Despite having just completed his debut at Paris-Roubaix, Tadej Pogacar has no plans to put his season on hold. The world champion will take on the Amstel Gold Race this Sunday, his first challenge of the Ardennes Classics, which will conclude with Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
The UAE Team Emirates - XRG star will arrive as the main favourite to win the race he won in 2023 with a commanding solo attack. Despite his status, the Slovenian will not it all his own way, with a strong line-up for Sunday.
The most prominent name among his rivals will be Remco Evenepoel, who is finally back. After making his injury return in the Brabantse Pijl this Friday, the Belgian will arrive at the Amstel Gold ready to test Pogacar. If the world champion is fatigued, and Remco shakes off the cobwebs quickly, then the Olympic champion could come out on top.
In addition to Remco, other rivals such as Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, Marc Hirschi, Tiesj Benoot, Julian Alaphilippe, Ben Healy, Maxim van Gils, Thibau Nys, Ben O'Connor or Pello Bilbao, among others, will be looking for glory. But who will be the 5 main threats to the world champion?
1. Remco Evenepoel
Although it will only be his second race of the year after returning from his long injury, the talent of Remco Evenepoel is far superior to that of the other contenders for victory. The Belgian is the only one who can threaten Tadej Pogacar head-to-head at the highest level in this type of race. This race can serve as a morale booster for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the monument that Evenepoel has won twice before.
Remco Evenepoel has not raced since Il Lombardia last October
2. Tom Pidcock
The Briton rides in the Amstel Gold Race, one of his favorite races. He is the defending champion from 2024, where he defeated Marc Hirschi and Tiesj Benoot in the final sprint.
He was also 2nd in 2021 and 3rd in 2023. Pidcock has not competed since Milano-Sanremo in March, where he placed a disappointing 40th. However, his debut season with Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team has been excellent. He is certainly one of the main contenders for victory.
3. Wout van Aert
Perhaps there are other names that could stand out more than Van Aert.
However, the Team Visma star arrives in improved form. After being hounded in the Belgian press after his poor start to the season, Van Aert has shown signs of life with two 4th place finishes at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Moreover, the Belgian already knows what it's like to win this race. In fact, he did it the last time he raced it, in 2021.
4. Ben Healy
The EF Education-EasyPost rider starred in 2023 in an epic battle with Tadej Pogacar for victory in the Amstel Gold Race. Although he was 38 seconds behind the Slovenian, the next rival came within more than 2 minutes behind him.
Moreover, Healy comes fresh from an outstanding performance in the Basque Country. He was out of the fight for the GC early on, but that did not prevent him from achieving a memorable victory on stage 5 with an attack with more than 50 kilometres to go, and from finishing 3rd a day later in the queen stage.
5. Tiesj Benoot
Visma's threat in the Amstel Gold Race will include Tiesj Bennoot as well as Wout van Aert. His form is strong, including 6th in the Tour of Flanders two weeks ago.
Benoot has two Amstel podiums (3rd in 2022 and 2024), and is hungrier than ever. Don't count either of the Visma riders out.
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- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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