Stories from Amstel Gold Race - Lance Armstrong recalls losing 1999 race to Dutch champion Boogerd

Months before going on to win his first Tour de France at the time, Lance Armstrong was still very much a rider that looked more fit to battle for the one-day races. Amstel Gold Race, taking place this Sunday, hadn't been one and he recalls with Michael Boogerd how that finale came down.

"It's a miracle that you beat me [...] You see what cycling does to you, it's not good for your mind," Armstrong said recently. The final of the Ardennes classics at the time finished in Maastricht after a hilly route and it came down to a two-up sprint in the end between an at the time former World Champion Armstrong and the crowd favourite Boogerd.

"I was one of the worst sprinters in the peloton at that time. I was really nervous in the last kilometre, also because I was Dutch champion," the Dutchman recalls. "I had also been on your wheel for 10 kilometres, so I could well imagine what people would say if I lost the sprint. When we turned the last corner, all I thought was: 'oh shit, I have to win. How am I going to do this?'"

It was an edition where tension was at an all-time high for the local rider, and Boogerd remembers how much he was told in the team car to not work with Armstrong. "Jan Raas said he would rip my head off if I came out on top."

Armstrong's response at the time: "Boogie, I know you're not a f*ggot. But you can pay me back in July (he refers to the Tour de France, ed.)." In 2019 the national champion Mathieu van der Poel provided the Dutch with another dream scenario at the country's top classic of the year; and this year we should have a lot of spectacle with Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock all at the start line.