The Ardennes Classics kicked off Sunday with the Amstel Gold Race, as the top road racers in the world moved from the Belgian and French cobbles to The Netherlands. The women raced first, with the men coming next.

The women’s race saw a thrilling finish, as Lorena Wiebes looked to have the race won, but started her celebration too early. Marianne Vos snuck in to take the win at the line. On the men’s side, Tom Pidcock emerged victorious, winning a sprint finish from a group of breakaway riders.

Here’s how the both races went down on Sunday.

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How the Men’s Race Played Out

There was plenty of action throughout the day, but let’s fast forward to about 30km to go after a breakaway of 12 riders formed. Pidcock made his move to join that group, and from there, the gap extended.

The gap from the chasers to the breakaway stayed around 30 seconds to a minute, and was never able to get close enough.

It wasn’t to be for Mathieu van der Poel on Sunday. After winning the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in consecutive weeks, MVDP wasn’t a factor in what was eventually the winning breakaway.

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How the Men’s Race Was Won

With about 14km to go, a select group of four—Pidcock, Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step)—broke away from the group of 12 riders.

The tactics started from there, as the riders balanced trying to fend off the riders that were originally left behind from that 12-rider breakaway and trying to get the win out of those four riders.

With the chasers coming hard, the race was on. Ultimately, it would be on of the breakaway four riders. But who? Pidcock was the best of those four, and won the sprint to the line.

Men’s Top 10 - 2024 Amstel Gold Race

  1. Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) 5:58:17
  2. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) "
  3. Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) "
  4. Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step) "
  5. Paul Lapeira (AG2R La Mondiale) "
  6. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) "
  7. Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) "
  8. Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) "
  9. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) "
  10. Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) +:11
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How the Women’s Race Played Out

With 10km to go, it looked like a breakaway of three riders had a legitimate chance to stay away, as the group of Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Eva van Agt (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon // SRAM) held a strong advantage of about a minute—give or take—on the chasing peloton.

But as the kilometers ticked away, the peloton—led by Ellen van Dijk and the Lidl-Trek squad—finally got itself organized enough to launch a solid chase of the breakaway. With 2km to go, the catch was finally made, and then it was time an epic finale.

Though, not in the mix for the win on Sunday in that final 2km was the world champion and recently-crowned Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner Lotte Kopecky, who played the role of domestique for her SD Worx-Protime throughout the day and didn’t have the legs at the end.

10th amstel gold race ladies edition 2024
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How the Women’s Race Was Won

Speaking of top SD Worx-Protime riders going domestique mode, Demi Vollering picked up where Kopecky left off and was on the front to provide a good leadout for their top sprinter Lorena Wiebes.

It all went according to plan for SD Worx. Vollering’s work was done, and it was left to the sprinters. Lidl-Trek’s Elisa Longo Borghini was the first to launch an acceleration with 300 meters to go. But Wiebes lurked right on her back wheel.

Wiebes rolled past Longo Borghini and looked to have an easy win. But the veteran sprinter started celebrating way too early, and the legend Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) emerged on her left to squeak out a thrilling win.

The results left us asking: how does this keep happening? Regardless, it’s another signature win for the 36-year-old Vos, who wins Amstel Gold for the second time in her career (she also won in 2021).

Women’s Top 10 - 2024 Amstel Gold Race

  1. Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) 2:35:02
  2. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) "
  3. Ingvild Gåskjenn (Liv AlUla Jayco) "
  4. Pfeffier Georgi (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) "
  5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) "
  6. Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) "
  7. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) "
  8. Amber Kraak (FDJ Suez) "
  9. Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninick) "
  10. Soroya Paladin (Canyon // SRAM) "