Amstel Gold Race 2022: Who’s riding? When is it on TV? Can anyone stop Mathieu Van der Poel and Marianne Vos?

Founded in 1966, the Amstel Gold Race takes place in the hilly Dutch province of Limburg and traditionally marks the point in the calendar where the cobbled classic specialists hand the baton over to the puncheurs and climbers ahead of the Giro d’Italia. Of course, when the best rider in both cobbled classics and hilly classics is one and the same, those boundaries become a little fluid.

Although the race location of Limburg is not part of the Ardennes, the Amstel Gold Race is often considered the opening race of so-called Ardennes Week, which also includes De Brabantse Pijl, La Fleche Wallonne and, most importantly, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Ad/> With the infamous Cauberg climb not featuring in the men’s finale since 2017, the Amstel Gold Race has become far more unpredictable, with six different winners in the last six editions – most notably Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, who in 2019 put in one of the performances of the season to claw his way back into contention on the home straight before winning an exhilarating bunch sprint.

/> Scheldeprijs'I had good legs' — Scheldeprijs winner Alexander Kristoff speaks after win15 MINUTES AGO Van der Poel wins in Flanders as Pogacar finishes fourth in two-horse race Fifteen days after comeback, Van der Poel proves he is a ‘level above everyone’ WHEN IS THE AMSTEL GOLD RACE? The first round of the French Presidential elections on Sunday 10 April 2022 means Paris-Roubaix has been delayed one week so that it falls on Easter Sunday (faced with a decision between going to the polls or watching the peloton tearing up the Arenberg Trench, there would only be one winner, after all). All this means Amstel Gold falls between the Ronde van Vlaanderen and the Hell of the North in 2022 as the