Amstel Gold Race director Leo van Fleet denied in the strongest terms that the lead car had any influence on the outcome of Sunday's biggest Dutch classic race.

Tadej Pogachar was the pre-race odds-on favorite to win the race after a devastatingly successful 2023 season, but he ran solo to victory in spectacular fashion.

After several attacks, the Slovenian finally broke away alone with 29km to go, dropping the last two men who could follow him, Ben Healy of EF Education Easy Post and Tom Pidcock of Ineos Grenadiers.

The gap to Healy was 20 seconds with 10 kilometers to go when the organization vehicle carrying Van Vliet overtook Pogachar. At the finish, the gap between Pogachar and Healy was 38 seconds.

Television footage showed that the race director's car remained close in front of Pogachar immediately after overtaking him, causing an uproar among some social media users, with sarcastic comments from EF director Jonathan Vaughters

"The car was still close in front of me.

"Quality work by the #AGR23 race organizers: ...... Motorpace (Darnley) races on the circuit are always the most exciting. Motor pace (darn) racing on the circuit is always the most exciting.

Van Vleet, however, vehemently denied claims that the director's car spent as much as a kilometer just ahead of Pogachar. He argued that for safety reasons the race car had no choice but to spend a short time in front of Pogachar.

"I was running behind Tadei Pogachar when Ben Healy approached me.

"It's not true at all (that the car was 1 km in front of him). Look at the TV footage. That didn't help him. I raced myself. I don't think that was an advantage."

"Why would it do me any good to do that?" he added. 'We were well ahead of him. There's nothing wrong with that."

Van Fleet noted that, as race director, he knew the road narrowed shortly after and it would have been dangerous to try to close the distance with Pogachar earlier.

He countered that he would rather have Pogachar as the winner than Healy.

"Let them say that. I can't do anything," he said.

Pogachar himself was asked about the incident at the post-race press conference and admitted that the cars were too close together.

However, he pointed out that the lead supervisor's car had moved in front of the breakaway group, a maneuver that happens in all races, not just the Amstel Gold Race. He also supported Van Fleet's argument.

"At one point they were really quite close. But they always do this. They get in front, they overtake, and then they go back. So it's always like this in a race," Pogachar said.

"I can't do much, I can only always ride as hard as I can.

Vaughters admitted on Twitter that even if Healy had been able to contact Pogachar again, he would likely have lost in the sprint; five days earlier in Brabantspaille, Healy was easily beaten by Dorian Godon (AG2R Citroën).

However, the manager of EF-Easy Post insisted that he was still not satisfied.

"I should say something a little more productive and mature here: the problem is that we constantly see cars changing the race results. Sometimes in our favor, sometimes not. It's disgusting. Pogues would have won the sprint. It just negates the race."

This year, for the third year in a row, the Amstel Gold Race introduced a new photo-finish device to resolve potential controversy over the winner's decision.

In 2021, a sprint contest between Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) was ultimately declared a Van Aert victory by a few millimeters, and in 2022 Benoit Cosnefrois (AG2R Citroen) was wrongly victory.