The 2024 edition of the Dutch Classic Amstel Gold Race was contested in chilly Spring weather. The 253.6-kilometer race route featured thirty-three categorized hills and took the professional cycling peloton from Maastricht to Berg en Terblijt.

Four riders established the early breakaway of the day. The riders were Tosh van der Sande (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Enzo Leijnse (Team DSM-Firmenich), Alexander Hajek (Bora-HansGrohe), and TDT-Unibet’s Zeb Kyffin.

The group had been reeled in by the chasing peloton sixty kilometers left of the race. Alpecin-Deceuninck had led the chase in support of their World Champion Mathieu van der Poel.

Marked by many disappointing results in its spring campaign, the Soudal-QuickStep team was next to send a rider into a breakaway. Louis Vervaeke was the chosen rider. He was joined by Mikkel Frølich Honore (EF Education-EasyPost) and Paul Lapeira of Decathlon-AG2R. The trio built a lead of twenty seconds.

The trio was defending a fifteen second lead with 36 kilometers remaining of today’s Amstel Gold Race. Mikkel Honore was delivering a fine performance for his EF Education-EasyPost outfit after some challenging seasons.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked from the main peloton with Matthieu van der Poel on his wheel. Other riders caught up and a reduced peloton group was formed.

UAE Team Emirates’ Marc Hirschi counterattacked. He was joined by Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Roger Adria (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) on the climb. Menawhile, Vervaeke had fallen back to the main peloton.

Hirschi and the rest of his group caught Honore and Lapeira on the hill. Thomas Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Tiesj Benoot (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) took to the front. 

With 23 kilometers left a front group featuring twelve riders had been established. The group featured Hirschi, Honore, Pidcock, Benoot, Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), Adria, Mollema, Lapeira, Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Madouas, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious). 

Honore was dropped on the Cauberg following a strong performance in today’s Amstel Gold Race. 

Mattias Skjeldmose (Lidl-Trek) launched an attack from group two. He was followed by riders such as Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-Alula) who were hoping to make the leap to the front group. Andreas Kron counterattacked for Lotto-Dstny together with Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ). Carapaz took to the front of the chase group. Irish National Champion Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was also active.

Ten kilometers of the race now remained.

The riders entered the Bemelerberg (0.9 km; 5.9%).  Hirschi, Pidcock, Benoot and Vansevenant were still in front. A seven-man group was chasing fifteen seconds behind.

Pidcock accelerated from the front. Vansevenant was dropped but rejoined shortly thereafter.

Three kilometers remained. The chase groups were closing in on the leading quartet.

Benoot attacked with approximately one kilometer left. He was going for the win. He was caught.

Vansevenant attacked, but Pidcock countered.

Thomas Pidcock was first across the finish line and is the winner of Amstel Gold Race 2024 for his Ineos-Grenadiers team. Marc Hirschi finished second for UAE Team Emirates, while Tiesj Benoot (Team Visma - Lease a Bike) completed the race podium.

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