After missing out on the win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in what was his first race back since winning the Tour de France in July, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) turned his fortune around with a dominant solo victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on Sunday.
Pogačar had plenty of time to celebrate his victory, slowing down so that he could wave at the crowds and high-five fans along the side of the finishing straight on Avenue du Parc.
"The team did a super job. We did it exactly how we wanted to. It was really great racing, and thank you to all my teammates because, without them, this plan would not go to perfection. Luckily, I also had good legs to pull it off at the end," Pogačar said.
The Slovenian all-rounder made his winning move on the penultimate lap over the circuit's main ascent, Côte Camilien-Houde, and never looked back, crossing the finish line 24 seconds ahead of solo chaser and runner-up Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious).
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) took third place after winning the reduced field sprint that crossed the line 40 seconds behind Pogačar.
Pogačar's performance puts an exclamation mark on his top form as he heads back to Europe this week, set to co-lead the Slovenian national team alongside Primož Roglič in the hunt for a world title at the upcoming UCI Road World Championships held from September 21-29 in Zurich.
How it unfolded
With an electric atmosphere and clear skies welcoming the 168 riders at the start of the 13th GP Montréal, it was fitting that a local rider got the action going on the first rep of the 12.3km circuit's main climb - Côte Camilien-Houde, James Piccoli, who coincidentally also holds the Strava KOM for the 1.8km ascent.
Riding for the Canadian national team, the experienced pro, who managed wins at the Tour of Utah and Hainan in his career, was making sure he went out with a bang in his final professional race. It was a valiant effort from the 33-year-old and the right way to end a career, however, he was quickly swept up by a flurry of attacks from the top teams present in Canada.
Ineos Grenadiers, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale were the teams most interested in making it into the day's breakaway, but it was the British team who found separation first through another Canadian, 20-year-old Michael Leonard.
The young Ineos rider then gained company while completing the first of 17 passages over the finish line along the Avenue du Parc, with Gel Gelders (Soudal-QuickStep) making the junction on the uphill drag to the line.
With Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates and the other pre-race favourite's teams happy with the two-man composition of the break, they were quickly allowed to build a 2:20 advantage by the end of the second lap, with only Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) trying to bridge across.
It seemed a futile effort at first but with the bunch calming down and the gap increasing, Leonard and Gelders soon sat up and allowed the former Belgian national champion to make contact, forming the day's break of three with 176.7km to go.
As the tough laps around the Parc du Mont-Royal ticked by, the trio's advantage ballooned out to five minutes, until UAE took over on the front through Igor Arrieta and began to pull back their advantage to just 3:40 with 13 laps still to race.
The young Spaniard continued to get through his work and had brought back another minute by the 138km to go mark, with Jayco AlUla and Visma-Lease a Bike soon joining the Emirati squad on the front of the peloton to keep their leaders, Jorgenson and Simon Yates in ideal position. However, to ensure they didn't make the catch too quickly, Arrieta allowed the deficit to once again grow larger than three minutes at the 116km to go mark, with nine laps still to race.
There were problems for Arnaud De Lie throughout the opening three hours of racing, with the Belgian champion eventually abandoning the race ahead of the 11th crossing of the finish line after having to dismount and realign his bars before changing bike earlier in the race.
Arrieta finished his work for the day at the start of the twelfth lap, with the deficit to De Bondt, Leonard and Gelders sat at a comfortable 1:45, allowing Finn Fisher-Black to take over and reduce it even further, melting 20 seconds off the break's lead on the next time up the Côte Camilien-Houde.
UAE weren't simply allowed prime position at the front of the peloton, with the Visma train infiltrating the next few sports in the peloton behind Fisher-Black and all of Soudal-QuickStep, Jayco AlUla and Israel-Premier Tech also moving up.
With five laps to go in Montréal, the gap was down to 1:25 before Fisher-Black again upped the pace and brought his team to within striking distance of the break 60km from the finish, leaving Juan Ayuso just 40 seconds left to pull back before the three escapees day was ended.
The attacks then started to come, with Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) looking to make an opportunistic move. Gelders and Leonard then left De Bondt to get swept back. He was passed by Mohorič, who'd taken off again and got a gap this time with 54km to go, leaving UAE to start chasing.
Mohorič successfully made it across to the two remaining original breakaway riders, Leonard and Gelders, but their time out front appeared to be coming to an end with just 30 seconds at the base of Côte Camilien-Houde with four laps to go.
Leonard fell off pace partway up the climb and while Gelders and Mohorič maintained 30 seconds on the field, Gelders was unable to help keep the move alive after spending most of the race off the front.
The gap between the Mohorič and Gelders, and the field dropped to nine seconds, and they were in the peloton's view as they rounded the u-turn along the start-finish line on the Avenue du Parc to start three laps to go.
Pogačar's winning move over Côte Camilien-Houde
UAE Team Emirates led the peloton, caught the breakaway, and then led the field onto the Côte Camilien-Houde with three to go
The field stayed together until the start of the penultimate lap when Rafal Majka set a blistering pace on the lower slopes of the Côte Camilien-Houde, acting as a launch pad for Pogačar to make his winning move halfway to the top.
Pogačar crested the climb and started the descent with 10 seconds over two chasers Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), the rest of the field at 17 seconds back.
He continued to push his speeds as he orbited the circuit, his lead reaching 25 seconds on the peloton. Several counter-attacks from the field saw Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) try to bridge across but both efforts were unsuccessful.
Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) countered and was joined by Alaphilippe, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) and Alex Aranburu (Movistar), but the quartet were 30 seconds behind Pogačar, and effectively racing for second place.
The Giro d'Italia and Tour de France champion, Pogačar, showed no signs of slowing down on the last lap, collecting a 40-second advantage over the top of the Côte Camilien-Houde and holding his lead all the way around the circuit and onto the finish line on the Avenue du Parc.
As the crowds cheered, Pogačar made the final u-turn and enjoyed his victory in the final 500 metres before crossing the line, even making time to shake hands with GP Québec winner Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) who didn't finish the race in Montreal.
Behind Pogačar, Bilbao attacked the chase group in pursuit of second place, distancing his companions who were then swallowed up by the reduced field on the descent.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
