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On Sunday, April 20, while many fans are celebrating Easter, some of the best athletes in cycling will head to Limburg, Netherlands, for the 59th edition of the Amstel Gold Race.
This event marks the start of Ardennes Week in cycling, where the spring classics season leaves behind the cobbled races and transitions into hilly, one-day races of the Belgian and Netherlands region.
In addition to Amstel Gold, the other two races of Ardennes Week are La Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The 2025 Amstel Gold Race will see Tadej Pogacar return to the event with the goal of winning it for the second time in the last three years. Joining Pogacar are former Amstel winners Tom Pidcock (2024), Wout van Aert (2021), and the Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel.
Pogacar will take his aim on the Amstel Gold Race peloton after finishing second at Paris-Roubaix last weekend. This weekend’s race marks the 2025 debut of Evenepoel, so it will be interesting to see how the 2024 Paris Olympics double-gold medalist performs.
With that said, let’s take a look at the latest cycling odds, courtesy of the top sports betting sites, and make our Amstel Gold Race predictions. As of this writing, the odds have yet to be released.
How To Watch Amstel Gold Race?
Eurosport and TNT Sport (United Kingdom) will continue their excellent coverage of cycling by broadcasting this year’s Amstel Gold Race. Canada can stream the event on Flobikes, while the United States can watch the Amstel Gold on Peacock. The race begins at 08:40 UTC, which is 4:40 am ET.
Amstel Gold Race Route
The Amstel Gold Race route is 256km long and spans across the Netherlands from Maastricht to Berge and Terblijt. It’s a lumpy course that features a number of smaller climbs, which often suits punchy riders or strong climbers.
The route follows the border of Germany at Aachen and sneaks across the border into Belgium for a few kilometers. This year’s edition will challenge the riders with three climbs over the Cauberg. Last year, the peloton only did two passages.
The final climb of the Cauberg comes with under 3km left. In total, the peloton will complete 3200m of elevation gain throughout the day and race the final circuit just one time.
Amstel Gold Race 2024
The 2024 Amstel Gold Race came down to a sprint between Tom Pidcock and Marc Hirschi. It was a thrilling finish that saw Pidcock come away with a narrow victory. And, yet, it reminded us of what Pidcock could do if letting him ride for victory.
Pidcock is the first Brit to win one of the Ardennes races and he returns in 2025, to try and duplicate last year’s feat.
Amstel Gold Race Odds
As soon as the Amstel Gold Race odds have been released, we’ll update this section::
Cycling Odds | Cycling Odds |
---|---|
Tadej Pogacar | Remco Evenepoel |
Tom Pidcock | Wout van Aert |
Marc Hirschi | Michael Matthews |
Pello Bilbao | Santiago Buitrago |
Once the cycling odds are live, we’ll examine the favorites, identify any betting value, and take a peek at who the top handicappers are picking. For now, here’s our breakdown of the Amstel Gold Race contenders and our race-winning prediction. If I were handicapping this event, Pogacar would be a massive favorite with Pidcock, van Aert and Evenepoel well behind in betting odds.
Amstel Gold Race Contenders
Let’s take a look at the top contenders for the 59th edition of Amstel Gold Race:
Tadej Pogacar
Anytime that Tadej Pogacar takes the starting line, you know that race is going to be exciting. And, what makes this weekend’s race even more compelling is that Pogacar is attempting to win all three Ardennes Classics.
After Amstel Gold, Pogacar will compete in La Fleche Wallone on April 23, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege on April 27. After those events, he will take off until the Criterium du Dauphine in early June.
Last weekend, Pogacar finished second to Mathieu van der Poel in Paris-Roubaix. It was his 5th event of the season and the sport’s top cyclist has finished on the podium in every race so far.
He opened up the year with a first in the UAE Tour, then won Strade Bianche where he beat Tom Pidcock after crashing in the latter portion of the race.
Like with Paris-Roubaix, Pogacar lost to van der Poel in Milano-San Remo. He finished third in that race as Filippo Ganna also edged out the Slovenian at the line.
Sandwiched between those two events was the Tour of Flanders where Pogacar dominated and picked up his third race victory of the year. If you include two stage wins in the UAE Tour, then Pogacar has five victories in 2025 so far.
Make no mistake about it, Pogacar is the man to beat on Sunday in the Netherlands. This race might not feature the steep climbs that we see in the Grand Tours, but it does feature enough hills to make it a day where Pogacar could ride to a solo finish due to his elite climbing.
Let’s also not forget that he won this race in 2023. So, with the experience, motivation and overall skills, Pogacar is going to be difficult to beat.
Remco Evenepoel
As mentioned above, the double-Olympic gold medalist from the Paris Games, is making his 2025 season debut. Remco Evenepoel took his time to return to full health and didn’t risk rushing back after suffering a serious crash in training last December.
Evenepoel sustained multiple fractures and even contemplated retiring from the sport of cycling. However, after battling physical injuries and the mental toll that it took, the Belgian star looks excited to be competing again:
“Finally, my comeback week has arrived. After days, weeks, months of waiting and waiting, I can finally look towards my first races.”
Not only will Evenepoel race in Amstel Gold, but he’s also scheduled to compete in the other two Ardennes races as well.
Despite working hard to return to form, the Olympic champion isn’t making any public goals about his upcoming appearances:
“I’ve worked hard all these months, I’ve been on a solid training camp in Spain, and I feel good and motivated for Brabantse. I’m not going there with any specific goals, as the most important thing will be to get the race rhythm back after all this time.”
