A statement Ardennes opener for UAE Team ADQ. Paula Blasi, just 23, turned a two-up move on the penultimate Cauberg into a long-range solo and held off the favourites for the biggest win of her career, while team-mate Karlijn Swinkels rounded out a superb day with sixth in the chase sprint. It was the launchpad for a purple patch that continued days later when Blasi took third at La Flèche Wallonne, confirming UAE Team ADQ as one of the in-form squads of the spring classics.

Kasia Niewiadoma, a former Amstel winner, was the most active of the favourites, opening the chase on the final Cauberg and then out-sprinting Demi Vollering for second. She could not bridge to Blasi's long-range move, but salvaged the best possible result behind it and signalled strong form heading into the rest of the Ardennes block.

Demi Vollering, the 2023 Amstel champion and the pre-race favourite on the back of a dominant spring, was marked into a reactive role and could only follow Niewiadoma's chase on the final climb. Beaten to second in the sprint, she took third at 27 seconds — a rare off-key classics result that she answered emphatically three days later with victory at La Flèche Wallonne.

Noemi Rüegg was EF Education-Oatly's standout, hanging with the reduced front group over the closing climbs and taking fifth in the sprint for the minor placings at 43 seconds. A consistent hilly-classics ride from the in-form Swiss puncheur.

Letizia Paternoster timed the sprint for fourth to perfection, leading home the reduced front group at 43 seconds — the best of the riders who couldn't follow the podium trio on the Cauberg, and a strong day for Liv AlUla Jayco on a parcours that doesn't always suit a fast finisher.

Anna van der Breggen, the inaugural women's Amstel winner in 2017, was again in the front group on the Cauberg and finished ninth at 43 seconds, but SD Worx-Protime never controlled the race the way the squad usually does. Lorena Wiebes was distanced on a Cauberg passage as the relentless pace thinned the bunch, leaving the team without a podium card on a finish that favoured the long-range move.

Puck Pieterse was in the elite group over the final Cauberg and took tenth at 43 seconds. The mountain-bike convert couldn't influence Blasi's escape but stayed at the sharp end of the race, a building block before her near-miss title defence at La Flèche Wallonne days later.

Sarah Van Dam was Visma's best on the day with seventh in the chase sprint at 43 seconds. Two-time former winner Marianne Vos briefly cracked on the Geulhemmerberg but fought back into contention when the tempo eased — a gritty ride that kept the team in the front group without producing a result on the Cauberg.