The Amstel Gold Race is the Netherlands' biggest one-day race and the opening act of the Ardennes week. First run in 1966, it threads more than thirty short, sharp climbs through the hills of Dutch Limburg, the most famous of them the Cauberg. The constant climbing and narrow, twisting roads make it a race of position and attrition rather than one decisive ascent. Jan Raas won it five times in its early decades, and Philippe Gilbert lit it up a generation later. In 2026 Remco Evenepoel won from the front in the Limburg hills. It is the hilly Classic that bridges the cobbles and the climbs of the Ardennes.