The Amstel Gold Race took place last Sunday and an almighty Tadej Pogacar imposed his law to win alone. However, the Slovenian's bombastic way of winning was not the only news of the day.
After 'Pogi''s final attack with 30 kilometers to go, Tom Pidcock and Ben Healy became the only real persecutors of the UAE cyclist. Healy left Pidcock behind and began to cut time on the leader. It was in this context when the controversial fact of the car happened.
The race director's car, Leo van Vliet, overtook Pogacar for no reason and got very close to him. The Slovenian was alert and took advantage of the situation, taking the slipstream that the car gave him. It seemed that the car wanted to leave but was not able to do so in twisty sections, which could also have hurt Tadej if he got closer.
The big question is... What was that car doing there? Van Vliet's response was: "Did it help you? If you look at the pictures it's clearly not", although that is highly debatable. Healy came to be 15 seconds off the lead and perhaps without that slipstream things would have changed. In any case, Pogacar was not at fault, but van Vliet's attitude questions the race management for a serious failure to guarantee a fair competition.
The organizers will always prefer that a referential cyclist win their test, but if the decision to offer Pogacar a slipstream was premeditated, that would leave the beer classic in a very bad place.
