Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal 2024

September 15, 2024 The Montréal course will likely be more selective than Québec due to the sustained climb of the Côte Camillien Houde which is 1.6KM long with an average grade of 7%. The total elevation gain is over 4,500M and should prove as a litmus test for the Zürich World Championships in 2 weeks. The break took a full lap to form. Michael Leonard of Ineos was first to get away then Gil Gelders of Soudal Quickstep joined him. They had a 1 minute lead with 190KM to go when Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R attacked from the bunch in a bridge attempt. The peloton were quite subdued and content to keep an easy pace so the two leaders slowed down to let De Bondt join up with 177KM to go. Images cut out for over 100KM but when they resumed, UAE was on the front with 58KM to go and the three leaders had an advantage of just 30 seconds. Matej Mohorič of Bahrain-Victorious chipped off the front with 54KM to go and made the bridge 5KM later but UAE still had control at 25 seconds behind. The race was all back together with 36.5KM to go as they hit the Côte Camillien Houde for the 15th time. With 2 laps to go, Rafal Majka of UAE put in his final pull up the climb which exploded the field. Tadej Pogačar of UAE attacked halfway up the climb and a chasm emerged between him and the rest. A chase group of around 20 formed off of the descent but they were looking at each other and the gap was nearing 30 seconds. Coming into the final lap, Pogačar had 34 seconds on a group made up of Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quickstep, Spanish National Champion Alex Aranburu of Movistar, Pello Bilbao of Bahrain-Victorious, and Bart Lemmen of Visma-Lease a Bike. Bilbao went solo over the top as the rest of the chase group expanded to around 15 riders. Pogačar held his gap and took the win in emphatic style to successfully re-start to his season for the last big appointments of the year. Bilbao came in solo for second and Alaphilippe won the sprint for third from a group of 15.