Van Avermaet wins Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal

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Report

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) showed his form is bang on ahead of the UCI Road World Championships, putting out a powerful, well-timed surge to win the Grand Prix de Montréal.

The Olympic champion shot out of a reduced bunch late on the climb up the Avenue du Parc to overhaul Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), with Ivan Garcia (Bahrain-Merida) in third.

It was Van Avermaet's third win of 2019 after stages in the Tour de Yorkshire and Volta a la Communitat Valenciana, and follows a dry spell in the Tour de France where his best stage placing was third.

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) animated the closing kilometres, chasing down compatriot Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) and heading out of the last turn with a small gap on the bunch led by Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott).

But a bit too much cat and mouse scuttled the Frenchmen's advantage, and with the surge of Ulissi they faded from contention. The Italian looked to have the win in his sights until the bright orange jersey of Van Avermaet shot out to the side and surged past to snatch the victory.  

How it unfolded

The 2019 edition of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal saw the race extended by two laps of the demanding 12.2km circuit in the striking Parc du Mont Royal, bringing the total distance to 221km and the total climbing to 4,734 metres.

The arduous road ahead did not dissuade the an early quintet of attackers, with Guy Sagiv (Israel Cycling Academy), Ryan Anderson (Rally UHC Cycling), Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally UHC Cycling), Charles-Étienne Chrétien (Canada National Team) and Nick Zukowsky (Canada National Team) forging clear on the first of the day's 18 laps.

Within two laps, the escapees had a buffer of 10:45 on the peloton, but as the day wore on, the efforts of Sunweb and Bora-Hansgrohe at the head of the bunch gradually whittled down that sizeable early lead. In time, Julian Alaphilippe's Deceuninck-QuickStep squad joined the chase effort, and with 60km remaining, the gap was back down to just over 2 minutes.

The race took on different guise with five laps remaining when Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) accelerated on the Côte Camillien-Houde and set off in lone pursuit of the break. The Belgian didn't quite make it all the way across, but his aggression did encourage 20 or so riders to bridge across to him, which in turn triggered a sudden injection of pace in the peloton to bring the counter-attack to heel.

By that point, only Zukowsky was alone at the head of the race, having distanced his flagging Canadian teammate Chrétien. Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates), Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and Sep Vanmacke (EF Education First) were the next to try their luck by attacking from the peloton, but they were recaptured before they saw the head of the race. Zukowsky survived a little longer, but he, too, was swept up with a little under 3 laps remaining.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) triggered new frissons when he danced clear on the Côte de Polytechnique with 31km to go, bringing a group of 15 or so riders with him over the other side, but they never quite managed to put daylight between themselves and the peloton.

On the penultimate lap, Nathan Earle (Israel Cycling Academy) succeeded in forcing clear alone just as the rest of the move was swept up, but despite some bold resistance, he could never quite put daylight between himself and his pursuers. The Australian led up the climb to Mont-Royal with 15km to go, but as the bell approached, a reduced bunch was almost within touch distance.

With 10km to go it was AG2R La Mondiale's Nans Peters off the front with a surge that shattered the peloton behind.  He was joined by Michael Woods (EF Education First) and Enric Mas (Deceuninck-Quickstep) but Mitchelton-Scott mowed them down before the crest of the Côte Camillien-Houde.

Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) countered the move and got a 13 second gap until Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) put in a blistering move on the Cote de Polytechnique, marked again by Mas.

The chasers scrambled to minimize the danger, with plenty of descending before the final kick to the line. With 5km to go Cosnefroy's advantage was down to the single digits when Peter Sagan came across to Wellens. Alaphilippe made the move, bridged across the Cosnefroy and then sat on his compatriot on the long descent to the finishing stretch.

Behind, Sagan led on the descent, tucked low on the top tube and got the duo nearly in sight as the road straightened out.

But with a U-turn allowing the bunch to see the pair, Jack Haig nailed them back and Ulissi opened the sprint a tad too soon to hold off Van Avermaet at the line.

Results