Amstel Gold Race Ladies edition: The Reactions

Victory number 251 for Marianne Vos (Visma – Lease a Bike) when Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx – Protime)raised her arms in the air to claim the victory but Vos pushed her bike over the finish line and to her own surprise, takes the victory in her home country.

Note: After 45 kilometers the race was interrupted for more than one hour due to an accident of a police moto driver, which put sports in the background. After the break, only the final 55 kilometers were really raced – with three laps over the Geulhemmerberg, the Bemelerberg and the infamous Cauberg on the local lap around Valkenburg and Berg-en-Terblijt.

Marianne Vos

Vos claimed victory in the Amstel Gold Race, acknowledging Lorena’s lead but capitalising on her speed in the final stretch.

‘Well, I didn’t know if I would have it, but of course I feel for Lorena in such a moment. Of course she was ahead, but I felt in the last meter I had more speeds and I just tried to jump and then, yeah, we didn’t know. We had to wait for the call.” said the winner of the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition.

“Obviously the race was different than we all expected. And then you have to adapt to the circumstances, more important things than cycling in these moments. But then after the restart, we had to focus and the team was very important. We wanted to be in control and to have the riders aggressive and in front. And I think they did all, all really well. And yeah, they kept me safe and yeah, I didn’t have to spend energy before the final.'”

Lorena Wiebes

The Dutch rocket is of course disappointed not winning the race in her home country: ”I felt really stupid, and I think it’s a mistake you only make once in your cycling career. Demi just said to me, one year she will win here. Yeah. And that’s also what Demi directly said to me after the finish. It makes you only more hungry for the. For next year. So I’ll be back next year.”

Ingvild Gåskjenn

The young Norwegian rider was very surprised learning that she wa son the podium: “I didn’t believe. I didn’t believe it. I was like, yeah, I’ve never been on the podium in the UCI race before and this is literally one of my dream races. Yeah, it’s unbelievable.” “I was a bit surprised to be in the position I was in in the final because I was not really the one we were going for today.”

Demi Vollering

The teammate of Lorena Wiebes reflects on the race, 30 minutes after the finish and can only give an honest answer: ” Of course we are a bit disappointed, but I think it’s mostly very, very shit for Lorena. I mean, she deserved this win very well because she did a really, really strong race. And yeah, she grew already so much this, like last years. And from being just a sprinter, she is now a really good, almost classic rider. She can survive a lot of hills and. Yeah, that’s crazy. So I think she needs to focus on this, that she developed so crazy fast. And yeah, she has nothing from this, but I’m sure one day she will win this race.”

”And on a moment like that, a race is not so important anymore. And just hope the people involved in that crash are okay. But then once we finally heard what was next for us, then you just try to make that switch and go for it.” In the end, it’s also really hard because it’s the whole time super, super fast now. And normally you have a bit longer to hurt also the other girls and make it a smaller group. And now it was still such a big group and also a bit scary sometimes or difficult with positioning and stuff. So that makes it just a lot different, but still a hard race.”

Shirin Van Anrooij 

“I think we were just positioning really well the entire first hour already. And then, of course, the accident happened on the road, so we had to stop, which is, of course, like, yeah, it’s normal. I think it was the most important that just all the victims could get, like, help they needed. And then, yeah, in the end we could still race, but it was only like fifty k and I think we just tried to do a lot of attacks to make sure it was not coming down to a sprint, but everyone was so fresh that it was a sprint anyway. And, yeah, we were not able to drop the sprinters on the final cow bear. And then without a real sprinter on the team today, it’s hard to win this race.”

Eva van Agt

Teammate of the winning Vos said: “Initially, when there was no neutralization, our plan was just to follow. We were planning on staying with Marianne and bringing her back to win the sprint. And then everything changed. And then our DS said that we could actually also attack ourselves. So, yeah, when the favorites came back after their attack on the Cauberg, I thought, okay, I actually feel quite good, and no one’s gonna look at me because I’m not a favorite. So let’s try it then.”

Ricarda Bauernfeind

”The race was short, but brutal. And yeah, I mean, the Cauberg, it’s a super hard last climb and if you are on the top, it’s the such a long way to the finish line. So I was already expecting that even if we make it to the bottom of the Cauberg, we probably couldn’t make it. But, yeah, still a good end, I would say.”

It was the plan to attack there and then Eva did it. So, yeah, I just had to follow. But it was super, super hard. But I was happy that we could make it to a bigger gap again. And, yeah, so it was good.”