An attack from an elite group, winnowed out from a hard race in the middle sections of the Amstel Gold Race, by Kwiatkowski was joined by a powerful surge by Cosnefroy. The pair then combined forces together into the finish as the chasers behind looked at each other to take up the work, with the pair fighting out the final sprint.
It was desperately close on the line as the Polish star of the sport tried to overhaul his French rival on the finish, neither quite certain of victory. A mistaken announcement of a Cosnefroy win had the AG2R-Citroen team celebrating, before the photo finish confirmed a Kwiatkowski victory.
“It was very tough,” said Kwiatkowski. “A tough finish, a tough sprint. I was super-confident that I could win, but at the same time, the last 50 metres were super-tough, when Cosnefroy still accelerated when I got to the side of him.
"For me it was all about the win, because I knew that having Tom (Pidcock, his INEOS Grenadiers teammate) in the front group, with both of us, it was all about winning the race.”
Kwiatkowski went through an emotional rollercoaster, from going to competing for the victory, to the limbo of waiting for a decision, the agony of a close loss, all to be replaced by joy with the eventual triumph.
“It was very confusing," said Kwiatkowski. "I was super-sad in the first place, because, as I said, it was all about the win.
“I learned a little bit from last year, with Tom, that you have to wait, and I still believed that maybe it will come up again saying the photo finish is wrong. But they say third time lucky, you know?
“It’s just incredible, I love this race, and after all the bad moments this season that I’ve had with Covid and previously with the flu and being sick and not being able to follow my race program. And now I’m here as winner of Amstel Gold Race, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
"It’s a nice podium,” said Cosnefroy after the finish. "I’m happy about it, though I would have preferred to win against Kwiatkowski. He was faster than me.
“We can be collectively proud and personally I’m happy to get on the podium."
The confusion wasn't just for the riders, with the team's social media account claiming the win as well.
Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe), Johan Jacobs (Movistar), Emils Liepins (Trek-Segafredo), Aaron Van Poucke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) and Luca Rastelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) were the riders to attempt the initial breakaway, establishing a gap of several minutes before the pace ramped up in the peloton.
That encouraged riders in the peloton as Victor Campaerts (Lotto-Soudal) and Nathan Van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) launched a bridging attack with just under 100 kilometres to race. They made the with the front riders with Rastelli dropped and Florian Senechal (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) stuck in between the move and the peloton.
Campanaerts and Schelling were dropped as the hills continued to take their toll, with the peloton’s pace marshalled by Alpecin-Fenix for team leader and 2019 winner Mathieu van der Poel.
When INEOS Grenadiers upped the tempo with 50 kilometres remaining, the race went into a new phase, with the peloton under serious pressure and the gap to the break tumbling.
Van Hooydonck was the last man caught from the break over the top of the Eyserbosweg, the race was all back together with 44.5km still to ride.
The pace of INEOS Grenadiers was largely led by Ben Turner and he did his final turn on the early slopes of the Keutenberg where Pidcock and then Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) attacked, forcing an elite selection of just 12 riders.
The final ascent of the Cauberg saw attacks first by Hirschi and then Pidcock over the top, but it wasn’t until a few hundred metres from the finish that Kwiatkowski floated off the front, before pouring on the effort and managing to get a gap.
The former race winner’s lead had grown to over ten seconds by the foot of the Geulhemmerberg, where Cosnefroy attacked with an explosive acceleration, catching Kwiatkowski rapidly and joining him with 19 kilometres still to ride.
Teuns tried his own attack to bridge up to them, and nearly established contact over the top of the climb, but the gap began to stretch inexorably out to both Teuns and the group of chasers as Cosnefroy put in some hard turns of pace. The gap got out to 35 seconds and while that came down on the Bemelerberg, the riders behind preferred to put in attacks rather than work for a finish that would likely be taken out by a sprinter, with the likes of Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) in the group.
Van der Poel tried to re-enact his 2019 come-from-behind win with a series of late attacks, but each one was marked out and in the end it came down to the sprint between the front pair.
Cosnefroy led it out from 200 metres to go, both riders attempting to eke the final effort from tired legs, with Kwiatkowski in the end just able to overcome his rival, a slightly better bike throw perhaps the difference on the line.
A late attack from Tiesj Benoot saw him take the final position on the podium with outsider Alexander Kamp (Trek-Segafredo) leading home the group sprinting for fourth.
The classics continue on SBS, with Paris-Roubaix up next with the women's race on Saturday April 16 with coverage starting on SBS at 2130 AEST, and the men's race on Sunday April 17 from 1855 AEST on SBS On Demand, with the SBS VICELAND coverage starting at 2130 AEST.
