Dutch classics king Mathieu van der Poel has showed weaknesses in front of his home crowd in the Amstel Gold Race as British Olympic mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock took victory.

Pidcock prevailed in the breakaway sprint finale after the 253.6km run from Maastricht to Berg en Terblijt ahead of Marc Hirschi and Belgian Tiesj Benoot in Sunday's latest edition of the prestigious Dutch classic.

Home favourite and world champion van der Poel, who had shone with impressive solo victories at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix over the past two weekends, only finished 22nd.

Last year the 24-year-old Pidcock, who has also won the world championship title in cyclo-cross, won the Strade Bianche gravel race and finished second in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege spring classic.

Van der Poel will be desperate to win this year's Liege race next weekend as it is one of the two race wins he needs, along wth the Tour of Lombardy, to complete a full set of victories in the five Monument classics.

Jayco-AlUla's Michael Matthews was the leading Australian, leading home the peloton in 10th place, 11 seconds behind the breakaway.

In the women's race, the great Dutch rider Marianne Vos snatched victory after her compatriot Lorena Wiebes threw away the win, celebrating too soon before crossing the line.