BMC's Philippe Gilbert won the Amstel Gold Race.
A race of 34 climbs over 251.8kms from Maastricht to Valkenberg, attracted a top class field included BMC's Philippe Gilbert.
Nine riders broke early and soon became ten. This ten man group of Christophe Riblon (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Rory Sutherland (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Matej Mohoric (Cannondale), Pim Ligthart (Lotto Belisol), Manuel Belletti (Androni Venezuela), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling), Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen), James Vanlandschoot (Wanty Gobert Groupe) and Nicola Boem (Bardiani CSF, took a thirteen minute lead.
A feature of the race is the crashes and Andy Schleck and Joaquim Rodriguez were dispatched to hospital whilst Nikki Sorensen of Tinkoff-Saxo, Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Sharp), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ.fr) and Aleksejs Saramotins of IAM Cycling were amongst those who had to abandon.
Going into the final one hundred kilometres with fourteen climbs remaining, the gap was 8.08.
With big crowds on a sunny day on the second ascent of the Cauberg, the gap had dropped to 7.22.
Geraint Thomas of Team Sky, who had been one of the favourites, had also crashed and abandoned but the news from his doctor was that he was ok as was his team-mate Josh Edmondson who also abandoned. Explaining what happened, Thomas tweeted: "Someone decided he wanted a wee and just turned 90degrees right, nowhere to go, apart from the deck."
With fifty kilometres to go, the gap was down to 3.26 and it was down to 2.30 when Tony Martin of Omega Pharma Quick Step was pushed by his own team mate into a hedge.
On the 16% climb of the Kruisberg with forty kilometres to go, Tommy Voeckler of Europcar went on the attack, jumping off the front of the peloton. Zdenek Stybar (QuickStep), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge), Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol)and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) bridged to the Frenchman.
Only Riblon, Boem and Van Hecke were out in front with 35kms to go as Paul Martens (Belkin), Bjorn Leukemans and Kolobnev of Katusha joined the Voeckler group which was later joined by Boem.
Over the Cauberg and Riblon and Preben Van Hecke of Topsport were only around ninety seconds clear and with fifteen kilometres to go, they were only 44 seconds ahead.
Dan Martin of Garmin-Sharp stepped off his bike and abandoned as BMC's Van Avermaet and Fuglsang of Astana went after Riblon and Van Hecke and caught them with nine to go.
Meanwhile, the peloton were closing in on the chasing group which has lost Voeckler.
Kolobnev caught the leaders, so with eight kilometres to go, Greg Van Avermaet tried to attack. His raid was short lived and those still in the race were all back together.
The pace was electric as the ruders made the turn onto the Cauberg for the final time.
Philippe Gilbert pushed on down the left and was first over the final climb with 1800 metres to go,
Michael Kwiatkowski was struggling behind as Gilbert coasted under the flam rouge. A Lotto rider went after Gilbert who was looking over his shoulder but victory was his
Jelle Vanendert was second with Simon Gerrans third, followed by Valverde and Kwiatkowski.
Gilbert said on his win: "So nice to win such a classic. The race was very fast with nobody wanting to help and it meant that Michael Schar had ninety kilometres on the front and Van Avermaet helped me. Sammy Sanchez attacked for me and it was a good help. It is fantastic and I am so happy that I have won."