Is Rick Pluimers the Dutch rider to watch at Amstel Gold Race after brutal Tour of Flanders?

There are twenty Dutch riders on the start list for the Gold Race. Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Dylan van Baarle, Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Senna Remijn (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Tim van Dijke and Dutch champion Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) are among them, but when it comes to a result, it may well be worth keeping an eye on debutants Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech) — and Pluimers.

For that to happen, though, he will need to have recovered properly from his last major assignment: the Tour of Flanders two weeks ago. “I hope I can sleep, sleep in a bit. Then I’ll wake up, make myself a coffee, have a nice sandwich and spend the whole day on the sofa watching it all back,” said Pluimers after De Ronde, where he had gone with the elite group on the Molenberg, in an interview with NOS. Did he actually follow through on that plan?

“Haha, properly tired. I really did empty the tank that day, but I have to say the day after was still pretty okay. It wasn’t too bad, in any case.”

“I saw you too late as well, but things were only just starting to come back together after I’d been sitting there for a while, haha. And when you’re sitting on the ground like that, you also start getting cold.”

“When you cross the finish line, you think: how is it possible to feel this empty? But my coach told me afterwards that, up to and including the second time up the Oude Kwaremont, it was already my hardest race ever, based on kilojoules and the number of minutes above threshold. So with fifty kilometers still to go, it was already as hard as the 2025 edition had been at the finish.”

“It’s actually fairly standard: eat well and sleep well. I was back on the bike the next day, but for the first few days that’s no longer than an hour and a half. You still try to keep moving a little and keep the blood flow going, also by stretching, foam rolling and things like that. But my muscles had been tight for quite a while.”

“I’m really looking forward to Amstel and the whole experience that race will be for me, so it had been circled in my calendar for quite a while. I think I had my peak form at Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders, and I don’t think I’m very far away from that now. I’ve also been able to do some good training sessions again in the meantime.”

“That is a really nice race as well, and it could have been an opportunity. I don’t know the exact reason why we didn’t start, but it will probably have something to do with the race now being on Friday. We also have quite a few injured riders in the team, so I think it was a conscious decision not to put too much pressure on things.”

“I find that very difficult to say. As a junior and an under-23 rider, I loved racing here, but I have also never raced 260 kilometers in South Limburg. I think it also depends on how the race unfolds.

“If the pace of the race is just a little lower than it was last year, that would help. But that’s not just true for me — it’s true for 95 percent of the peloton. Where exactly that leaves me, I repeat, is hard to say.

“It may be that you can anticipate moves, but it may also be that you have to come from a little further back. And with Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi, we also have two leaders I may need to help.”

“I’ve raced there a fair bit already, of course, and I’ve also had training camps there with the juniors. So I know the area quite well, and I’m really looking forward to racing there. In 2023 and 2024, it was already supposed to happen, but I couldn’t start because of injury. That makes me even more excited to be able to ride the biggest race in the Netherlands on Sunday.”

“Yes! My parents are here with my uncles and aunts at the campsite, and my girlfriend is coming to watch with some of her friends. So there will definitely be a few familiar faces.”

“I used to be good at that, but it’s getting harder and harder. There are more and more people along the road. But I can still hear my father with his recognizable voice pretty well, and my mother and girlfriend too. It’s more hearing than seeing, haha!”