Due to the sooner UCI Road World Championships in 2023 as a part of the UCI’s ‘tremendous worlds’ in Scotland, the GP Québec and GP Montréal have been rid of their spot as the standard good last tune-up race in anticipation of the battle for the rainbow bands.
But in 2024, they may as soon as once more, as that they had finished since their inception in 2010, function one of many last WorldTour races earlier than the World Championships, this yr in Zürich, the place the likes of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel will all vie for glory.
Only one in all them is current in Canada, Pogačar, who has had success beforehand on the 2022 GP Montréal, and they are going to be his first two races again since dominating the Tour de France and finishing the elusive Giro d’Italia-Tour double for the primary time since 1998.
He might have arrived in Canada later than anticipated with some journey documentation points, however the perfect rider on the earth was current for press conferences on Wednesday the place each worldwide and native media flocked to listen to his ideas on the races. He’s aiming at victory at each with Montréal extra suited to his traits however his affect is greater than simply his outcomes.
Pogačar can be removed from the one star current in Quebec, with riders like Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) seeking to carry their Tour de France successes into the later phases of the season or Arnaud De Lie and Michael Matthews hoping to repeat their earlier successes on the Quebecois occasions.
Riders arrived from Paris on Tuesday morning, with a brand new winner very probably coming within the type of one in all Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) or Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech). The racing must be intense and the winners worthy.
With the thirteenth editions of the races approaching on Friday, September 13 in Québec and Sunday, September 15 in Montréal, Cyclingnews seems to be forward at among the key storylines to comply with.
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Tadej Pogačar’s return to racing earlier than triple crown try
Any race that Tadej Pogačar strains up at is an enormous one, with that being precisely the case in Canada this season. It’s not solely the primary probability to see how the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France champion is feeling in his first race again but in addition a chance to see his form forward of the Road World Championships in Zürich, the place he shall be a favorite to take the rainbow jersey and be a part of Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche as ‘Triple Crown’ winners.
The Slovenian has been extra dominant than ever in 2024 with a brand new strategy and coach. However, he is barely raced the one-day races, taking in solely three to date. This did end in two wins and a 3rd place at among the hardest races of the season – Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. However, his kind in the mean time actually is unknown.
He’s already netted extra wins than any rider this season with 21 however that might effectively be 23 by the top of the weekend if his gorgeous present of energy on the Tour is something to go off. Glory on Sunday in Montréal – a race he is gained earlier than – is trying extra probably than Québec.
Pogačar will definitely give Friday’s race crack if no less than to get the legs transferring again in race rhythm forward of worlds, and he is not to be discounted if it does come all the way down to a dash on the dragging end. What’s extra essential although, is that Pogačar is effectively and actually again and desirous to be racing once more.
A return to a pre-Worlds kind marker
As mentioned, with the Road World Championships returning to its February slot, the Quebecois races are as soon as once more an ideal indicator of kind for the World Championships coming later in September.
This is why Pogačar is right here, as is identical for his teammate Tim Wellens, who alongside Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Van Gils, shall be seeking to support Remco Evenepoel in Zürich for Belgium towards the flying Slovenian.
Of the 2, Québec has proved the higher indicator of who would possibly win the Worlds, doing so twice in 2016 and 2017 when Peter Sagan got here and gained the races forward of claiming his rainbow jerseys, and equally for Philippe Gilbert in 2011 when he loved one in all biking’s greatest ever seasons earlier than changing into the world champion.
With such a brutally hilly course awaiting the riders in Zurich, nonetheless, Montréal’s 17 laps and over 4,000m of elevation achieve seems to be like will probably be the extra correct information of kind heading into Switzerland, the place a equally tough parcours of laps round Zürich ought to see the climbers battle out the win.
Can Pogačar make extra historical past and turn out to be the primary rider to win the GP Montréal and world title in the identical season?
Biniam Girmay seems to be to hold Tour de France success on in Canada
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) is presently nonetheless experiencing the perfect season of his profession to this point after claiming a trio of stage wins on the Tour de France and the inexperienced jersey in addition. But it is not over simply but as he continues his cost in Canada.
He’s contemporary off a rebuild of kind on the Renewi Tour and a third-place end on the Bemer Cyclassics, with the Tour, Olympics and a part of the Giro all in his legs. But the course in Québec must be preferrred for the Eritrean ought to he be delivered onto the ending straight in a half-decent place.
Girmay has established himself because the punchy sprinter to beat, capable of survive a lot of elevation achieve earlier than nonetheless unleashing sufficient watts to outsprint among the high riders. And Firday’s race appears to play into these strengths, the place he shall be one of many favourites ought to he make it via the attacking waves unscathed.
It’s been a historic yr for Girmay and for African biking and there can be extra to have fun ought to Girmay win Friday’s race in Québec. It’s one thing no African rider has ever managed and it might be an ideal solution to finish his WorldTour calendar this season.
Arnaud De Lie returns to web site of first WorldTour success
For Arnaud De Lie, Québec will at all times be a particular place having taken his first WorldTour win there final season, with a muscular dash from a poor place seeing him scorch to the right debut in Canada.
Anything lower than repeating will probably be a disappointment for De Lie, who will this day trip be competing within the Belgian champion’s jersey, with a last bunch dash suiting him after all of the climbing.
Girmay and Pogačar will in all probability be amongst his greatest rivals however in contrast to final yr when he was looking for that first WorldTour-level victory, he is bought extra wins below his belt and shall be a watched rider. Especially, after taking his second top-division win within the Renewi Tour with a shocking show in on the ultimate stage on the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
No one will wish to go to the end with De Lie in Québec, realizing how he would not want a lot highway in any respect to energy as much as full pace and reel somebody again in. If the 22-year-old is in his high form, he’ll be extremely laborious to cease – even for the likes of Pogačar.
The 2026 Worlds continues to attract nearer for Montréal
With this yr serving as each the fiftieth anniversary of Worlds in Montréal when Eddy Merckx and Geneviève Gambillon took the primary titles exterior of Europe, it is also one of many three last gown rehearsals on the brutally robust Montréal course earlier than the combat for the rainbow bands returns to the large metropolis in 2026.
The WorldTour race’s course round Mount Royal Park in Montréal is prone to kind the massive majority of the 2026 Worlds course. The park has already been set in historical past because of the Cannibal’s triumph in 1974, Bernt Johannson’s victory within the 1976 Olympics and the one-day race’s success. In two years, it’s going to as soon as once more present the right area for the world’s greatest to battle for rainbows.
As the likes of Pogačar and Julian Alaphilippe do battle on the brutally robust course this Sunday, there will definitely be an eye fixed on the long run and a thought forward to what sort of motion will happen in a yr’s time.
Cycling in Canada must be at its pinnacle after Autumn in 2026, with the GP de Québec, GP de Montréal and the Worlds all arriving inside a four-week interval and offering the right launchpad for the game to blow up.