Johan Bruyneel: "We are seeing these phenomenal riders, and I have said it a few times, I think they are their own worst enemy"

Like almost everyone else, Armstrong thought it was over when Pogacar found himself alone after dropping his last companion, Julian Alaphilippe. "I thought: what are we going to talk about? Pogacar is riding away with 40 kilometers to go. He's the best of all time, blah blah blah. But they caught him, Evenepoel and Skjelmose. It was a really cool race. But Pogacar shouldn't have gone with Alaphilippe: it's been years since he competed for the win."

Bruyneel has his own view on the matter. "The Amstel is a very tough race. What I think happened to Pogacar is that he was obviously motivated to win, but I think he was just good—not great. This is the second part of the classic spring season. Flanders, Roubaix, and all the other semi-classics in between, and then you come to the Amstel, the Flèche Wallonne, and Liège. Totally different cycling."

"Usually, it is different riders," only Pogacar can do everything, but today, he is just a bit in between, said the former sports director. "I think he got surprised by Julian Alaphilippe's attack and wanted to attack himself later. When Alaphilippe went, I noticed something in Pogacar: he seemed okay, but it was not the usual super Pogacar. He didn't look as fluent as usual. Once he was in front, he went and dropped Alaphilippe. He may have a point, Lance, that the fuelling may have been an issue. We've seen this already, when he got caught by Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour."

"You have to be very strong to keep up those long solo rides. Of course, he still finished on the podium, but it wasn't the usual dominant Pogacar we have seen," analyzes Bruyneel, who sees it as part of the bigger picture. "We are seeing these phenomenal riders, and I have said it a few times: I think they are their own worst enemy. We saw it with van der Poel and Tadej: they go for it and think they've got the win, but then they run out of gas. The same goes for Remco, who, let's not forget, is only competing in the Amstel for the first time."

Armstrong also noticed something else: the absence of Dutch riders in the final. "The Amstel is the big Dutch race. In our day, we rode against Rabobank, where guys like Erik Dekker and Michael Boogerd lived for this race," he recalls. In 2025, things are a little different. "It must have been a bad day for the Dutch: Mathieu van der Poel wasn't there, of course. The top Dutch rider was 26th (Frank van den Broek, ed.), and only five finished... Cycling is cyclical, isn't it?"

Bruyneel nods. "In the Netherlands, it's mainly Mathieu van der Poel at the moment, and then a big gap, but some strong young riders are coming. For now, however, if you take Van der Poel away, there is a huge gap." Visma | Lease a Bike has two guys in the top 10, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot, so that's not bad. But they're not Dutch riders. With three Belgians in the top eight, Belgium is undoubtedly doing well.

If you're looking for Dutch success in the Amstel Gold Race, you must go back a few years to 2019. Van der Poel impressively won his country's most important race back then. As Bruyneel already mentioned, there was a significant gap after that. Erik Dekker was the last Dutch winner of the classic until 2019, after his victory in 2001. Two years earlier, in 1999, Boogerd won the Amstel Gold Race.

The Dutch glory days in the country's biggest (and now only WorldTour-level) race, as seen in the 1970s and 1980s, are over. With Jan Raas (five times), Gerrie Knetemann (twice), Jacques Hanegraaf, Steven Rooks, Joop Zoetemelk, Jelle Nijdam, Adrie van der Poel, and Frans Maassen, the Netherlands won 13 of the 18 editions of the Amstel Gold Race between 1974 and 1991.