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.

"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.