Peter Sagan wins Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec

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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) scored the 100th victory of his young but storied career, taking out the 2017 GP de Quebec with a powerful burst of speed in the final 50m.

The world champion had a clean pair of wheels on second-placed Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), with Michael Matthews (Sunweb) sliding in for third. It was a repeat win for Sagan, who triumphed here last year in similar circumstances over Van Avermaet.

"It's like if you stamp the same results from last year," Sagan said. "The style of the race was very similar. The last kilometre, Rigoberto Urán attacked like always, and then went for the same in the last 100 meters."

Urán's teammates tried to counter his move in the final 200m, attacking on the right side of the road. But the Sunweb lead-out man for Matthews swung into their path, forcing Tom-Jelte Slagter to come around the long way. Sagan kept his cool and waited until there was a clear path up the centre, then blasted up the road to victory.

"It was hectic in the final. I decided I had to start at, I don't know, 100 metres, 150," Sagan said. "Thanks to my team. Bora-Hansgrohe did an amazing job. They were pulling all day at the front, and we were able to control the last three laps."

When asked about taking the 100th win of his career, Sagan was pleased but philosophical.

"100 is very nice. It's a nice number. But maybe it's better to live a hundred years," he said. "It's very nice but it's never enough. Once you're happy with something, you don't grow up, and we have to grow up always."

Van Avermaet never looked to be in contention once Sagan went, and explained, "I lost Sagan's wheel a little when he went, and I couldn't have come past him, so I am pretty happy about my race. I would love to win here but second is not too bad."

The Olympic champion has been building his form back after a hugely successful Spring Classics campaign and said he's happy with his form and feeling confident for his defense of the GP de Montreal title.

"For me, the most important thing is that I still have a lot of power in my legs over the last kilometer and from there, whether you win or not, is all in the details. Today I was second, and hopefully, when we go to Montreal, I can repeat the same result as last year."

How it unfolded

The first leg of the week's pair of WorldTour one-days kicked off under cloudy skies in Quebec City, but the rain held off and the skies ultimately cleared to make for a sunny afternoon of racing on 16 trips around a lumpy 12.6-kilometre circuit.

Pier-Andre Côté (Canada), Tyler Williams (Israel Cycling Academy), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal) and Baptiste Planckaert (Katusha-Alpecin) formed the day's main breakaway, getting away from the pack on the first lap and rapidly working their way to a sizable advantage.

With two and a half minutes in hand after completing the first lap, the quartet build their lead all the way up to nine and a half minutes by the fourth lap, at which point the peloton finally decided to match their pace.

Brought down to around eight minutes, the gap hovered there or thereabouts for the better part of the next hundred kilometres with little change in the race situation until Côte began struggling and lost touch with the break with 70 kilometres to go.

Back in the pack, several teams began showing more of a concerted interest in bringing things back together. Bahrain-Merida, Sky, Bora-Hansgrohe and BMC all made their presence felt at the head of affairs, and the gap to the three leaders started falling.

At 50 kilometres to go, the advantage of the break was down to 5:30. 15 kilometres later the gap was at two and a half minutes and continuing to fall.

Van der Sande and Planckaert dropped Williams in the 14th of 16 laps, pushing on as two. With Orica-Scott and Trek-Segafredo lending a hand in the chase, however, the gap was down under a minute inside the penultimate lap.

As FDJ's Olivier Le Gac tried his luck off the front, Van der Sande called it a day in the escape. With Le Gac and Van der Sande reeled in, only Planckaert remained clear heading into the final lap of the race. He didn't hold out for long, with everything brought back together for the final lap.

Successive attacks by Sean De Bie (Lotto Soudal), Kenny Elissonde (Sky) and Roman Kreuziger (Orica-Scott) all came up short with Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe squad playing a big part in reeling in the moves. When Urán's familiar strike on the long uphill drag to the line on the Grande Allée was brought to heel, it came down to the sprinters, with Sagan timing his move to perfection for the repeat win.

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