LONDON (Reuters) -Mattias Skjelmose claimed a shock victory at the Amstel Gold Race as he won a sprint finish against favourite Tadej Pogacar and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel on Sunday.
It was supposed to be a fight between world champion Pogacar and Evenepoel but Denmark's Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) had not read the script as he beat Pogacar by the width of a tyre.
Evenepoel, who recently returned from serious injuries sustained in a crash, was third.
"I was riding for the podium," Skjelmose said. "Already the podium would be a really good result for me.
"Of course, you sprint for the best result but I thought I was going to cramp, or see them go into the horizon."
Slovenian Pogacar appeared to have the race won when he built up a 25-second lead with around 40km remaining after going solo at the front and extended it to 30 seconds.
Skjelmose was the first to try and catch three-times Tour de France and multiple Classics winner Pogacar and was then joined by Belgium's Evenepoel. Working together the duo ate into Pogacar's lead over the final climbs.
There was nothing to separate the riders in the surge to the line but Skjelmose claimed the biggest win of his career.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
