A PROMISING BRADBURY BREAKAWAY EFFORT AT AMSTEL GOLD RACE

Neve Bradbury demonstrated that she’s ready for action after a month-long training block, representing the team in a large breakaway at today’s Amstel Gold Race. She ultimately found herself in the sprint for 6th, rolling across the line in 14th place. 

Although Neve didn’t quite have the race kilometres in her legs to match the very best of the break during the race-defining moments, it served as a solid litmus test for her form that’s on the way. Coincidentally, this strong breakaway performance follows another attacking ride at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda in mid-March, her final race before the Flemish Classics took over and sidelined the more climbing-focussed riders, who lie in wait for the hillier Ardennes classics.

As anticipated ahead of Amstel Gold Race, the apprehension and intensity within the peloton were palpable from the outset. Just after the Maasberg, the first climb coming 13 kilometres into the 158km course, a breakaway of nine riders broke clear, quickly establishing a gap of nearly three minutes. Despite this, they were never granted true freedom. With the peloton already strained under the combined pressure of a demanding parcours and the calculated efforts from several teams, the race regrouped and reset with 70 kilometres still remaining, but not before major splits had occurred on the gruelling Keutenberg (0.7km at 9.1%).

When the peloton began their four laps around the 18km finishing circuit that lies neatly in between Valkenburg and Maastricht, cracks were already beginning to show before the second ascent of the Cauberg (0.5km at 9.4%). An attack by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig in the maelstrom surrounding the infamous climb was swiftly countered, and it was Neve who responded to the accelerations on the plateau that followed. With 57km to go, a group of 23 riders including Neve held a small but quickly growing advantage. Cecilie gave chase with two others in an attempt to bridge across, but after failing to make inroads, she returned to the peloton.

Neve reflects on the moment from her perspective:

“It was a really big group off the front. There were a lot of teams with a lot of riders in there, so I just had to sit in and hope that I had the legs when it split, and then that Kasia could bridge because I was pretty outnumbered at the front, but I just missed a little bit of power when the race really started going.”

It was a tricky situation for the team – Neve was isolated in the lead group, while Cecilie and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney were also temporarily outnumbered and unable to make attempts to shift the race toward a different outcome until Soraya Paladin and Alice Towers managed to rejoin.

Neve was holding pace with the front wheels of the breakaway on the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg with 22km remaining, but began to suffer on the steeper pitches and was distanced by a strong trio.

Meanwhile, Kasia was driving the pace from the peloton up the brutal incline, but with the group trailing by more than 90 seconds as they entered the final lap, it was increasingly difficult to imagine the victory coming from behind.

Neve managed to rejoin the front three with a group of others, but when the race split again on the Geulhemmerberg (0.9km at 5.7%) with 17km to go, she no longer had the legs to stay within reach of the win.

Although the race scenario and eventual outcome felt surprising and left a slightly dissatisfied taste with no decisive moves made on the usual launchpad of the Cauberg, there’s little time to dwell. Two more Ardennes Classics are fast approaching, starting with La Flèche Wallonne Féminine on Wednesday, where Kasia returns as defending champion.