Jakob Fuglsang relives Mathieu van der Poel’s stunning Amstel Gold Race win: ‘I should have kept riding’

Mathieu van der Poel claimed one of his most iconic victories of his career last Sunday, producing a phenomenal ride to win the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris. However, the 2019 Amstel Gold Race will never be forgotten either. Jakob Fuglsang was one of the leading figures in that extraordinary race and has now explained how he experienced its thrilling final kilometers.

Fuglsang had spent 40 kilometers at the front of the race alongside Julian Alaphilippe. The Dane was riding for Astana at the time, while the Frenchman represented Deceuninck–Quick-Step. The two rivals appeared far too strong for the rest of the field, but they began playing a tactical game in the closing kilometers. It made the finale more exciting—ultimately, far too exciting. Nobody, however, could have predicted what was about to happen.

Astana sports director Alexandre Vinokourov gave his leader clear instructions from the team car. “I was told over the radio: ‘Now you have to stop riding on the front for him. Otherwise, you’re only going to finish second anyway!’ The first time, I did nothing. I just kept taking my turns,” Fuglsang told DR. When the instruction came for a second time, he finally obeyed and settled onto the wheel of Alaphilippe, who would normally have been the faster of the two in a sprint.

The Kazakh team boss had issued that order because the race information reaching the car was incorrect. With three kilometers remaining, the gap to first chaser Michał Kwiatkowski was reported as approximately 40 seconds. It appeared impossible to close. In reality, the time gaps were wrong. The Polish rider was much closer, while Van der Poel was charging across behind him. The Dutch national champion had been unleashed.

Van der Poel dragged the chasing riders with him and closed the gap in no time. He then surged past the unfortunate Fuglsang and Alaphilippe in the sprint. “I probably should have just kept riding there. Then I could at least have launched a proper sprint,” Fuglsang now admits. “I do wonder whether I could have beaten him that day, because I think I had the upper hand.”

The fact that the Dane finished third—behind only Van der Poel and Simon Clarke, but ahead of Alaphilippe—suggests that may well have been the case. Fuglsang was furious after the finish. “I went completely crazy after we had finished the Amstel Gold Race. My wife, Loulou, tried to calm me down and said: ‘Oh well, it’s okay. It is what it is.’ She already had a feeling it was going to be three-two-one.”

She was referring to the remaining races in the Ardennes trilogy. Her prediction proved correct. A few days after the Amstel Gold Race, Fuglsang was beaten only by Alaphilippe at La Flèche Wallonne. At Liège–Bastogne–Liège, however, nobody could match the Astana leader. Fuglsang won La Doyenne to claim the first Monument of his career, before adding another to his palmarès at Il Lombardia one year later.