“I think it’s possible” - Benoît Cosnefroy believes Mathieu van der Poel can be beaten on home soil at the Amstel Gold Race

After his victory at yesterday’s Brabantse Pijl, Benoît Cosnefroy will be hoping for another strong result at the Amstel Gold Race this weekend, but with the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock and Juan Ayuso all set to be at the start line on Sunday, the Frenchman will have his work cut out if he has hopes of taking the win.

In an interview with L’Équipe after Brabantse Pijl, Cosnefroy reflected on his victory in the Flemish Brabant and how it may have played out differently if Van der Poel had been in attendance, as he said “the circumstances made this win possible. When Mathieu is in a race, he's watched a lot by other riders and it's perhaps easier for riders who are outsiders to express themselves”.

In Paris-Roubaix, Mathieu van der Poel’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team controlled the race from the start until he launched his race-winning attack with around 60km to go. On how the Dutchman can be stopped in his home race, the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider said “in Paris-Roubaix, Van der Poel had an exceptional team who did a lot of the work for him. But there it’s a very flat race whereas Amstel Gold Race is a little less easy to control and it’s perhaps harder to make large gaps too. I don’t really know, but in my head, I think it’s possible”.