Antoine Duchesne bows out, Pogačar triumphs at Grand Prix de Montréal

On Sunday WorldTour racing returned to the streets of “the 514” as the 11th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal wound its way around Mont Royal Park after two canceled editions. Antoine Duchesne, on his swan song, spent all day in the breakaway, eating up the King of the Mountains points and taking the KOM prize. Tadej Pogačar beat Wout Van Aert in a sprint out of a group of five for the win. Guillaume Boivin was the top Canadian.

The Course

Twenty kilometres longer than the race in Québec, the Montréal route was 18 laps of 12.3 km. Each lap started with KOM point Côte de Camilien-Houde, 1.7 km at 7.6 percent. With 6 km to the finish came Côte de Polytechnique, 800 meters of 4.9% percent with pitches up to 10 percent, and then Côte Pognuelo, 500 meters at 7.5 percent, crested 2.5 km from the finish line. The Avenue du Parc finishing straight was also uphill, 560 meters of 4 percent.

Let’s go for round 2 at @GPCQM ??

Racing gets underway at 10:15 local time (16:15 CEST) and with 18 laps of the circuit and more than 4000m of elevation on the cards, we’re in for a big day!

Allez ?

?? #GPCQM pic.twitter.com/Z26LgoLleE

— Israel – Premier Tech / Israel Cycling Academy (@IsraelPremTech) September 11, 2022

Several former winners were on the start line: Greg van Avermaet, Michael Matthews, Diego Ulissi, Rui Costa and Peter Sagan.

The Canadian contingent was almost the same as Friday. Hugo Houle, Guillaume Boivin and Antoine Duchesne were the Canadian WorldTour riders, and Nicolas Coté, Thomas Schellenberg, Matteo Dal-Cin, Carson Miles, Quentin Cowan and Nicolas Rivard made up Team Canada.

It was Antoine “Tony the Tiger” Duchesne’s last pro race.

Of course, a member of the Canadian squad, Nicolas Coté, was in the first attack. But it was Dal-Cin and Thomas Schellenberg who made the first formidable breakaway. It didn’t last long into Lap 2.

Duchesne was one of the instigators of the second, smaller, more controllable breakaway. This sextet spent the majority of the race out front, with the Canadian snaffling up the KOM points. Duchesne was dropped at the beginning of Lap 14 with the peloton 2:25 behind. UAE-Emirates controlled the front of the peloton for Tadej Pogačar, and the team shelled out Sagan and Matthews.

After all their work on Friday in Québec, Jumbo-Visma couldn’t get Wout Van Aert on the podium. On Sunday the Dutch Bees took over from UAE and soon Pogačar had only one teammate left. DSM’s Norwegian Andreas Leknessund was the last fugitive to submit to the will of the peloton on the penultimate circuit’s climb of Côte de Camilien-Houde.

Two riders made a late move and heard the bell. On the last climb of Côte de Camilien-Houde Dani Martinez attempted to bridge. This prompted first the catch and then Pogačar to make a move, with Van Aert and Andrea Bagioli matching him. Adam Yates came over and attacked. Pogačar, Bagioli, David Gaudu and Van Aert made up a strong quintet.

Midway through the last lap, the five had a 30-second gap on the chase. It looked like the winner would come from the handful of riders. Yates pounded up Côte Pognuelo but no one cracked.

Van Aert led under the red kite. Gaudu took the lead after a big corner. The Frenchman led out the sprint, but the Slovenian came around his left side and then staved off Van Aert for the win.

The final round of the 2022 WorldTour is the Monument Il Lombardia on October 8.

11th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 5:59:38
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
3) Andrea Bagioli (Italy/Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) s.t.
37) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +2:02