Obviously, we’re not going to see Evenepoel at his best. We’ll have to wait for that to come in the Tour de France. Nevertheless, I do expect Evenepoel to test his form and legs in this race. So, if he’s feeling great, we could see the 25-year-old animate this event and force Pogacar to race harder.
Tom Pidcock
By all accounts, Tom Pidcock has had a solid season so far. He left INEOS to join the smaller Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team and it has paid off for both parties.
Pidcock won the AlUla Tour in January, finished third at Andalucia in February, was runner-up to Pogacar at Strade-Bianche in early March, and was 6th in the Tirreno-Adriatico before a 40th at Milano-San Remo.
As mentioned, Pidcock won the Amstel Gold Race last year. He was also third in 2023, and 2nd in 2021. That’s three podium finishes in four Amstel appearances.
However, despite his progress over the season to date, Pidcock’s coaches and trainers believe he still has work to do in order to beat the likes of Pogacar. This weekend’s race will be a good barometer as to how much Pidcock has improved since Strade-Bianche.
Wout van Aert
Wout van Aert finds himself as the third our fourth best cyclists in the spring classics behind Pogacar, van der Poel, and Mads Pederson. This has been evident with a couple of fourth place results in Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders as WVA finished behind those three men.
His one real shot at winning so far, came at Dwars door Vlaanderen on April 2. And, yet, he ended up losing at the line to American Neils Powless. It was a demoralizing defeat as Team Visma had three riders all finished right behind Powless.
Prior to that debacle, van Aert couldn’t even crack the Top 10 at Omloop Nieuwsblad. He was also 15th at the E3 Saxo Classic that his rival van der Poel dominated.
Van Aert won the Amstel Gold in 2021. Unfortunately, he hasn’t competed in this race since then. With his season being subpar at best, it’s hard to imagine that van Aert could upset Pogacar this weekend. However, without Pederson and MVDP, we could see van Aert get another podium finish.
Marc Hirschi
Like Pidcock, Marc Hirschi left his former mega-team in UAE, to become the leader of Tudor Pro Cycling along with Julian Aliphilippe. Unfortunately, Hirschi’s season has yet to materialize into strong results.
Yes, Hirschi won a small, regional race in January, but he’s failed to finish in the Top 10 when competing against the best of the sport. In the Tour of Basque Country, Hirschi finished 62nd and was never a contender for a stage win. He was 23rd in Tirrano-Adriatico and never challenged for a stage win.
Needless to say, Hirschi’s season has been a disappointment so far. But that could all change this weekend. It’s not hard to imagine that Hirschi would love to upstage his former teammate Pogacar in the Amstel Gold Race.
Last year, he finished 2nd to Pidcock. He also has a 9th finish in 2022. With five appearances in the Amstel Gold, Hirschi’s experience should help him on Sunday. But does he have the legs to compete with the favorites?
Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla is sending the duo of Ben O’Connor and Michael Matthews to all three Ardennes Classics. Of the three, the Amstel Gold Race seems the most ideal for Matthews as it’s punch course which is perfect for the Canadian.
Unfortunately, Matthews best result came in 2015, when he finished third. Although he has two additional Top 5 finishes, the Canadian cyclist was 10th last year and 7th in 2022.
This season, Matthews has yet to win a race. His best result was 4th in the Milano-San Remo if you don’t count the 2nd he had on Stage 3 of Paris-Nice. That second was in an individual time trial.
Matthews can certainly hang with most of the pre-race favorites in the Amstel Gold. However, I don’t see him having the legs to beat Pogacar this weekend. Matthews is a sleeper for a podium finish though.
Pello Bilbao
Pello Bilbao is another sleeper this weekend. The 35-year-old has had a decent run in 2025, which includes Top 5s in the Volta a la Comunitat Valencia, UAE Tour, and Strade-Bianche. He also was 9th in Tirreno-Adriatico. Yet, Bilbao had a bad week in the Itzulia Basque Country.
I think the Spanish rider can bounced back in the Amstel Gold this weekend. He was 9th in this race last year and has shown Top 10 form this year, which could translate into another high finish in the Netherlands on Sunday.
Amstel Gold Race Predictions
This race is Pogacar’s to lose. Pidcock and van Aert will do their best to beat the Slovenian but it won’t happen. Hirschi and Evenepoel could have their moments on Sunday as well, but they won’t be enough to alter the outcome of this race.
Not only do I see Pogacar winning on Sunday, but I believe that he has a strong chance of sweeping all three races that make up the Ardennes Classics.
Bet: Tadej Pogacar (NA)
Amstel Gold Race Results
Jan Raas holds the record for the most Amstel Gold Race wins with four. The Netherlands have the most wins with 18 but Italy is close behind with 14 victories.
The following is a list of the recent Amstel Gold Race winners:
Year | Winner | Team |
---|---|---|
2024 | Tom Pidcock | Ineos Grenadiers |
2023 | Tadej Pogacar | UAE Team Emirates |
2022 | Michal Kwiatkowski | Ineos Grenadiers |
2021 | Wout van Aert | Team Jumbo–Visma |
2020 | No Race Due To Covid | |
2019 | Mathieu van der Poel | Corendon–Circus |
2018 | Michael Valgren | Astana |
2017 | Philippe Gilbert | Quick-Step Floors |
2016 | Enrico Gasparotto | Wanty–Groupe Gobert |
2015 | Michal Kwiatkowski | Etixx–Quick-Step |
2014 | Philippe Gilbert | BMC Racing Team |