Marianne Vos wins Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition

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Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) has won the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition. The 33-year-old was part of a group that could not quite follow Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) on the final ascent of the Cauberg but reeled in the two frontrunners on the final kilometre.

In the sprint, Vos quickly took the lead and raised her arms to celebrate. Despite a late surge, Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) was still a wheel's length behind at the finish line, with Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) taking third place.

“I expected a hard race, but it was even harder than I expected,” said Vos after the finish. “It is always very attractive with a circuit, and there were attacks right from the gun. We did a really hard pace all race. On the final lap, Grace Brown had a good go, then the two were in front on the final time up the Cauberg, but when there was a final sprint, you have that little bit of energy left for the last few hundred metres. Demi came really close in the end, but I still had a little advantage.”

It was Vos’ first victory in the Amstel Gold Race, but not her first victory in Valkenburg as she had won the 2012 World Championships on a similar course. “Racing up the Cauberg and here along the finish line brings back memories, but during the race itself, I was mostly focused on that. It is good to be back, and even better with a victory,” Vos said.

How it unfolded

The women had to race 116.3km, seven laps of a circuit around Valkenburg with the climbs of the Geulhemmerberg, Bemelerberg, and Cauberg, with the summit of the final climb coming two kilometres from the finish.

The race was on from the start with attacks flying left and right. Quinty Ton (GT Krush Tunap) and Kathrin Hammes (Ceratizit-WNT) were the first to get away, but they were caught by a large group on the second lap. Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx) and Grace Brown (Team BikeExchange) bridged to this group while Van Vleuten and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) had been caught behind the peloton and had to chase hard to get back on.

Eventually, the peloton caught up with the front group, and the pace settled down for a while. There were lots of unsuccessful attacks on the fourth lap until Lucy Kennedy (Team BikeExchange), Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), Marta Bastianelli (Alé BTC Ljubljana), and Tayler Wiles (Trek-Segafredo) got a gap, but they were reeled in by Van Vleuten on the Cauberg.

Again, there were many attempts to get away from the peloton, but none of them stuck. Van Vleuten countered an attack by Pauliena Rooijakkers on the Cauberg with 36 km to go and quickly had most of the favourites on her wheel, though Van der Breggen was notably absent. This acceleration by Van Vleuten tore the race apart, and Van der Breggen would not return to the front of the race again.

Onto the Geulhemmerberg and Bemelerberg, there were many attacks again, and finally Brown and Rooijakkers got away. They built an advantage of half a minute, but this went down to less than 20 seconds on the Cauberg as first Van Vleuten, then Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team SD Worx) pushed the pace in the chasing group.

Brown dropped Rooijakkers on the descent into the Geulhemmerberg and continued on her own, holding a gap that fluctuated between 20 and 30 seconds as Team SD Worx and Trek-Segafredo were doing most of the chase work in the group behind.

On the run-in to the final ascent of the Cauberg, Brown lost ground, and she was caught at the bottom of the hill as Van Vleuten made her move. Niewiadoma, Vos, and Vollering closed the gap, and Niewiadoma counterattacked, dropping Vos. Coming from behind, Longo Borghini bridged to Niewiadoma near the top of the climb. The Italian put in a counterattack herself, but Niewiadoma eventually closed the gap.

In the final kilometres, Longo Borghini did not take any turns, and this meant that the following group of Vollering, Mavi García (Alé BTC Ljubljana), Vos, Moolman-Pasio, Van Vleuten, Uttrup Ludwig, Soraya Paladin (Liv Racing), and Amanda Spratt (Team BikeExchange) got on their wheels with 300 metres to go.

Longo Borghini then opened the sprint but was quickly passed by Vos who raised her arms to celebrate 20 metres from the line. Vollering had the higher speed and closed in on Vos, but the Dutch veteran held on to the line.

With the victory, Vos also takes the lead in the UCI Women’s WorldTour ranking.