'I thought it was done' - The day Mathieu van der Poel stunned Amstel

With 43 kilometres to go, Van der Poel attacked on the Gulperberg. Too early, too exposed, on terrain that offered little reward. In a race defined by patience, it looked like sportive suicide.

It quickly became one.

Ion Izagirre joined him but refused to work, with teammate Jakob Fuglsang sitting behind in the favourites group. The move stalled and was brought back before the decisive phase had even begun. Van der Poel had burned energy in the worst possible place.

Shortly afterwards, the race really began to unfold, but without the 24-year-old Dutch rider from the then Corendon-Circus team.

On the Eyserbosweg, Julian Alaphilippe went clear with Jakob Fuglsang, Michal Kwiatkowski and Matteo Trentin. It was the winning move. Or at least it seemed so.

“I thought we had it,” Alaphilippe said afterwards to L’Équipe. “We worked well, and behind us there was nothing.”

Behind them, there was Van der Poel. However, just as he did in the Tour of Flanders two weeks before, where he made an insane comeback after a crash, he kept believing and riding 

The closer they got to the finish line, the more riders Van der Poel reeled in and overtook.

In the deep final, only Alaphilippe and Fuglsang remained in the lead, as they dropped Trentin and Kwiatkowski. But their cooperation faded.

“We started to look at each other a bit,” Fuglsang admitted to TV2. “Maybe we hesitated for a second too long.”

That second proved to be enough.

Inside the final kilometres, Van der Poel came back into view. He asked for a turn of the riders he picked up, but no one wanted to or could even ride on the front anymore, due to Van der Poel's furious pace.

What had looked like a controlled finale quickly unravelled. Michal Kwiatkowski managed to bridge back to Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang just before the final straight, but the cohesion was gone. The trio hesitated, glanced behind, and saw what had seemed impossible only moments earlier. Van der Poel was coming.

“I saw him coming, and I couldn’t believe it,” Kwiatkowski said after the race to CyclingNews.

On the final straight, Julian Alaphilippe, Jakob Fuglsang and Michal Kwiatkowski still held a small advantage of a few seconds.

Behind them, Mathieu van der Poel kept pushing. He stayed on the front of the chasing group and opened his sprint from a long way out, carrying speed into the final straight. He moved into the slipstream of the trio and came past them in one sustained effort.

It was not a calculated move, more a continuation of the pace he had been riding for kilometres.

The riders behind him quickly lost his wheel. Only Simon Clarke managed to hold on briefly, but he too could not come around. Van der Poel crossed the line first, almost 30 years after Adrie van der Poel had won the same race.

At the finish, the reaction was immediate. Riders looked at each other, unsure what they had just seen. Even team manager Christophe Roodhooft, rarely one for emotion, was visibly moved.

“I never believed I could win. But I kept going,” Van der Poel said afterwards to NOS.

It should not have worked. That is exactly why it still stands as one of cycling’s most remarkable victories.