Remco used an “all in to be as explosive as possible” approach to take the win in Amstel Gold. While this might sound obvious, I feel it is far from it from a typical Remco strategy which is go hard, go ofter, and go long. Instead, he strategically looked at his explosive ability in comparison to the others and bet on using it for only the key moments and the sprint.
Here are five key parts to his winning strategy:
1. Remco Followed Attacks Instead of Making Them
He did no attacking himself; he only followed the big attack by Romain Grégoire to make the select group of 7 favorites. He learned from Tadej last year that this course takes its toll and going solo at this point takes valuable energy needed for the explosive final. He also put himself in position to be ready for the moment of urgency, which came on the Kruisberg. This saved key explosive energy, especially in comparison to last year, from having to move up in the hard moments.
2. Remco Led on the Descents to Stay Out of Trouble
This is a chaotic race where he often found himself on the back foot last year. He made sure to put himself at the front of the break for each of the downhills. This ended up being critical as he was able to see first and avoid a slippery manhole cover that Vauquelin hit with his rear wheel and slid out, crashing out Jorgenson and other big favorites.
3. Remco Pulled Hard on the Climbs to Fatigue His Breakaway Rivals but Stayed in His Zones
This kept him from taking away from his glycogen storage and kept his punch for the final.
4. Remco Used High Cadence on the Climbs to Make It Harder on the Others and Put Less Strain on His Legs
This is super hard to do, as the short, steep climbs feel better as you fatigue to be ridden at a lower cadence, and it's super hard to do with the steep ramps and fatiguing legs. This kept his muscles as fresh as possible.
5. Remco Put It All Together with One Massive Launch into the Sprint
The difference in his freshness and that of Skjelmose was clear as he opened up a big gap right away. He held his line and kept pushing to the finish to seal the deal on an excellent execution of a great strategy.
