Incredible! Mattias Skjelmose denies Tadej Pogacar & Remco Evenepoel in Amstel Gold Race thriller
CyclingMonday, 21 April 2025 at 13:39
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!
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- Should be a good one! It's been since 2022 since we have seen peak Pogi vs peak Vingo. 2023 Pogi had injuries and a suboptimal preparation. 2024 Vingo had even worse injuries and a poor runup to the Tour. UAE team has gotten stronger since 2022, while Visma maybe less strong.mobk06-05-2025
- You'd have to be an amoral prick to work for this team.Matt06-05-2025
- Jonas is a very solid descender. Remember him waiting for Pog when Pog crashed on a descent in 2022mobk05-05-2025
- For Pogi's first win against Jonas, he had a very subpar team relative to Jumbo. I don't think Jonas would have stood a chance if he had Pogi's team that year.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- He descended very well at the TdF last year after the first couple stages with technical descents.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- The funny thing about all of this is that Pogi can(that doesn't mean he definitely will) win the TdF while it's only one of many goals. Jonas is fully focused on the TdF. Yes, he does other races but they're solely in preparation for the TdF. Jonas is great, but much of the reason he has a fighters chance is that Pogi isn't a rider that's fully focused on stage races.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- Yates- when he is on - is pretty awesome to watch.
ScottG05-05-2025 - Jonas is afraid of crashing. That's not easy to shake. I think that fear has only gotten worse over the years.ScottG05-05-2025
- Healy will also be a contender in the hilly classics. That's it though.ScottG05-05-2025
- It remains a team sport, and either teams or injuries have determined the outcomes since 2022. In '22, UAE lost many team members due to covid, earlier than Jumbo Visma did, and that left Pogacar unprotected. In '23, Pogacar was injured at Liege, and that affected his training. In '24, Vingegaard was injured, Kuss and van Aert were a shadow of their '22 selves, and Roglic was gone from the team. So the question is, can Yates, Almeida, Novak, and the rest protect Pogacar, and will Kuss and the rest show up as they need to? Sure, it's the last climb that pits the two superstars against each other, and Pogacar (as we've seen with van der Poel) doesn't always win when he's got a challenger there. This year, if Vingegaard's concussion hasn't affected things too much, I think it will come down to the teams they bring.RidesHills05-05-2025
When was the last time Pogacar lost in a long range solo attack? I don't recall. Seems like he's got a smart head, knowing what's possible and what's not. Except this time.
2 things. It’s easy to look smart strategically when you’re way better than the rest and only perfect organisation between a large number of others can endanger the outcome of your gamble. Secondly, his long solo attacks have usually been against fields not including very dangerous rivals or where he had a clear advantage. He has been at times been a bit lucky (1st Tour win) at others a bit cocky (mixing it with the sprinters at the Giro but rarely been put under pressure on his terrain, it’s a good thing there is a Remco around and that he’s now seen guys like MS are capable of bringing him back down to earth, it might make him understand the importance of gathering racing experience to not lose races neglectfully. People say and hope he is a showman, I don’t actually think that’s true or his main reason for doing this, I think deep down he has a need and that he’s either very good at disguising that or doesn’t even realise it himself. I just hope that a frustrated Tadej doesn’t reveal a different side to his teflon character, he really didn’t look comfortable downing that drink (which wasn’t a pint by the way CUTD).