Terrific Tom Pidcock sprints to Amstel Gold Race 2024 victory ahead of Hirschi and Benoot

Tom Pidcock has taken a thrilling victory at the 2024 Amstel Gold Race, ahead of Marc Hirschi and Tiesj Benoot, with world champion Mathieu van der Poel notably not involved at the head of the race.

Three riders attacked early and formed the breakaway of the day. Tosh Van der Sande (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Enzo Leijnse (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Alexander Hajek (BORA - hansgrohe) and Zeb Kyffin (TDT - Unibet Cycling Team) being the attackers. With over 70km still to go though, the brutal pace of the peloton had seen them reeled in.

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The next move to get a gap included Mikkel Honore, Louis Vervaeke and Paul Lapeira. With 40km to go, the trio were dangling around 20 seconds ahead of the peloton, with the big names and pre-race favourites still yet to come to the fore.

At 35km to go, Marc Hirschi launched a move from the bunch though, drawing some good riders alongside him too such as Valentin Madouas, Roger Adria and Bauke Mollema. Notably, Mathieu van der Poel was looking surprisingly isolated at the front of the peloton behind, as Pello Bilbao, Tiesj Benoot and Tom Pidcock attacked to bridge the gap to the lead group.

With 20km to go, 12 riders now totalled the lead group with many of the big teams represented. With Alpecin-Deceuninck's numbers diminished behind, Team Jayco AlUla and EF Education-EasyPost were doing much of the chasing although the gap had extended to 46 seconds.

As the final lap began, the leaders' advantage over the chasers had dropped to 33 seconds. Perhaps sensing the peloton nearing, Benoot, Pidcock, Hirschi and Mauri Vansevenant were attempting to push on upfront, managing to get a small gap from their breakaway companions.

With the quartet going fully clear, at around 6km to go, Pidcock attacked at the front and although he couldn't snap the elastic, Vansevenant was put into difficulty. But with the peloton 40 seconds down, it looked as if van der Poel's hopes of victory were over. Through the flamme rouge, the four were still together however, there was no more working together as they each attempted to launch a race winning attack.

Because of their game playing the chasers were catching but in the sprint finale, the leaders held on dramatically with INEOS Grenadiers Tom Pidcock taking the win ahead of Marc Hirschi with Tiesj Benoot taking third.

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