Tadej Pogacar, Neilson Powless, Tom Pidcock - Are you ready for the Amstel Gold Race 2023?

The Dutch one-day race in Maastricht is at the crossroads between the cobbled classics and the climb-heavy ones to come, and in its pretzel-like maze it produces a perfect race. The crazy Mathieu van der Poel year, the Wout van Aert close finish and again another photo-finish last year Michal Kwiatkowski.

What are we looking at? 252.8km starting in Maastricht and finishing on the nearby Cauberg climb, all in the Southern Netherlands Limburg region. The Cauberg is the party point for the Heineken -Amstel loving Dutch fans, like the Arenberg Forrest in Paris-Roubaix or Oude Kwaremont in the Tour of Flanders. It used to finish the race, but now it features twice before a small circuit with the Bemelerberg climb at 6km out – 500m long at 5.6% and a long launch pad.

The race is live and on demand on FloBikes for those in Australia, Canada and the U.S.

With the Cauberg and Bemelerberg final, the organizer created a race that requires sprint and strength, but also tactics. In 2022, Pidcock launched an attack that set up for his Ineos teammate Kwiatkowski to ride free for the win in a two-up sprint with Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citroën).

On the women's side, Marta Cavalli (FDJ) won in 2022 with a attack off the Cauberg to ride solo. Favorites for their race include Lotte Kopecky and here Dutch SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering. And of course Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar).

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) returns two weeks after his success in the Tour of Flanders to take on the Amstel Gold Race. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) after that amazing ride in Flanders offers the US a shot with Magnus Sheffield, who's first job will be supporting INEOS Grenadiers leader Pidcock. Canada has Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), who just came from the Basque Country race with other favs Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

The forecast? Sunny and warm – maybe a chance a rain – but a perfect day to watch the stars collide in the Amstel Gold Race.