Amstel Gold Race - Ladies Edition 2026

[Didinho]

If they’re waiting for Fdjeux to close the gap, it will be too late.

 

[Brullnux]

Vainšteins only looks weird in retrospect and because Latvia were a small team. He was really good in 1999-2001. Óscar Freire in 1999 was a much bigger surprise because he was a nobody at the time, however his subsequent career means we don't look back on his initial triumph as being as surprising as it was when it happened.

Marta Bastianelli in Stuttgart 2007 is probably the best facsimile as a women's champion, she won as a 20yo with no pro wins to her name. She was pretty good in 2008 but tested positive for an appetite suppressant which she later attributed to her desire to live up to the expectation that she would slim down and become a GC rider, after a suspension and then a break for motherhood, she returned and became the well-established durable sprinter and rouleuse type that we became familiar with in her second run.

Costa and Astarloa also aren't direct comparisons, but in the sense of "could finish outside the top 20 in a big race suited to them".

I don't think Vallieres is bad, she fights for top 5s on her day. She also isn't one of the outright best in the world, but that's fine

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Costa and Astarloa also aren't direct comparisons, but in the sense of "could finish outside the top 20 in a big race suited to them".

I don't think Vallieres is bad, she fights for top 5s on her day. She also isn't one of the outright best in the world, but that's fine

Costa's best women's equivalent I think may be Guderzo? She was more of a diesel than him and so didn't have quite the same success stagehunting in her late career run, but in terms of skillset and longevity in the same kind of role in the bunch post-triumph. She also won one of the tougher Worlds routes in what had been a great race (Mendrisio '09 in her case, Firenze '13 in his).

 

[Didinho]

Race over. Blasi not slowing down and peloton not gaining anything.

They haven’t even caught Vinke yet.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Not really, I tuned in and immedialety saw the WC champ being dropped from a 50 women peloton struggling. Thats not worthy IMO.

This is not a sport that establishes a champion by season long points accumulation: it means nothing more than that they won a race that carries the title "World Championship".

 

[Statze2]

Well Motorpacing of the photographer

 

[noob]

Group 3 syndrome or

 

[Didinho]

They should be at least around 30” before the Cauberg. And even that would be hard to catch her.

 

[Red Rick]

Vinke still dangling in front shows how bad the peloton has been chsaing.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If they’re waiting for Fdjeux to close the gap, it will be too late.

This strangely often happens at AGR, I think because there's multiple such races in a week, we see a few times that the top names don't want to show their hand here. The thing that's unusual here is that it's just a solo attack / had been only a couple of riders. Usually it's been a case of a break that has a lot of the big teams represented, and so it falls to only one or two that missed the group, or to smaller teams, to chase, with secondary and tertiary riders for the big teams up front with vested interests in staying away because this could be one of their biggest career wins.

It's also possible that the big guns are simply bored to the point of being half asleep by spending most of the race going round and round the awful circuit.

 

[Red Rick]

Women's Amstel should just have the same finale as the men.

 

[Divergence]

This is pretty ridiculous. There are very few races where there are so many eyes on a woman's race and this one is a complete clown show. They are not doing themselves any favors.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This is pretty ridiculous. There are very few races where there are so many eyes on a woman's race and this one is a complete clown show. They are not doing themselves any favors.

The organisers not letting them do anything but the 2012 circuit that inspires super negative racing (without the change of finale like the men's had in previous years as Red Rick mentions, forcing the final climbing selection to be made further from the line), rendering all the actually interesting climbs of the Limburg region other than the Cauberg either token inclusions 100km from the finish or just not included at all, really doesn't help.

 

[Red Rick]

Look the 2012 men's WC was just all the big names disgracing themselves okay.

 

[noob]

🤣 what on earth am I watching

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Look the 2012 men's WC was just all the big names disgracing themselves okay.

The subsequent racing on the circuit in the ensuing fourteen years has absolved the men on that day of some of the blame. It's just a really bad circuit for racing.

Although it's quite impressive Blasi managed to almost go the wrong way.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The road goes uphill, and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney attacks, in accordance with the prophecy.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Kasia and Demi away.

Smart move for Kasia - she normally does well on Cauberg and then throws away her chances of victory by being terrible on the run-in to the line, but now there isn't a victory to throw away she might be ok.

Yes, for the first time, Kasia gets away on Cauberg and doesn't get caught before the line, because she smartly let somebody else win so that she couldn't cost herself the win. Tactical masterclass from the Pole.

Aww, look at that, she thought she could outsprint Demi.

 

[Red Rick]

Legendary sprint by Niewiadoma there

 

[Didinho]

Well done Paula!! Deserved big victory.

Demi and Kasia podium. Letizia 4th is way more than I expected. She’s gonna be happier than Friday.

 

[Divergence]

The organisers not letting them do anything but the 2012 circuit that inspires super negative racing (without the change of finale like the men's had in previous years as Red Rick mentions, forcing the final climbing selection to be made further from the line), rendering all the actually interesting climbs of the Limburg region other than the Cauberg either token inclusions 100km from the finish or just not included at all, really doesn't help.

Idk about that. There must have been 20 hills. Just make the teammates go full gas and attack with 20km to go if you are the favorite...

 

[JR1012]

Paternoster 4th 💪

 

[RedheadDane]

Aww, look at that, she thought she could outsprint Demi.

She could.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

She could.

Genuinely shocked, she was behind throughout, and immediately after the line Demi was in front too, with the naked eye from the head-on it looked like she got close and then Demi pulled away again, obviously she timed it perfectly.

I'll gladly eat the L on that one, it gains Kasia a spot and that's good for my CQ team as well, lol. It also makes my previous joking about Kasia's perfect ability to work out how to race that final run-in only when they are no longer racing for victory more appropriate I guess.

 

[Didinho]

Blasi was dropped at one point. But she played it perfectly after. And still had the legs to take it home.