THE HAGUE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Mathieu van der Poel claimed the victory in the 54th edition of the Dutch cycling classic Amstel Gold Race on Sunday.
After 261.7 kilometers from Maastricht to Valkenburg the 23-year-old rider of the Corendon-Circus team sprinted to the first place. It was his first Amstel Gold Race win and he became the first Dutch winner since Erik Dekker in 2001. His father Adrie van der Poek won the Amstel Gold Race in 1990.
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) broke away from the leading group at around 30 kilometers from the finish. They kept the lead on the third and final climb of the Cauberg and managed to hold on until the final kilometer of the race through the hills of the southern Dutch province of Limburg.
Michal Kwiatkowski was the first to catch the leading duo and others followed. With an impressive jump in the final meters Van der Poel became winner, before Italian Alberto Bettiol, winner of the Belgian classic Ronde van Vlaanderen this year, Fuglsang and Alaphilippe.
