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50 years ago, the world came to Canada and changed cycling in this country

We're still seeing the effects of the 1974 road championships in Montreal

Photo by: Ken Johnson

Fifty years ago this August, Eddy Merckx, Francesco Moser, Geneviève Gambillon, Keetie Hage and many more of the top riders on the planet came to Montreal for the first road world championships held outside of Europe. While the races were important for the athletes—Merckx made history by becoming the first rider to win the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the world championship in one year—it also changed cycling in Canada. We’re still seeing the influence of that event today.

In 1974, Pierre Hutsebaut had been living in Montreal for about six years. Back in France, his grandfather and father had been heavily involved in cycling. He’s joked that he came to Canada to escape the sport, but that didn’t happen. In ’74, Hutsebaut was somewhat active in the scene. He was early in his coaching career. It would be years before he’d become a national team coach, and later the Canadian Cycling Association high-performance director. That year, at the races, he was simply a spectator, albeit one with good connections. A friend got him access that allowed him to go just about anywhere on the roughly 16-km circuit. He remembers that the caravan was quite small compared with the fleet of cars that follows riders today, but the vehicles were big. “There were pickup trucks and a station wagon for the commissaire,” he says.

Eddy Merckx

Hutsebaut’s sympathies were with the French riders. Francis Campaner and Bernard Thévenet were in breakaways, while Raymond Poulidor, the eternal second, finished behind Merckx. There was a lot of support as well for the riders from Italy. Felice Gimondi came to defend his world title. “You have to remember, too, that there were no professional riders from Canada at that time,” Hutsebaut says. “But some were in the amateur race the day before.”

One person who was quite taken by the world championships was Serge Arsenault, the founder of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal, which started in 2010. In ’74, he was a Radio-Canada reporter sent at the last minute to cover the races. He then fell in love with cycling. Hutsebaut got to know Arsenault in 1984 at the L.A. Olympics. When the reporter went on to organize the Grand Prix des Amériques, a one-day race that ran in Montreal from 1988 to 1992, Hutsebaut consulted on the event. Out of the GP des Amériques, the GPCQM grew. Those races have not only brought the top road racers to Canada consistently since they began, but provided development opportunities and inspiration for this nation’s riders. In 2010, Derek Gee, then 13, rode with a group from Ottawa to Montreal to watch the GP Montréal.

Bernard Thévenet

“The 1974 championships were the seed, for me, to demonstrate that it was possible to have such a big event in Canada. To race out of Europe, it was a big challenge,” Hutsebaut says. The race route in ’74 is largely what riders take on at the GP Montréal. There are some changes, of course. The climb up McCulloch Avenue, where Hutsebaut watched much of the ’74 race, has long been absent. The route will also be the backbone of the 2026 world championships, which will return to Quebec’s largest city, but plans shown before the 2023 GP Montréal have riders heading slightly north onto Saint-Urbain Road.

Fifty years ago, after the crowds dispersed and after Merckx and company left Montreal, the momentum of the world championships carried on. In two years, when the worlds return, it will be as if a giant lap of a circuit race is crossing a start/finish line. And the race is sure to continue.