Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) are among the many headline riders concentrating on victory on the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal on September 13 and 15.
Alongside the Slovenian, different former winners on the WorldTour one-day Canadian races Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny), Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) have been additionally introduced as starters.
With the Road World Championships again in its common late September slot on the calendar, the races in Québec City and Montréal will function the proper ultimate tune-up race and one of many final probabilities for riders to check themselves towards elite competitors earlier than heading to Zürich.
Top North American expertise may also be on present by the USA’s Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), and plenty of of Canada’s greatest riders: Derek Gee, Hugo Houle, Guillaume Boivin (Israel-Premier Tech) and 20-year-old Michael Leonard (Ineos Grenadiers).
“Since the creation of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal, we’ve got labored tirelessly to determine races that stand out on the world stage for his or her excessive requirements, professionalism, and the nice and cozy welcome from the Québec public,” mentioned Joseph Limare, GPCQM General Manager.
“Every 12 months, we’ve got the privilege of welcoming the largest names in biking. This 12 months, the presence of riders like Tadej Pogačar and Biniam Girmay is obvious proof of that. The high quality of this 12 months’s area is a recognition of our fixed dedication to supply distinctive occasions, with a big enthusiastic viewers.”
Pogačar took victory in Montréal in 2022 and racing in Québec on September 13 will probably be his first look since dominating the Tour de France to finish an historic Giro-Tour double, the primary since 1998. It will solely be his fourth one-day race of the season however he’s podiumed all three to this point, together with two gorgeous solo wins at Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
If he leaves Canada in prime form, Pogačar can have his eyes on biking’s elusive Triple Crown, consisting of wins on the Tour, Giro and World Championships, a feat solely achieved twice in males’s racing by Stephen Roche in 1987, and Eddy Merckx, who coincidentally accomplished it with victory at worlds in Canada in 1974.
2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1974 Cycling World Championships in Montréal, the place Merckx took victory forward of Raymond Poulidor, the primary to be held exterior Europe, with the battle for the rainbow bands set to return to Canada’s second-biggest metropolis in 2026.
“As we transfer in direction of the 2026 UCI Road World Championships, in Montréal, our ambition is to proceed to raise these races to new heights, to the delight of biking followers world wide,” concluded Limare.
Other huge names confirmed by the organisers included Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Alberto Bettiol (Astana Qazaqstan) and a complete host of French stars, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL).
It would be the thirteenth version of each races since they have been dropped at the WorldTour calendar in 2010.
