Chantal Blaak took out her first one-day victory as the reigning World Champion on Sunday, winning the Amstel Gold Race and taking over the UCI Women`s WorldTour in front of her home crowd. The world champion showed her race craft when she joined the decisive move just after the steep Keutenberg climb with almost 60km to go, and then proved to be the strongest of eight riders who quickly got a big gap as the first peloton chose not to continue to chase as a another group fought to regain contact. `It was instinct that I went into that group, it was not a planned move,` explained Blaak. `It was a good scenario for us. I heard we had two minutes, and we knew this was a really strong break. And then you need to finish it.`ADVERTISEMENT Boels Dolmans had several possible contenders, including last year`s solo winner Anna van der Breggen in the peloton behind, but decided to back Blaak in the break. `You`re the only one from your team amongst the eight in the breakaway. I got the trust from my teammates in the peloton behind and from the team car. Everyone in my team is strong enough to win, then it was in my hands, and I was the one who had to do it today. Yes, then you have pressure, but I also kind of like that.` In the break, Blaak was a marked woman. The rainbow jersey of the reigning world champion always attracts attention; even more so when in a break of eight riders in the finale of a one-day race. Blaak made the most of this situation by going on the attack, splitting the group on the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg with 20 km to go.
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