Perhaps it is a good thing that we cannot begin talking about today’s Amstel Gold Race until we have first addressed the events that took place at Wednesday’s Brabantse Pijl. As has been said elsewhere Brabantse Pijl is the hybrid Cobbled and Ardennes Classic that takes place on the Wednesday between Roubaix and Amstel—a seamless transition if ever there was one from Cobbles to Ardennes. With Paris-Roubaix’s postponement this year, many of the top Classics riders opted to hop into Brabantse Pijl as they extended their Classics campaigns through Amstel Gold. O! How surely of all the Classics men it was the top three cyclocrossers in the world that looked forward to Roubaix most of all! But Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) decided to pull the plug on his Spring Classics season after Flanders in order to focus on his Mountain Biking before the Tokyo Olympics. Meanwhile Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) were wooed enough to line up for both Brabantse and Amstel. Brabantse Pijl is one of those races with a cult following or hipster status to begin with. All who have seen it once look forward to it again, because the course naturally lends itself to unpredictable and unbridled racing. But with this unusually high swell of superstar power, we all knew we were in for an extra special treat this year. And this proved to be the case. There were many protagonists, the climbs did their job to spice up the race and create compelling drama, and those watching were glued to their screens. But that race came down to three men holding off an extremely reduced bunch behind by about a dozen seconds. Two of the three were the already mentioned cyclocrossers and top Classics men Wout Van Aert and Tom Pidcock, and the trio was rounded out with UAE’s Matteo Trentin. It came down to a sprint up a dragging road. Throughout the whole Finale Wout Van Aert had been working the hardest in any group he had found himself in. He ended up not having to lead-out this sprint, but behind the group was closing fast so Wout decided to go long. It seemed from about 300m out—at the very least well over 200m—Wout Van Aert launched his final sprint. Trentin had nothing left to respond. But while Wout launched hard Tom Pidcock managed to get into his slipstream and then solidly came around him to post up and take the sprint victory. It was Pidcock’s first professional road win at the top level, and it must have been sweet to take victory over one of the two Cross riders he has always been looking up to for years already. But immediately upon Brabantse Pijl’s completion, all eyes turned towards Amstel where these two cyclocrossers would be billed as the two top favorites.
Amstel Gold was turned into a 220km circuit race consisting of some 18km loops due to Covid regulations. It proved to be an insanely fast circuit. It felt as if the riders were flying downhill for the entire thing, especially when the peloton seemed to charge up every single climb as well. Tom Dumoulin (maybe still of Jumbo-Visma) was spotted in street clothes watching from the roadside. And Mauri Vansevenant (Deceuninck-Quickstep) lit up the middle of the race when he crashed twice and yet still explosively and ferociously chased back to the peloton at least three times. He was impressive to watch, and surely we shall speak of his future heroics sometime soon. But the top story of the day was of course the finish to this race.
The last 50km was filled with attacks and hopeful race winning moves, but everything still kept coming back together until the final time up the Cauberg with 18km to go. Bora’s Ide Schelling was dangling out front still on a solo attack by mere seconds when the peloton swung left at the base of the Cauberg. It was Team BikeExchange and Deceuninck-Quickstep that led the pack around the turn. Here was where the race irrevocably exploded, as it should. But just as Jumbo’s Wout Van Aert went on the attack, his famous Grand Tour winning Jumbo teammate Primoz Roglic had a puncture. Jumbo had worked all day, but now with the loss of Roglic Wout would have no help for the final phase of this race. Meanwhile on Wout’s wheel was the Quickstep World Champion Julian Alaphilippe the Musketeer, next came Michael “Bling” Matthews (Team BikeExchange), and then three Ineos Grenadiers in a line: the already mentioned Tom Pidcock, Michal Kwiatkowski (a former winner of this race), and Richard Carapaz of Giro fame. And by the top of the climb Bora-Hansgrohe’s Max Schachmann was in the mix as well. Tom Pidcock aided Wout in dishing out the pain to the rest of the field, alas! it was too much for Julian Alaphilippe the Musketeer, and Matthews hung on by a thread. Behind, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was leading a group of others trying to bridge to this likely winning move containing three Ineos Grenadiers at the head of affairs. They all passed through the finish line to hear the bell signifying one lap to go. Wily old Valverde continued to show his good form despite his age as he bridged up to this leading sextet. Kwiatkowski launched an obligatory attack for the Grenadiers so that the three would not have pace the leading group. But within a kilometer Kwaito was caught and it was Pidcock who immediately launched a counterattack with 13km to go. Bora’s Schachmann was able to go with him…and so was Wout Van Aert. The three went away, and Brabantse Pijl déjà vu flashed in all of our minds.
Instead of Trentin, it was Schachmann today who had to play the third—sorry, fifth and sixth—wheel for a grudge match between the cyclocross rivals. The three worked well together rotating evenly with pleasing fluidity. Perhaps Wout realized he had worked too hard on Wednesday at Brabantse Pijl and that had dulled his sprint too much, surely he wanted to get this right today. The trio never had more than a 25-second lead thus there was never any real time for catting-and-mousing. Still, for the next 10km they all worked in harmony. What a special and equalizing sport cycling is that so often you must work even with your biggest rivals in the race to distance all the other rivals as well. And of course, Van Aert’s rivalry with Pidcock is not as serious as the rivalry with Mathieu Van Der Poel, but still they have raced each other in cyclocross so often for a few years already the two know each other well so this would be an intimate affair especially with Wednesday’s sprint fresh in everyone’s minds. With 3km to go, behind a group of 20-to-25 chasers had pegged the gap to 15 seconds. They had not eaten too much into the trio’s lead, but if the front three played games in the Final K they all knew this could come back together just like it famously did in 2019. With 2km to go, on the last rise of the race, Schachmann attacked. But Wout and Pidcock were instantly on him, his attack failed and thus all three were resigned to leave it to a sprint.
