Amstel Gold Race 2014

This year's Ardennes Classics got underway on Sunday with the 2014 edition of the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. This year's race was from Maastricht to Valkenburg, with the decisive climb being the final ascent of the Cauberg. The course mirrored that of the 2012 World Championships course upon which Philippe Gilbert won the race. Gilbert came into this year's classics having won Brabantse Pijl so was in form, despite two barren seasons.

Pim Ligthart was the first man who broke away from the peloton, and the Lotto-Belisol man wasn't to be alone in his day out. He was joined by Matej Mohoric (Cannondale), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), James Van Landschoot (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Manuel Belletti (Androni Venezuela), Preben Van Hecke (Topsport-Vlaanderen Baloise) and Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC Polsat).

Christophe Riblon of AG2R La Mondiale and Rory Sutherland of Tinkoff-Saxo then bridged the gap, and the move soon built up a huge lead that breached fourteen minutes at its peak. It was BMC, Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Katusha who all helped chase the move down, but it was Katusha's Joaquim Rodriguez who suffered bad luck, crashing and abandoning the race along with Trek Factory Racing's Andy Schleck.

The break steadily disintegrated, with Preben Van Hecke and Christophe Riblon going clear, and with thirty five kilometres to go, attacks flurried out from the peloton. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) was the first to go, and he was joined by big names such as Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Zdenek Stybar of Omega Pharma-Quickstep.

A chase ensued, with the peloton also nervously following, making sure none of the moves got too far ahead so the big names could battle out the victory. The final breakaway out front were Preben Van Hecke, Christophe Riblon, Jakob Fuglsang and Greg Van Avermaet. The peloton weren't letting a win slip through their fingers however, and with seven kilometres to go it was all together with just the Cauberg to come.

Orica-GreenEDGE were strong in trying to put their favourites in a strong position, but Philippe Gilbert put in the attack of the day at the base of the Cauberg. Although Simon Gerrans, Alejandro Valverde and Michal Kwiatkowski gave chase, this was Gilbert's day, and the Belgian landed his first big win since his stage wins in the Vuelta a Espana and World Championship in 2012. Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) finished second, with Gerrans rounding out the podium.