The professional road cycling season continued with Amstel Gold Race 2025 – the first of the much-anticipated Ardennes Classics. This year’s Amstel Gold Race would be contested on a 255.9-kilometer route from Maastricht to Berg en Terblijt in the Netherlands. Known for its many short hill climbs and the route through village streets dominated by dangerous turns and road furniture, the race called for absolute attention and speedy reactions from the riders in the professional peloton.

The start list for Amstel Gold Race 2025 was impressive and featured top riders such as Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who won his De Brabantse Pijl comeback race in impressive fashion two days ago, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who showed great form in this year’s Paris-Roubaix, Wout van Aert (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), who had played an active role in the decisive phase of De Brabantse Pijl, Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen. 

The start list of Amstel Gold Race also included Thomas Pidcock (Q36-5 Pro Cycling Team), Magnus Sheffield (Ineos-Grenadiers), Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe), Alex Aranburu (Team Cofidis), Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s Marc Hirschi, and not least Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who had shown great form in Itzulia Basque Country. 

The riders started the Amstel Gold Race in cloudy weather conditions and temperatures around sixteen degrees Celsius. As expected, multiple attacks were launched from the front of the peloton early in the race. It did, however, take a while before a breakaway group established a noteworthy lead.

Eight riders had fought their way to an advantage of approximately 04:30 minutes with 190 kilometers remaining. The eight breakaway hopefuls were Jarrad Drizners (Team Lotto), Cedric Beullens (Team Lotto), Michel Hessmann (Movistar Team), Remi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ), Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and a Jelle Johannink and Hartthijs de Vries duo from Team Unibet – Tietema Rockets.

With 165 kilometers remaining, riders from teams including UAE Team Emirates, Soudal-QuickStep, and Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team had moved to the front of the main peloton and increased the pace, thereby reducing the advantage of the 8-man front group to 03:35 minutes.

The advantage of the eight front riders was down to three minutes with 145 kilometers left of Amstel Gold Race. The main contenders were still hiding and conserving energy within the peloton group. The lead was down to 01:40 minutes 120 kilometers from the finish line, so the hard work provided by the riders spearheading the main peloton was paying off. 

Simon Clarke and Reuben Thompson (Lotto Team) launched a counterattack from the main peloton 110 kilometers from the race finish. Shortly thereafter, a crash involving Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) occurred in the peloton. They all returned to the peloton shortly thereafter.

Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Quinn Simmons joined the Thompson-Clarke chase group – likely in a tactical move to function as fore posts for their respective team captains Wout van Aert and Mattias Skjelmose.

The van Baarle-Simmons chase group got reeled in by the chasing main peloton and several riders from the original breakaway also dropped back to the peloton. Only Hessmann, Cavagna, Johannink, and Beullens remained in front with eighty kilometers left, but alas just with a narrow lead of fifteen seconds.

Lidl-Trek riders replaced UAE Team Emirates riders at the front of the peloton with 72.5-kilometers left of Amstel Gold race and increased the pace. The Ineos-Grenadiers team also sent riders to the front.

All riders were caught shortly thereafter. UAE Team Emirates took to the front, hoping to control the race.

The front of the peloton was dominated by fierce fights for position with 55 kilomters remaining. Riders from EF Education-EasyPost, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and Tudor Pro Cycling Team were very active, with UAE Team Emirates lurking behind them.

Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) attacked with Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) launched a counterattack with Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost).

Alaphilippe and Pogacar were forming the front duo with 46 kilometers left. Nys and Healy had been reeled in. New attacks were launched from the front of the reduced main peloton. Santiago Buitrago tried his luck for Bahrain Victorious.

42.5 kilometers remained when Pogacar left Alaphilippe behind on a steep and short hill. Alaphilippe was caught by the chasing reduced main peloton shortly thereafter.

The steep Eyserbosweg climb now awaited the riders. Remco Evenepoel moved to the front of the main peloton while flying his golden Specialized S-Works bike as Olympic Champion. Skjelmose was also visible as were Wout van Aert, Thomas Pidcock, Ben Healy, and Brandon McNulty. Several riders were dropping off the back of the peloton on the climb. Pogacar had a lead of fifteen seconds forty kilometers from the finish line in Berg en Terblijt.

The riders were setting a fast pace on the narrow, curvy and hilly roads of the Netherlands. Full attention was needed at all times to avoid accidents and crashes on the tricky roads of the most dangerous race of the Ardennes Classics. Pogaacar had increased his lead to half a minute when thirty-five kilometers remained. Approximately fifteen riders remained in the main peloton group.

Pogacar entered Keutenberg with a lead of thirty seconds and 33 kilometers remaining.  Skjelmose attacked solo on the climb. Healy later tried to follow. 

With the Cauberg climb on the horizon, Pogacar pressed on as solo Easter rabbit at the front for the other riders to chase. Skjelmose was chasing thirty seconds behind the World Champion, while having a five-second advantage over the chasing fellow favorites, of whom Neilson Powless showed great initiative.

Remco Evenepoel made the leap to Skjelmose on the Cauberg climb, with Pogacar eighteen seconds further up the road. The advantage of the Slovenian rider was decreasing to much surprise for many a spectator.

Pogacar entered the final twenty-kilometer leap with a narrow lead of fifteen seconds over Evenepoel and Skjelmose. The next chasers were thirty-five seconds behind the leader and this group included Van Aert, Benoot, Pidcock, Michael Matthews, Powless, and Healy.

After having seen his lead decrease, Pogacar surprisingly increased his advantage to twenty seconds in the next kilometers. But his energy reserves proved limited in the finale of today’s race and Mattias Skjelmose and Remco Evenepoel were closing in on the World Champion. Eleven kilometers remained and his lead was down to nine seconds.

Skjelmose and Evenepoel continued to close in on Pogacar on the Bemelerberg. The Danish-Belgian duo caught Pogacar with eight kilometers left and Evenepoel immediately pressed on, hoping to drop Pogacar. But Pogacar stuck to the rear wheel of Skelmose’s Trek bike.

Four kilometers remained and the front riders approached the possibly decisive Cauberg climb for the final time. 

The front trio entered the final two kilometers with a lead of forty seconds over the chasers, where Powless was trying his luck, hoping to bridge the gap to the front trio before the finish line.

Pogacar, Skjelmose, and Evenepoel were closely monitoring each other in the final kilometers. Who would be the first rider to launch his sprint?

One kilometer remained. 

Evenepoel launched his sprint first. Pogacar accelerated as did Skjelmose. All three riders were racing next to each other while approaching the finish line. Mattias Skjelmose proved the fastest and strongest rider on the day and is the winner of Amstel Gold Race 2025 ahead of Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.

“I can’t believe it. I was telling Remco all the time I was on the limit and when we stopped before the line, I was already happy because I know I would finish on the podium,” Skejlmose told Roadcycling.com after the race finish. 

“I thought I was going to cramp and see them disappear on the horizon. I still can’t believe what happened. The past month has been hard for me, because I lost my grandfather a month ago, and I wanted to give him the win today so very much,” a deeply moved Skjelmose explained to Roadcycling.com.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 professional cycling season.