Tiesj Benoot: "Third place was the maximum" at Amstel

After a strong cobbled classics, Tiesj Benoot has switched his attention over to the Ardennes. Collectively he has been a very important piece of Jumbo-Visma, however his second place at Dwars door Vlaanderen followed by Amstel Gold Race's third spot has seen him individually have a strong set of results aswell.

"Nathan opened up the race, which was a good situation for us. It's a shame Christophe crashed. The guys dropped me perfectly on the Kruisberg. I think I forced the breakaway on the Keutenberg," Benoot said in a post-race interview. With his climbing skills clear but the lack of a strong sprint, it was obvious that the Belgian had to make his big in the climbs, and his attack thinned down the peloton quite a lot to split the peloton into what became the group that went on to battle for this year's win.

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"I felt perfect until that moment. After that, it wasn't easy with the guys from INEOS because they were with two. In the descent to the Geulhemmerberg, I missed a turn and brought Cosnefroy back. When we were in front, he attacked and I had a hard time. Third place was the maximum. I tried twice and the second time I managed," he concluded.

After the attacks of Kwiatkowski and Cosnefroy, Benoot also tried to make a similar move but to no avail, with the exception of the final kilometer where unexpectedly he simply rode away from the chasing group without a meaningful acceleration. With the group behind eyeing a sprint, he managed to go onto finish third.

He'll be eyeing Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège later this spring, but will likely be on a similar role he had in the cobbled classics as he's set up to race alongside Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.

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