Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition neutralised, shortened after accident ahead of race

Amstel Gold Race Women has been neutralised and shortened due to a motor accident on the route ahead of the race. A police officer was injured when their motorbike collided with a car on the Bergseweg climb.

The racing was brought to a halt after 45km in order to allow an ambulance to pass the race and reach the scene of the accident. The peloton stopped at 11.00am local time, and the race would not resume for more than an hour.

“A police motorcyclist was injured this morning around 11a.m. in a collision with a car on the Bergseweg in #Voerendaal while supervising the Amstel Gold Race. He was taken to hospital by ambulance. The Bergseweg has been closed off for an investigation by TTOV,” read a statement from the Limburg police unit.

After a pause of more than an hour, it was decided that the women’s race would remain neutralised until reaching the finishing circuit at Valkenburg. It was later announced that the riders would complete three laps of the finishing circuit rather than the four laps originally planned.

Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale) and Quinty Schoens (VolkerWessels) had been on the attack just ahead of the peloton when the race was brought to a halt. 

The men’s race, which began after the women’s event, has been rerouted to avoid the incident, and the men’s peloton will thus miss the climb of the Bergseweg.

The resumption of the women’s race was complicated by the need to avoid overlap between the two Amstel Gold Race events on their sinuous routes around Limburg.