcock’s Amstel Gold Race win comes after podium finishes in 2021 and 2023. It was also his first victory of the current campaign, and he confessed to feeling a degree of relief at breaking his duck.
The Briton started his year with sixth place at the Volta ao Algarve and fourth at Strade Bianche, but he had to withdraw from Itzulia Basque Country after crashing during his reconnaissance of the opening day time trial.
“It’s pretty big. I’ve been on the podium twice before, so it means a lot,” Pidcock said. “It’s nice to get my hands in the air. Sometimes I’d been questioning myself at the start of the spring, so to win a big race is really nice.”
