Wout Van Aert missed the Amstel Gold Race for the second week in a row, but his Jumbo Visma team filled the void in Limburg on Sunday.

Teams were led by Belgium's Tiesj Benoot, who was solo in Berg en Terblijt, taking his second podium finish in just eight days of racing with his new team, finishing third.

Benoot, who finished second in the Van Aert-less Doors de Hlaanderen 11 days earlier, was co-leader of the Dutch team in the Amstel Gold Race with fellow newcomer Christophe Laporte. Laporte missed the final due to a crash, but Benoot took the lead and won the "Best of the Rest" behind Michał Kwiatkowski and Benoit Kosnefrois.

During the post-race press conference, Van Aert's absence and Jumbo Visma's impact on the race were among the main questions for Benoot. He replied that another strong leader would have helped on the last hill of the race, as evidenced by the teamwork of the Ineos Grenadiers.

"I have run three races without Wout, and I have been on the podium. But having a rider like him in the final today would have made a big difference, that's for sure."

"Ineos had two riders and tactically they did a great job. First went Pidcock, then Kwiatkowski, and Pidcock did a great job of defending his escape.

"I think I've been riding without Wout for the last seven years, but I'm sure I signed up with the team to race with him. It's a shame he got sick, but we still have a lot of racing left to do."

Teammate Nathan Van Hooydonk launched an attack with Victor Campenaerts with 90km to go, crashing into a parked car with 40km to go.

Benoot said Van Hooydonk had planned to work with him, Laporte, and Tom Dumoulin in the last kilometer. However, Laporte's fall and Dumoulin's relative lack of sharpness ruined that. Benoot, on the other hand, was not unhappy with the two who got away with the photo-finish victory.

"I wanted to get a little ahead of myself and wait for Christophe, me, and Tom in the final. Nathan did a great job." It was a little disappointing for him that Ineos kept pulling on the climb from Kruisberg."

"Christophe crashed and Tom didn't have the best legs. Christophe fell and Tom didn't have the best legs either. That's where Kwiatkowski and Pidcock went.

Benoot himself had some bad luck and nearly crashed on the short downhill before the finish.

Kosnefrois nearly caught him when he ran out of road with 20km to go. Kosnefrois immediately attacked and bridged to Kwiatkowski.

"I missed the corner," he said. I think I hit something." I was following the back of the pack in Grümmerberg. I pulled back on Kosnefroe, who was chasing behind me, but I was a little bit on the edge. Apart from that, I don't think I made too many mistakes in the final.

"He went full on from the bottom of the next climb and bridged to Kwiatkowski, and I think [third place] was the best possible result today after the two got away. I attacked twice in the last 5km and the second one was a good attack.

"This is my seventh or eighth race today and I have been on the podium twice. It's a World Tour race only and after my crash in Strade it was good to come so close to winning twice. I certainly want to win races, but it was good to be back in a big race final."