Some Amstel History The Amstel Gold Race was first run in 1966, making it one of the youngest Classics. The Dutch race was a dream of Herman Krott who ran the Amstel Bier team, a team which nurtured riders like Fedor den Hertog, Joop Zoetemelk, Gerrie Knetemann, Gert-Jan Theunisse and Leo van Vliet, but he was working on a Dutch Classic. He wanted a race that would be on a par with the Tour of Flanders and Milano-Sanremo. His intended route was from Amsterdam to Maastricht, but that turned out to be unfeasible. Breda was the start town and the finish was in Meerssen and held on Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag) 1966.
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The first Amstel winner – Jean Stablinski, here with Jacques Anquetil
The winner of the first edition was Jean Stablinski. A Polish, naturalised Frenchman, was also a World champion, a Classics and Vuelta a España winner. It was Stablinski last big win, for Krott he was a big fish to start the list of winner. The Amstel Gold Race is not one of the Monuments, but the list of winners contains all the big names: Eddy Merckx (twice), Gerrie Knetemann (twice), Freddy Maertens, Jan Raas (five times), Steven Rooks, Joop Zoetemelk, Jelle Nijdam, Eric Van Lancker, Adrie van der Poel, Frans Maassen, Johan Museeuw, Bjarne Riis, Michael Boogerd, Erik Zabel, Erik Dekker, Michele Bartoli, Alexandre Vinokourov, Davide Rebellin, Fränk Schleck, Philippe Gilbert (four times), Enrico Gasparotto, Mathieu van der Poel, Michał Kwiatkowski, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar.
Three of the top Dutch riders of the 70s and 80s: The late Gerrie Knetemann, Jan Raas and Hennie Kuiper in the 1977 Amstel Gold Race. This was the first Amstel win for Raas when he rode for Frisol, his other four wins were for Raleigh. Knetemann won twice, first in 1974 and then again 11 years later in 1985. Kuiper never won his home race.
The home nation has the most winners with eighteen victories, followed by Belgium on thirteen and seven for Italy. The last home win dates from 2019, when Mathieu van der Poel was the last Dutchman to win in 2019. In 2021 Wout van Aert beat Tom Pidcock by a millimetre. In 2022 Michał Kwiatkowski out-sprinted Benoît Cosnefroy, after the Pole had attacked with 21 kilometres to go and then last year Tadej Pogačar stamped all over the race for a solo win (see below).
Race founder Herman Krott
Race founder Krott passed away in 2010. In 1996, Krott handed over the job of race director to Leo van Vliet, who will be at the head of his 28th Amstel race on Sunday. It will also be Leo van Vliet’s last time at the helm of the Amstel Gold Race. In 2025 the Amstel Gold Race will have a new organiser and Flanders Classics will take over, although Van Vliet will still remain race director. Krott’s legacy is remembered by the Herman Krott Trophy, for the most combative rider in the Amstel race.
Philippe Gilbert won Amstel four times
Tadej Pogačar was the top favourite before the start of the 2023 Amstel Gold Race and lived up to his No.1 billing. The Slovenian put in his final attack on the Keutenberg, 30 kilometres from the finish. He dropped Tom Pidcock and Ben Healy to solo to victory. Healy was second and Pidcock just held on for third.
In 2024, Tom Pidcock made up for his Amstel Gold Race loss in 2021 to Wout van Aert by the smallest of margins. The INEOS Grenadiers rider crossed to the winning break and then won the sprint from Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Tiesj Benoot (Visma | Lease a Bike). Top favourite, World champion, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was trapped in the bunch to finish 22nd.
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