After a successful comeback to racing in recent weeks, winning the Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour of Flanders, it was no surprise that Mathieu van der Pol rode home as the heavy favorite for the Amstel Gold Race.

The Dutchman was a strong contender for Sunday's race, which he won in a thrilling upset three years ago. In the final, however, Michał Kwiatkowski and Benoit Kosnefroi ran away with the race and contested a photo finish in Berg en Terblij.

Van der Pol attacked repeatedly on the final mini-circuits, including Goilhemelberg and Bemelberg, but finished fourth, 20 seconds behind the dramatic finish. After the race, he said it was always a tough battle against the Ineos Grenadiers with Tom Pidcock in the chase group.

"I knew they were dangerous. If I caught up to Kwiatkowski, Pidcock would jump out."

"For sure I am really happy with the team today, but if I had one teammate at the end I could play differently like they did. But of course, that's the strength of a team like Ineos. If you have two guys in front of you, you can win. It's a little bit difficult, but we can move on."

Kwiatkowski was attacked by Pidcock on the final descent from Cauberg, then turned into a stealth attack on the finishing straight at the 22km mark, putting him in full solo form.

Kosnefroy joined him a few kilometers later and the race was won despite attacks by Pidcock, Dylan Theuns, and Kasper Asgrey.

Van der Pol added that he was unable to respond to all the moves his rivals made in the last kilometer of the 254-km race. He chased some moves, led the pack himself, and launched a big attack with 2 km to go, but it was not enough to win the race again.

"It was a little difficult," he said. It was a matter of my judgment and I don't think I had the legs to react or respond to all the attacks."

"In the end I was where I needed to be, but in a race like this, you really have to be in great shape, especially when you are in the lead group and have to react to everyone's attacks. You have to make your own choices. That wasn't the case for me today. But even if I was in great shape, it is very difficult to win a race like this.

It has been less than a month since Van der Pol made a surprisingly early return from rehabilitation of a lingering back injury in Milan-San Remo. Last week at the Tour of Flanders, he outpaced Tadej Pogachar despite being considered the second strongest rider in the race.

He admitted after the Amstel Gold race that it took him a while to recover from that race, his second win at De Ronde, adding that in terms of competition and parkour, this race is not comparable to Flanders.

"Certainly, after my victory in Flanders, there was some weakness. I had to recharge for this race." I hope to be at 100% for Paris-Roubaix next week."

"It was a different race, with different riders. I did my best today."