Blasi claimed the biggest win of her career on Sunday (Image credit: Getty Images)

Spain's Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) held off a strong, last-minute chase to win Amstel Gold Race Ladies , crossing the line solo after attacking with 20km to go to take the biggest win of her career.

The 23-year-old bridged to Nienke Vinke (SD Worx-Protime) with 25km to go, then left Vinke behind on the Cauberg with one lap to go and opened a gap of more than a minute to the chasing peloton.

Article continues below

"I think I will need a couple of weeks or even months to realise it. I wasn’t even supposed to be here. I just signed up yesterday because we had some injuries and sickness. It wasn’t even on my mind to be racing here. Now I need to take a breather and accept what happened," said Blasi after her victory.

"When I crossed the finish line [with one lap to go], I didn't even know how many kilometres I had left. I thought, 'hopefully I have just five to go', and then suddenly they said, 'you have still 20 to go'.…