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A new race name was added to the already rich role of honours of Tadej Pogačar: the Slovenian rider conquered also the Amstel Gold Race.
The recent winner of the Ronde Van Vlaanderen opened the Ardennes week by imposing in the 2023 edition of the Dutch race by preceding Ben Healy (EF Easypost) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers).
The first key moment of a wet and cold day was at 95 km to the arrival, when a group of 11 riders went clear from the bunch. In the breakaway there was the UAE Team Emirates’ captain too, in addition to other top contenders who contributed to constantly increase the advantage on the peloton, exploiting the work by Trentin in covering the chasing attempts and also exploiting a crash at 50 km to go that split the peloton and consequently slowed the pace of the chasers.
The final winning move by Pogačar was made at less than 40 km to go with only Thomas Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) initially able to follow the Slovenian rider, though they too would fall behind when Pogačar attacked again on Keutenberg.
Pogačar : “I did not expect that we’d go in the breakaway so early, and I was on a sort of flat tyre for many kms in the front and I was doubting I could come to the finish solo.
Mathieu van der Poel told me I should go on the Keutenberg. It is the hardest climb and it suits me the most. He told me that three days ago, he sent me a message. I will thank him for the advice.”
Results
1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 6:02:02
2.Ben Healy (EF Easypost) +38’’
3. Tom Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) +2’14’’
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