Because of the earlier UCI Street 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 same old good remaining tune-up race in anticipation of the battle for the rainbow bands.
However in 2024, they’ll as soon as once more, as that they had accomplished since their inception in 2010, function one of many remaining WorldTour races earlier than the World Championships, this 12 months in Zürich, the place the likes of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Crew Emirates), Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel will all vie for glory.
Solely one in every of 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 one of the best 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 is 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 levels 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 presumably coming within the type of one in every of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), Juan Ayuso (UAE Crew 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 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 is not solely the primary likelihood to see how the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France champion is feeling in his first race again but additionally a possibility to see his form forward of the Street World Championships in Zürich, the place he might be a favorite to take the rainbow jersey and be 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. Nevertheless, 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. Nevertheless, his kind for the time being actually is unknown.
He is already netted extra wins than any rider this season with 21 however that might nicely be 23 by the top of the weekend if his beautiful present of energy on the Tour is something to go off. Glory on Sunday in Montréal – a race he is received earlier than – is wanting extra seemingly than Québec.
Pogačar will definitely give Friday’s race a great 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 right down to a dash on the dragging end. What’s extra essential although, is that Pogačar is nicely and really again and wanting to be racing once more.
A return to a pre-Worlds kind marker
As mentioned, with the Street 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 the reason Pogačar is right here, as is identical for his teammate Tim Wellens, who alongside Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Van Gils, might be seeking to help 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 received the races forward of claiming his rainbow jerseys, and equally for Philippe Gilbert in 2011 when he loved one in every of 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 like it is going to 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 change into the primary rider to win the GP Montréal and world title in the identical season?
Biniam Girmay seems to hold Tour de France success on in Canada
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) is presently nonetheless experiencing one of the best season of his profession to this point after claiming a trio of stage wins on the Tour de France and the inexperienced jersey as well. But it surely’s not over simply but as he continues his cost in Canada.
He is recent 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. However the course in Québec must be superb 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 plenty 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 might be one of many favourites ought to he make it by means of the attacking waves unscathed.
It has been a historic 12 months for Girmay and for African biking and there could be extra to have a good time ought to Girmay win Friday’s race in Québec. It is one thing no African rider has ever managed and it could be an ideal option 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 proper debut in Canada.
Something lower than repeating it is going to be a disappointment for De Lie, who will this day trip be competing within the Belgian champion’s jersey, with a remaining bunch dash suiting him after all of the climbing.
Girmay and Pogačar will most likely be amongst his largest opponents however not like final 12 months when he was looking for that first WorldTour-level victory, he is received extra wins below his belt and might be a watched rider. Particularly, after taking his second top-division win within the Renewi Tour with a surprising show in on the ultimate stage on the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
Nobody will wish to go to the end with De Lie in Québec, realizing how he would not want a lot street in any respect to energy as much as full velocity 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 12 months serving as each the fiftieth anniversary of Worlds in Montréal when Eddy Merckx and Geneviève Gambillon took the primary titles outdoors of Europe, it is also one of many three remaining gown rehearsals on the brutally robust Montréal course earlier than the battle for the rainbow bands returns to the massive metropolis in 2026.
The WorldTour race’s course round Mount Royal Park in Montréal is more likely 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 proper area for the world’s greatest to battle for rainbows.
Because the likes of Pogačar and Julian Alaphilippe do battle on the brutally robust course this Sunday, there will definitely be a watch on the long run and a thought forward to what sort of motion will happen in a 12 months’s time.
Biking 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 proper launchpad for the game to blow up.
