Amstel Gold Race: Women’s race neutralised then shortened after incident on route

Men’s race also rerouted after reported out-of-race incident involving a police officer

Updated 10:25, Sunday 14th April 2024. Published 09:57, Sunday 14th April 2024

Matilda Price

Racing News Editor

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The stopped peloton in the women's Amstel Gold Race

The women’s Amstel Gold Race was neutralised after 45km of racing due to an incident on the route ahead of the race, reportedly involving a police officer.

After over an hour of stoppage and with one of the climbs impassable, the women's peloton will now race an altered and shortened route.

The neutralised peloton will ride from the stoppage point to the finish line in Valkenburg, where the race will then restart, taking in just the final local laps, skipping some 40km of the original route and racing an altered finale.

The peloton will take on three laps of the 18km loop – which includes the Cauberg, Geulhemmerbeg and Bemelerberg – for a total of 55km, bringing the total race length down from 158km to just shy of 100. The original route took on four laps, with the final lap slightly different to allow for the Cauberg finale.

Read more: Amstel Gold Race Ladies 2024 route

After just over an hour of racing on Sunday morning, the peloton was halted to allow an ambulance and the police to pass the race and attend to the incident.

According to a Tweet from the Limburg police, a police officer on a motorbike working on the race was hit by a car on the Bergseweg at 11:00 CEST. He was taken to hospital, and the police closed off the Bergseweg – the third climb on the women's route – for an investigation.

The race was brought to a stop at around 11:10 CEST, and remained stopped at 12:00, with reports that the delay could last an hour as the emergency services deal with the incident and clear the road.

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The men’s race, which started shortly after the women’s race, has been rerouted so as to not interrupt the women’s race once it restarts and avoid the site of the incident, according to Wielerflits. The men will now miss out the Bergseweg.

Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale) and Quinty Schoens (VolkerWessels) had been in a breakaway a few seconds up the road when the race was stopped, but will not be given their advantage back in the restart.