Paula Blasi: 'I wouldn’t even have started' after shock Amstel Gold Race victory

“I wouldn’t even have started here,” Blasi said afterwards in the flash interview. “I was only added to the start list yesterday because of some absences in the team.”

The 23-year-old, riding for UAE Team ADQ, delivered a performance that stood in contrast to how she experienced the race just minutes before her decisive move.

“Five minutes before my attack, I had actually been dropped,” she said. “It’s my first time racing in the Ardennes, and I struggled with positioning.”

Despite these struggles, Blasi went on the move before the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg and never came back, riding solo for more than 20 kilometres while the favourites hesitated behind.

“I don’t really know how I did it,” she said. “When I went solo and passed the finish line the second last time, I thought there were five kilometres left. It was still twenty.”

That lack of awareness only underlines the nature of the ride. Behind her, riders like Kasia Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering eventually emerged as the strongest, but by then the gap had stretched too far. Blasi still held a clear advantage heading onto the final Cauberg and carried it all the way to the line.

There was a brief moment of uncertainty in the final kilometres when she almost went the wrong way at a roundabout, losing a few seconds. But the outcome was no longer in doubt. The Spanish rider crossed the line alone, becoming the first from her country to win the race.

“I think I’ll need a few weeks or months to really understand this,” she concluded.