Incredible! Mattias Skjelmose denies Tadej Pogacar & Remco Evenepoel in Amstel Gold Race thriller

Lidl-Trek's Mattias Skjelmose has prevailed at a thrilling 2025 edition of the Amstel Gold Race. Emerging victorious from an incredible three-up sprint ahead of world champion Tadej Pogacar and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.

Eight riders got themselves into the breakaway of the day. Those being Michel Hessmann (Movistar Team), Rémi Cavagna (Groupama - FDJ), Robert Stannard (Bahrain - Victorious), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin - Deceuninck), Cedric Beullens (Lotto), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto), Jelle Johannink (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets).

There was no shortage of drama for the big names early on either. Tadej Pogacar was caught out behind an early split, although the world champion's UAE Team Emirates - XRG teammates eventually managed to fix things. Then, at just over 100km to go, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Thibau Nys were all caught up in a crash, although all three were soon back in the peloton.

Although the break had around 4:30 of advantage at one point, on the Cauberg with still over 80km to go, they were almost all caught by a rampant peloton, UAE-led peloton, with only Hessmann surviving. Things weren't all rosy for UAE though, as news filtered through of the abandonment of Jhonatan Narvaez. With 69km to go however, Hessmann had been swallowed up too, meaning the peloton had already regained the front of the race.

After a short calm, at around 55km to go, EF Education-EasyPost came to the front of the bunch and put in a real acceleration, jettisoning a number of riders out the back of the lead group. The first big move of the day then came from former world champion Julian Alaphilippe. Unsurprisingly, the current Rainbow Jersey Tadej Pogacar was straight on the back wheel. After the pair rode together for a short while, the UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader dropped the Frenchman with a brutally calm, seated acceleration, heading into the final 40km solo.

Although the Slovenian quickly built up a lead of around 30 seconds, the chase - a group that included the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Mattias Skjelmose, Ben Healy, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock among others, managed to keep things relatively stable at around the half a minute mark. With Evenepoel and Skjelmose taking matter into their own hands and attacking the chase though, the gap to Pogacar actually started to drop.

On the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg, Evenepoel and Skjelmose got themselves back to around 15 seconds of Pogacar. By 10km to go, it was only 10 seconds and Pogacar couldn't stop looking behind. Could the unthinkable really be happening? Was a Tadej Pogacar attack being reeled back in? With 8km to go, it became a reality and immediately Evenepoel tried to slingshot straight over the top, although the world champ was aware to the danger and managed to cancel out the move.

With nearly 40 seconds lead as the reached the final Cauberg, the podium looked locked. Which order would they finish though? Through the Flamme Rouge they were still all together at the front, and as they started playing cat and mouse, the chase was closing. In the sprint it was the incredible Mattias Skjelmose who prevailed ahead of the world champion and the Olympic champion!