Amstel Gold Race 2024: Favourites

Mathieu van der Poel is back in the Amstel Gold Race after his phenomenal win in 2019. Okay, he also competed in his home race in 2022, when he had to settle for fourth place, but his 2019 triumph was so special that we are inclined to forget that. He ambushed Julian Alaphilippe, Jakob Fuglsang and Michal Kwiatkowski on the finishing straight before sprinting ahead to take an incredible victory.

Winning the Amstel Gold Race means succeeding Tadej Pogacar. The Slovene took the spoils last year with a long-range solo attack, which is not a very common scenario. Usually, a group of strong men makes it into the final lap, in which two climbs lay waiting, Geulhemmerberg (1 kilometre at 5%) and Bemelerberg (900 metres at 4.5%), and 16 exciting kilometres later an even smaller group sprints for the win.

In 2022, Michal Kwiatkowski bested Benoît Cosnefroy in a photo finish sprint, while 2021’s outcome was equally heartbreaking. Wout van Aert outgunned Tom Pidcock, although some still doubt that photo finish decision, and their fellow-attacker Maximilian Schachmann came home in third place.

There are two former winners at the start – Kwiatkowski (2022, 2015) and Van der Poel (2019).

Favourites 2024 Amstel Gold Race

***** Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock
**** Maximilian Schachmann, Ben Healy, Matteo Jorgenson
*** Mattias Skjelmose, Benoît Cosnefroy, Michael Matthews
** Pello Bilbao, Michal Kwiatkowski, Juan Ayuso, Romain Grégoire
* Richard Carapaz, Tobias Halland Johannessen, Quinten Hermans