Race director Leo van Vliet of the Amstel Gold Race understands little of the commotion about the ‘help’ he would have offered winner Tadej Pogacar. In the final, the race director’s car drove very close to the Slovenian a number of times.
“I caught the commotion,” Van Vliet told it on Sunday AD. “We were behind Pogacar and the gaps were getting smaller, so we had to pass. And further on the track got narrower and narrower.”
At about 15 kilometers from the finish, the race director’s car drove very close to Pogacar for the first time, who was therefore protected from the wind. At that moment, the 24-year-old UAE Emirates rider took the lead solo and the Irish pursuer Ben Healy slowly came closer.
Van Vliet doubts whether Pogacar has benefited from the car. “We drove for it, but it was of no use to him. I raced myself and I can’t imagine that. And what does it benefit me to do that? We had better look at the beautiful course we had. “
Pogacar himself had also noticed the action. “That was not good,” said the Slovenian. “Although I didn’t feel that the car was too close to me for very long. Unfortunately, this happens very often in races. That car goes forward, then back and then forward again. There is little I can do about it, just cycle as fast as possible.”
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Team boss EF not pleased with action by car course management
The event sparked a stir on social media. Team boss Jonathan Vaughters of EF Education-EasyPost, Healy’s formation, among others, was not happy about it on Twitter.
“I mean come on now,” Vaughters grumbled on Twitter in a video showing the race director’s car driving right in front of Pogacar. “Top action from the race organizers of the Amstel Gold Race 2023. Racing behind the derny on the track is always the most exciting part. Now they translate that to the road,” he wrote sarcastically in another post.
Pogacar eventually won the Amstel Gold Race with more than half a minute ahead of number two Healy. After his triumph in the Tour of Flanders, he recorded his second major victory of the season in a one-day race.
