The antepenultimate World Tour one-day race of the season took place on Friday.
One of the oldest European settlements in North America and the only completely-garrison-walled city north of Mexico, Quebec hosted a World Tour race for the 14th time, and the new circuit that took in three classified climbs didn’t disappoint.
As soon as the flag was waved, a four-man breakaway formed, but despite building a six-minute advantage after just two laps, their chances of victory looked doomed from the start. Everything changed when in the second part of the 218km race, a strong group attacked from the peloton and built a one-minute gap on the field. Those riders managed to bridge across in the closing laps of the race and enter the final 20 kilometers with a one-minute margin on the chasers.
Despite some big attacks behind that slashed their advantage to just 20 seconds, three riders remained at the front on the climb that started just before the flamme rouge, where Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) attacked and soloed to victory. The best placed Soudal Quick-Step rider on the first of the weekend’s two World Tour Canadian races was Antoine Huby.
Photo credit: ©Szymon Gruchalski / Getty Images
