Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec: Julian Alaphilippe storms to hard-fought solo victory with late-race attack on breakaway

Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) claimed his first WorldTour win of the season, surging away from his breakaway companions on the final climb to win the Grand Prix de Québec.

The Frenchman held off a chase from Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates XRG), who finished second, and Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana), who finished third.

"I really need some time just to realize what I've done today," Alaphilippe said. "To win in the way I've done today is just great. The team did great work as well."

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Alaphilippe was part of an attack that went clear with 75km to go and, while that move was nearly caught with 12km to go, fresh legs came from the peloton to reinvigorate the move.

"I had good sensations. It was a little bit tactical, and I needed to be really focussed on getting the finale right. Lap by lap, it was getting harder and harder. I'm really happy."

It was the first race back for Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG), who put in a late attack to form a chasing group behind the breakaway, but the world champion was caught before the final climb.

The remnants of the breakaway filled out the top seven, with Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) winning the bunch sprint for eighth ahead of defending champion Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla).

Both Sivakov and Bettiol said that their podium spots weren't the outcome they'd hoped for, but Bettiol was happy to get a result after months of struggling.

"I was feeling good today, and I think I chose the right moment to anticipate the final - everybody was scared of Tadej's attack. I'm so proud of my teammate, Anthon and all the team. They did a great job, even for Julian, unfortunately for us, he was so strong today. This third place is not what we wanted, but it's a third place that I [dedicate] to my team."

How it unfolded

Félix Bouchard and Philippe Jacob (Canada), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) escaped in the first few kilometres and were rapidly allowed to gain time, with their gap reaching over six minutes before the Tudor-led peloton began to bring it down.

Jacob came unglued on the Côte de la Montagne with 85km and seven laps to go as the breakaway's advantage slipped to five minutes, leaving only three to fight on, but the action in the peloton was heating up at the same time.

Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG) countered an acceleration by Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and pulled away a small group with Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Matteo Cattaneo and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quickstep), and Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ). Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) leapt across to make it a nine-rider chase.

Wellens continued to drive the pace, but the peloton was not keen to see this group slip away, and the chase group was caught in the feed zone. It wasn't long before another attack went clear, with Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) launching with 75km to go.

Pithie was joined by Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates), Alaphilippe, Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), passing Jacobs as they went up the road with six laps to go.

The action brought the gap to the leaders down to three minutes, with the first chase only making up 25 seconds on the leaders.

With 50km to go, the peloton was only 2:35 behind, with the chase group still lagging 1:50 behind the leaders.

Another attack came from Wellens with four 12km laps to go, which brought the chasing group with Alaphilippe into view, while the three leaders had two minutes.

Six more riders attacked to bridge to Alaphilippe's group, and that inspired Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) to leap across, too.

New to the move were Anthon Carmig and Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Artem Shmidt (Ineos Grenadiers), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates XRG) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).

The distance finally caught up with Bouchard, and the Canadian lost touch with Maceijuk and Vergallito with 38km to go. The pressure caught up with Politt and Pithie, too, and they dropped back from the first chase group.

With three laps to go, the leaders had 1:35 on the peloton and 40 seconds on the chase group, but the two riders at the head of the race saw the group coming and sat up to let them join up, making it an even dozen with 34km to go.

The escape worked diligently together but were still losing time as EF Education-EasyPost and Jayco-AlUla chasing hard. With two laps to go, their lead was down to one minute.

Heading into the final lap, despite Charmig blowing up the lead group with a surge on the climb to the line, their advantage was down to 30 seconds and Pogačar attacked from the peloton, sweeping past the remnants of the lead group.

However, the world champion was followed by Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). The Pogačar group picked up Meurisse along the way, and crossed the line just 13 seconds behind the seven remaining leaders: Sivakov, Skjelmose, Hermans, Mohorič, Bettiol, Charmig and Alaphilippe.

Pogačar was joined by teammate Brandon McNulty, who bridged across with Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Edoardo Zambainini and Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious).

With 4.5km to go, McNulty surged, with Girmay and Powless following him up the road. Pogačar calmly waited at the back of the chase group as the McNulty group came back, and the rest of the attack was caught by the peloton.

As the final climb of the Côte de Montagne approached, Alaphilippe, Sivakov and Bettiol had the lead and 22 seconds over the peloton.

Alaphilippe surged with 1.5km to go. Behind, Pogačar was stranded on the front of the peloton, unable to chase with teammate Sivakov up the road. Despite Bettiol's best efforts, they couldn't catch the Frenchman in time, and Alaphilippe celebrated a fine victory.

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