Wout sat on the front, but he swung over under the Flamme Rouge to force Pidcock to the front. Like a game of Hot Potato, Pidcock quickly swung off within 200m to get Schachmann on the front. And Schachmann swung off the front even quicker to put Van Aert back on the front with still 700m to go. If you have never understood what “cat-and-mousing” is in cycling this finish was a good example. The rounds of Hot Potato end, because some of the riders are gutsy enough to stop sharing the pace so that they can launch or follow the inevitable sprint move to come as the pace slows. All the while behind the larger chasing group is baring down on them. As stated, in this race they only had 15 seconds to play with and Wout Van Aert was stuck on the front. Wout slowed up and looked over his shoulder a couple of times not only at the two in his wheel, but to see what the gap was to the chasing group—there was now only a 100m gap and the chasers were charging. Still Wout kept slowing the pace, trying to draw someone else onto the front or to prematurely launch their sprint. With 250m to go for the chasers, Valverde began an extremely long sprint while half-a-second later Wout launched from the front of his group with 200m to go. Wout looked powerful, the trio was clearly going to stay clear of the chasers. But with 100m to go, Pidcock was coming out of Wout’s slipstream just as he did at Brabantse Pijl. And yet Wout Van Aert did not let up. Still he was in full sprint all the way to the line, and still Pidcock was too and closing. It was tight. It came down to the bike-throw at the line. It was too close to call.
It was shockingly quickly called to be a Wout Van Aert victory. To which all viewing probably thought: “Good. Well-earned. He and Pidcock were equally the strongest and both were deserving, but it was Wout that led it out in a sprint so maybe he was slightly more deserving. Plus Wout is in the Club, and now our day is made.” But when the unofficial sideview TV camera slow-mo images came onto the screen, everyone including Wout Van Aert wanted to make sure that result was correct, because it looked like Pidcock pipped him at the line with more acceleration in the closing meters and a better bike throw. Looking at the official fancy electronic photo-finish camera still image, it did appear Wout’s wheel was further ahead when the camera snapped the winning picture. Now, I chose my words carefully for that last sentence: there are two more wrinkles to this finish. First, as Wout Van Aert performed his bike-throw, he actually popped a wheelie with his front wheel. A bike-throw should really be called a bike-lunge for that is what the riders are really doing with the front wheel of their bikes beneath them as they come within meters of the line. In this case as Wout tried to lunge his wheel forward, he did so with so much force—as opposed to subtle skill—he popped up his bike and the wheel crossed the finish line in mid-air. This could not really be perceived by the naked human eye in the photos. Even for the experienced experts at this sort of thing, the wheel being off the ground was surely throwing off their judgement or even was creating an optical illusion. Thus, at the end of the day, the organizers would simply have to trust in their technology that was operating unbiasedly. But that brings up the second wrinkle. Within minutes, and for the rest of the day, Cycling Twitter was going nuts about whether or not the photo finish capturing camera was actually placed correctly at the finishing line. The official picture potentially seemed to have captured an image a few centimeters before the narrow black finish line. Surely this “controversy” will be the topic of discussion for the next 24-to-72 hours, and this is where I become rather useless. As is always the case with cycling, what’s done is done. Based on the official camera, Wout Van Aert was the winner no matter where the camera was placed. It shall be interesting to hear the uncovered information about how exactly photo-finish cameras capture the race winning image, and how it is deemed if they are set up correctly. It was such a close finish, it was really a toss-up, and surely Pidcock was not calculating out down to the millimeter how far he had to go to the line. I have already seen a quote where he admitted that he should have launched his sprint earlier anyways, truly that would have been the best option so that he would not have had to leave it to a photo.
Thus let it be written for the cycling history books, Wout Van Aert bounced back in the grudge match sprint against Tom Pidcock to become the winner of the 2021 Amstel Gold Race. It was the end to the first phase of his road season. Surely as I write this, he is already kicking his feet up. He shall enjoy at least a few restful days before he builds up for his next block of objectives revolving around the Tour de France and Tokyo Olympics to come this July. Meanwhile, Tom Pidcock needs not bow his head in defeat. To say he performed well in his first Spring Classics campaign would be an understatement: a podium finish in Kuurne, strong rides at Strade and Sanremo, a win at Brabantse Pijl, and now today another podium at Amstel Gold. There are many riders who would be happy to have those results as career palmares. In only his first season, he has already earned his place to be the team leader in the Classics for the Ineos Grenadiers, and his limits have not even begun to be discovered. It was good edition of Amstel Gold, but with all the photo analysis some sort of sobering effect has transpired to bring our excitement levels back down to earth. It was a hard-fought and draining day. For many of the Cobbled Classics specialists this was the last race of the Spring. Many shall take a short rest before building up for some Summer objectives. And yet still, for many the Ardennes week has just started. Round 1 is over. Round 2 commences Wednesday at La Fleche Wallonne.
Cycling Odysseys 