When they write the history books of pro cycling's current era, Matthieu van der Poel's victory at Amstel Gold today will get a chapter of its own.
The sport serves up fantastic action from January to October now, but Van der Poel was in a league of his own today, as the video below reveals.
That he won Amstel Gold was no surprise; he was one of the very hottest favourites on the start line.
However, the manner of his victory was simply stunning and really heralds his arrival at the top of world cycling. Despite his successes in recent weeks on the road, today was incredible in comparison.
To put that in context, van der Poel’s recent results
that are now put firmly in the shadow of today’s huge performance include; wins
in Dwars door Vlaanderen, Brabantse Pijl and GP Denain and 4th in both the Tour
of Flanders and Gent Wevelgem - all in his first proper spring on the road.
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Today, late in the race, he towed a group up to the leaders - mopping up the survivors from a second group as he went - and only caught the front men with just a few hundred metres to the finish line.
It was like watching an elite rider compete against youth cyclists at the finish, yet the two riders who were leading were Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).
Van der Poel was a minute back with just a few kilometres to go and it looked like he wouldn't even get on the podium.
Up front Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) caught the lead duo deep into the final kilometre.
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He went on the front and rode for home as he knew Van der Poel was towing up a group behind and was keen to ride to secure at least 3rd place.
But as he did that, Van der Poel was coming; on the front of a seven-man group that he had towed for kilometres.
He closed the gap up to the leading three and then looked around for the others in the group to close the last part.
When they refused to do so, he simply closed it himself. Just before he got into the back of the leading three, Alaphilippe opened his sprint.
But Matthieu van der Poel couldn't be stopped; putting in a killer sprint to pass the trio ahead and hold off Simon Clarke, one of the riders the Dutchman had towed up to the three leaders.
It was simply an incredible victory; a brilliant winning sprint coming after miles on the front to catch the leaders and with a group lined out behind him.
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