The cobbled Classics season may be over but the WorldTour peloton rolls on to the Ardennes Classics, starting with Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. Some riders will be hoping that the punchy bergs suit them better than the brutal pavé, while others will be expecting to reach their peak spring fitness. Strictly speaking, unlike La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Amstel does not take place in the Ardennes, but rather in and around the Dutch town of Maastricht. Like the later Ardennes races, though, the testing climbs provide the perfect parcours for climbers, puncheurs, and Classics specialists to be in the mix.
The tough ascents — 34 of them in total — in the Limburg region provide plenty of springboards for attacks and to split up the peloton each year and judging by how the 2025 Classics have gone so far, particularly Milan-Sanremo which was blown apart on the Cipressa and Paris-Roubaix where the action between the contenders really kicked off on the Trouée d'Arenberg, Amstel could be another full day of action starting early on.
The rider who detonated the initial moves in those two Monuments and won the other at the Tour of Flanders, was, of course, the world champion Tadej Pogačar, who lines up in Maastricht as the favourite. His challengers include last year’s winner Tom Pidcock, who got the better of Marc Hirschi and Tiesj Benoot in a sprint (both of whom will be racing again on Sunday), and the returning Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, back from injury for his first WorldTour race of 2025.
Contenders
Tadej Pogačar
Perennial favourite Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is back at the race he won in 2023, starting as the front-runner to win again in 2025. Although an impressive debut, Pogačar will have wanted more at the Hell of the North on Sunday, where the Slovenian finished second to Mathieu van der Poel. However, with the Dutchman — the only threat to Pogačar so far in 2025 — not competing at Amstel, genuine rivals for Pogačar are unlikely to present themselves. Additionally, what is worrying for the rest of the peloton is that the Ardennes Classics suit him even better than the cobbles of Flanders and Roubaix. On the men’s side, only two riders have won all three Ardennes Classics in one season (Davide Rebellin in 2004 and Philippe Gilbert in 2011), and at Amstel Gold on Sunday, Pogačar is looking to complete the first of three steps to another historic landmark in his already illustrious career.
Read more: The new Colnago V5Rs: the bike Pogačar will likely ride at Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Tadej Pogačar at the 2025 Paris-Roubaix (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Remco Evenepoel
The Olympic road and time trial champion, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick-Step) is set to open his 2025 WorldTour season at Amstel following a disrupted winter after a crash, which resulted in fractures to his ribs, right shoulder blade and hand. It will only be his second race this year after returning at De Brabantse Pijl on Friday. Challenging Pogačar when a rider is at their best level is difficult, let alone when training has been hindered in the lead-up. But as a seasoned Ardennes performer with two Liège-Bastogne-Liège titles to his name, Evenepoel can still be considered a contender for the title.
In his last race before he ended his 2024 campaign and his off-season crash, the Belgian was second to Pogačar at Il Lombardia, but as his form coming into the race is a relative unknown, it’s hard to predict that he will be on the podium again come Sunday.
Nevertheless, you don’t have palmarès like two Olympic gold medals, one road and two time trial World Championship wins, two Liège titles as well as a third place at the Tour de France for nothing.
Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar at the 2024 Giro dell'Emilia (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Tom Pidcock
Defending champion Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) is back at a race where he has enjoyed enormous success in the last few seasons. Before his win last year, he finished a close second in 2021 and third in 2023, meaning the Brit will be the rider with the most previous success at the race on the start line.
He has recent experience coming up against the might of Pogačar at Strade Bianche, where the UAE Team Emirates rider crashed but rode back and eventually dropped Pidcock. However, one thing last year’s Amstel winner can take some heart from is that he is trying to peak at the Ardennes, whereas a lot of the peloton on Sunday is coming on the back of a cobbled Classics campaign. Pidcock, meanwhile, has taken almost a month off from racing after an impressive run at Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico. As his previous results show, Amstel suits Pidcock’s attributes. But can he challenge Pogačar on Sunday?
Read more: Gallery: A Day in the Dust at Strade Bianche 2025
Tom Pidcock beating Marc Hirschi and Tiesj Benoot at Amstel Gold Race 2024 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Marc Hirschi
March Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) is a rider who, despite racking up a number of wins, can sneak under the radar, and has previous success at the Ardennes, winning La Flèche Wallonne in 2020. The Swiss rider came a close second to Pidcock in last year’s edition of Amstel and will want to go one position better this year.
After breaking onto the scene as a 22-year-old with a number of impressive performances at the 2020 Tour de France, which included a stage win in Corrèze on parcours similar to that of Amstel, it’s sometimes easy to think that Hirschi has been around forever. In reality, he is the same age as Pogačar, and his best years are still ahead of him. Moving from Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates to Tudor Pro Cycling in the off-season has allowed him to take more of a leadership role and he has enjoyed a consistent start to his life at his new team. He will be hoping to have timed his peak for the next three races to bring Tudor a high-profile result.
Marc Hirschi at the road World Championships in Zurich in 2024 (Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost’s Ben Healy came second to Pogačar at Amstel in 2023 in a hugely impressive breakout performance for the then 22-year-old. Two years on, Healy has notched up some significant wins, including a stage at the Giro d’Italia and recently a 56 km solo attack to win a hilly stage of the Itzulia Basque Country last week.
The Irishman is a specialist at sniffing out a good breakaway or often finding the perfect time to launch a solo attack, and with Amstel’s 34 climbs acting as potential launch pads, there should be plenty of opportunities for Healy to spark the race into life if he were to choose to.
Amstel can sometimes be a hard race to control for teams because the peloton thins out on the narrow lanes and climbs, which should suit the aggressive riders and teams who enjoy an unstructured style of racing, like Healy and his EF Education-EasyPost squad.
Ben Healy at the Tour de France 2024 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Other contenders
Team Visma-Lease a Bike endured a frustrating cobbled Classics campaign and will be looking to turn things around at the Ardennes with former Amstel winner Wout van Aert, last year’s third-place finisher Tiesj Benoot, and young British talent Ben Tulett. Team Jayco Alula’s Michael Matthews and Ben O'Connor’s different attributes could complement each other well at a race like Amstel.
Healy will benefit from strong support from his EF Education-EasyPost teammates Marijn van den Berg and Neilson Powless, who could both feature high up in the results if the Irishman comes into difficulty. Likewise, Hirschi will likely have Julian Alaphilippe riding for him, but the Frenchman may be able to roll back the years and place highly himself. Similarly, Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad is stacked full of talent, including Jhonatan Narváez and 20-year-old Jan Christen.
A number of starting riders have impressed in recent weeks, including Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal–Quick-Step), Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers). French puncheurs Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers), Valentin Madouas and Romain Grégoire (both Groupama-FDJ) are all suited to Amstel’s parcours.
Prediction
It’s hard to see any rider getting the better of Tadej Pogačar, who we expect to take his second win at the Amstel Gold Race.
