Michal Kwiatkowski, winner last year ahead of Benoît Cosnefroy, is putting his title on the line in the Amstel Gold Race this Sunday April 16.

The Ardenaises triptych kicks off this Sunday April 16 with the Amstel Gold Race. For this race, Tadej Pogacar, winner of the Tour of Flanders, will be at the start with his UAE Emirates team. Spring has already been a big success for us but we can’t wait to come to the Ardennes Classics and get a big result, starting with Amstel,” Pogacar explains on his team’s website. “It’s a race that I I’ve only done it once, but I know it’s a long hard course with a lot of climbs, so we have to be ready for a tough race.”

Among the other favorites, we follow the winner of last year Michal Kwiatkowski or Tom Pidcock, in difficulty since the start of the season. Among the French, we will follow the performance of Benoit Cosnefroy, second last year and who hopes to achieve the same race. On the other hand, this race will be done without Julian Alaphilippe, injured in the knee since his fall on the Tour of Flanders, but also Remco Evenepoel, the world champion preferring to leave this race aside.

The start will be given from Maastricht this Sunday, April 16. Mainly contested in the Netherlands, the first classic of the Ardennes triptych remains concentrated around Valkenburg (Berg en Terblijt to be exact), where the finish will be judged after 253.6 kilometers of racing and no less than 33 listed mountains to climb. The last climb for the final battle will take place in the last 20 kilometers with a loop and two difficulties: the Geulhemmerberg (1.0 km at 5.9%) and the Bemelerberg (0.7 km at 5.9%) at 5 kilometers from the finish. The difficulties:

Here is the list of riders entered thanks to the FirstCycling website.

The race will be followed on Eurosport 2 this Sunday, April 16, from 3:30 p.m., but also on the Eurosport / CGN application from 2:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast on France 3 from 3:15 p.m.