Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel wins the Amstel Gold Race
Dutchman comes from nowhere to overhaul the breakaway and win the final sprint. First Dutchman to win since Erik Dekker
In an unexpected, thrilling finale, what as left of the remaining peloton, overhauled the breakaway in the final kilometre whereby Mathieu van der Poel won the fianl sprint.
With 36 kms to go, Fulsang and Alaphilippe attacked and got a gap that rose to 41 secs on the final lap with 4 kms to go.
The main peloton was severely reduced to just a dozen riders, Trentin and Kwiatkowski counter attacked and nearly caught the pair, who held onto their lead in the final 10 kilometres.
What was left of the peloton started to attack each other, first to attempt a counter attack was Jele Vandenaert which was unsucessful but as they reached final kilometers more attacks came from antaganist Van der Poel .
Ahead of them Kwiatkowski was able to bridge across to leaders Fulsang and Alaphilippe
But behind what was left of the chasing group caught the leaders in the final 300 metres, with van der Poel sprinting to outright victory in an unexpected win!
Replays show that's Van der Poel was doing pretty much all the work in the chasing group which sprang out of the peloton. He attacked with Madouas, Lambrecht, and De Marchi with 7km to go ahead of the Bemeleberg, joining up with Bardet, and then reeling in Mollema and Clarke, and then Schachmann and Trentin.
He towed the whole group into the final straight, somehow coming back to the leading trio with 300m to go, and then somehow having enough left to win the sprint, giving the Netherlands a Dutch winner.
Mathieu van der Poel's victory in Amstel Gold Race came 29 years after his father's, Adri.
“I still can’t understand what’s happened,” said Van der Poel after snatching away a victory Julian Alaphilippe appeared to have in his grasp.
In the womens race, Niewiadoma took her best victory yet, beating Van Vleuten in the final sprint from the breakaway.
Mathieu van der Poel's victory in Amstel Gold Race came 29 years after his father's, Adri.
It's been 18 years since a Dutchman, Eric Dekker won at Amstel.
VIDEO: 2019 Amstel Gold Men's Race Highlights
2019 Amstel Gold Men's Race Top 10
1 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus
2 Simon Clarke (Aus) EF Education First
3 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
4 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-Quick Step
5 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
6 Bjorg Lambrecht (Bel) Lotto-Soudal
7 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) CCC Team
8 Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
9 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
