The Cherbourg cyclist Benoît Cosnefroy thought for a few minutes that he had won one of the most beautiful classics of the season , the Amstel Gold Race, this Sunday. This is what the race organizers first announced.
In Valkenburg (Netherlands) and after 254 kilometers of racing, the Norman rider arrived for the final victory and competed in a two-man sprint with the Pole Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos). It took long minutes and the examination of the photo finish for the jury of commissioners to finally declare the Polish rider the winner, and Cosnefroy second, beaten by a gut while the two men had thrown their bikes over the line.
– ERIC LALMAND/BELGA
Already 2nd in the stage race, the Circuit de la Sarthe, the last few days, Cosnefroy is a fit man, and managed to come back alone on Michal Kwiatkowski 19 kilometers from the finish, in the penultimate ascent.
Benoît Cosnefroy, 26, signed the best performance by a French rider on the Amstel Gold Race since the victory of Bernard Hinault in 1981. Only two French runners have won the race since its creation in 1966, the year of Jean Stablinski’s success.
– ERIC LALMAND/BELGA