Mathieu van der Poel won the biggest race of his career to leave the cycling world stunned with the manner in which he overhauled Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang, who had looked certain to contest victory at the Amstel Gold Race.
"I can't believe it," the Corendon-Circus rider said afterwards."I didn't believe I could win. I didn't expect that at all. I still can't understand what has happened."
He was not the only one left bemused by his win.
The world cyclo-cross champion arrived at his home race in fine form having won the midweek De Brabantse Pijl in neighbouring Belgium, however with just five kilometres of the 265.7km race from Maastricht to Berg en Terblijt remaining the Dutchman trailed the leading pair by almost a minute.
Van der Poel, though, did what he has repeatedly done throughout the season and fought his back into contention - to win against all odds.
O H M Y G O D π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯ YOU WILL NEVER SEE A BIKE RACE LIKE THAT AGAIN. @Amstelgoldrace@mathieuvdpoel
Commentator Rob Hatch was left exclaiming 'I have never seen anything like this in my life!', as his co-commentator Matt Stephens could only giggle in disbelief as Van der Poel not only came from a minute down with the race nearly over, but, after doing all that work to get back to the leaders, went flying past them to claim one of the most absurd victories cycling has ever seen.
On a different channel, Declan Quigley described the win as "The greatest ambush you'll ever see".
After crashing heavily on the cobbles in a high-speed sprint at last month's Danilith Nokere Koerse most had thought the 24-year-old's classics campaign had ended prematurely. However, days later the Dutchman bounced back in emphatic style to win the Grand Prix de Denain. The following week he finished fourth at Ghent-Wevelgem.
Another win followed at Dwars door Vlaanderen in the countdown to the Tour of Flanders, a race his Pro-Continental team had hoped would suit Van der Poel. His race in Flanders though had looked over before the Dutch national champion showed incredible powers of recovery. After crashing and falling off the back of what turned out to be the select group of riders that went on to contest the race, Van der Poel worked his way through the field before claiming an impressive fourth place.
Days after winning De Brabantse Pijl, Van der Poel again rode from the back, though this time he was able to plough his way through to claim a memorable victory, just as his father Adri had done in 1990.
Mathieu van der Poel reacts in disbelief after winning the Amstel Gold Race. Photo / Getty
Though Van der Poel may have benefited from the slowing of pace of race leaders Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Fuglsang (Astana) as the pair neared the final kilometre, reports in Het Nieuwsblad added that time gaps given to the riders did not match those on television. Either way, Van der Poel had had to ride from some distance out β with no teammates β to close the gap on two of the strongest riders in the peloton right now.
With the finishing line in sight, Van der Poel who had pulled across a handful of riders, made easy work of the final sprint. Simon Clarke (EF Education First) took second ahead of Fuglsang. Promising New Zealand rider Dion Smith finished an impressive 19th.
The way in which Van der Poel towed everyone to the line, catching the leaders, then sprinting himself, was such a display of strength that all onlookers were left in disbelief.
Iβve never seen anything like it. Thatβs the most incredible finish to a race I have EVER seen. Matthieu Van Der Poel has EVERYTHING. WOW. #AmstelGoldRace
What a day to be a cycling fan. How did that finale even come together in the Menβs Amstel Gold? Surely there were several different space-time forces at work. Blummβ marvellous. Iβm looking forward to the Dutch reaction to that one. Van Der Poel, I thank you #AmstelGoldRace
Alaphilippe was left the most stunned of all the riders who saw Van der Poel fly past.
"I'm not disappointed that I didn't win, but I'm disappointed in the way I did," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "At two kilometres from the finish, the director of the race told us that we had a 35-second lead. That means those other riders raced 15 seconds per kilometre faster than we did.
