Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec

Montréal, 193.6km/120mi

By Cathy Mehl

After the race Team Director Viatcheslav Ekimov said he was proud of the team on today’s stage:  “The guys worked hard all day and we can’t have too much to complain about.  We would have liked to be on the podium of course and we just missed it by one place, but we’re happy to win the Teams classification once again this season.”  Team rider Tiago Machado agreed, “We were aiming for the podium of course but we all did our best and have nothing to be ashamed of.  That climb was hard.  At 2k in length and going up it so many times was very difficult.  Maybe we should have waited one more lap to attack but we made the race hard and that was our plan from the beginning.”

A second day of racing in Québec put the 22 teams in the streets of Montréal on Sunday.  A demanding course of 16 local laps around a 12.1km loop made for exciting racing in the heart of downtown Montréal.  Overcast skies and occasional sprinkles were on tap for most of the stage, but gray skies did nothing to dampen the spirit and enthusiasm that greeted the peloton of 170 riders.

It was full-blown action right from the start as the peloton headed immediately up the climb of the Côte Camilien-Houde on 2km from the start line.  Attacks came fast and furiously before two riders established a tentative gap near the end of the first lap.  In the lead by a handful of seconds were Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) and Gorka Izagirre of Euskaltel Euskadi.  Three riders bridged across to make a five-man strong group, but  Alfredo Balloni (Lampre) crashed on an early descent, leaving four to hold off the main field.  Another reshifting put Kevin Seeldraeyers (Quick Step) in the front with Izagirre, Tjallingii and Angel MadrazoRuiz (Caisse d’Epargne), those four making the initial break-of-the-day. 

The peloton finally settled down with a gap building to more than three minutes as the laps ticked over.  The Shack’s Yaroslav Popovych and Sergio Paulinho pulled at the front of the main field, keeping the pace high to narrow down the number of true contenders.   Liquigas, Team Sky and Garmin put men on the front too and the gap began to come down.  With 6 laps to go the main field had closed to within 2:30 and with 5 to go almost 30-seconds had been knocked off the advantage to the breakaway, a trend that continued as Paulinho and Markel Irizar.  Irizar and then Chris Horner attacked on the hill just after passing the finish line and promptly blew the field apart, making the race hard for everyone with dreams of still winning the race.  Next Tiago Machado took his turn making the pack suffer and a gap was immediately opened up with The Shack boys taking over in the lead group as they raced through the finish line with 4 laps to go.  The lead group now consisted of Horner, Tiago, Daniel Oss (Liquigas), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) and Lampre’s Francesco Gavazzi. 

Teams not represented were under pressure to catch the Team RadioShack-led group who held 55-seconds in hand.  With three to go the gap was 44-seconds but the huge efforts of the day and so many trips over Houde put everyone in a load of pain.  Homeboy Ryder Hesjedal and teammate Danny  Pate (Garmin) were most intent on making the catch, with Canadian Hesjedal showing pure grit in leading the chase, attacking over and over to get rid of Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Levi Leipheimer.  Initially no one cooperated with Hesjedal and he was left to work it out for himself  if he wanted to earn the big prize.  With two teammates up the road, Leipheimer was in the perfect position to hamper Hesjedal’s efforts to gain ground.  Eventually Rabobank did join the effort, putting two men at the front.

With two to go the gap was only 12 seconds and every rider with a dream of victory began attacking on the Houde.  Machado was dropped but Horner still hung in there, along with Sorenson and Gavazzi, plus Bbox’s Cyril Gautier who bridged across to the front group.  There were attacks and counter attacks before Gesink made his decisive move on the last lap.  Once he powered away from the group that included Zubeldia, Gesink had plenty of daylight between himself and the chasers plus plenty of time to sit up and celebrate as he crossed the finish line. 

It has been a tremendous two days of racing in Québec and the quality of the field has been met with enthusiasm and appreciation by huge crowds at both venues.  The organizing committee did an excellent job  putting on the event and the UCI can rest assured that bringing the ProTour to North America was a grand idea.  On Monday evening the Teams fly back to Europe on the chartered jet and racing resumes Wednesday in Belgium for Team RadioShack in the GP de Wallonie. 

Beyond the Finish Line:  Looking for something to do once the racing has ended?  From Sept 17-19 the Tall Ships on the Quays will visit Montréal.   The five Tall Ships of the Bounty, the Roald Amunsen, the Pride of Baltimore II, the Lynx and the Unicorn will call into the Quays and will be at the heart of a huge maritime party. These amazing ships will be open to the public and you will be able to climb aboard and explore them from bow to stern.  This year’s favorite? The Bounty, the tall ship used in the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest.

Top Ten Result

1.  Robert Gesink (Rabobank)  4:58;22

2. Peter Sagan (Liquigas) 0:00:04

3. Ryder Hesjedal (Rabobank)

4. Haimar Zubeldia (Team RadioShack)

5. Maxime Monfort  0:00:09 (HTC-Columbia)

6. Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) 0:00;14

7. Leonardo Duque (Cofidis)

8. Alexander Botcharov (Katusha)

9. Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre)

10. Alessandro Ballan (BMC)

Team RadioShack Results

22  Levi Leipheimer  0:00:14

24  Tiago Machado 

26  Jani Brajkovic   0:00:20

31  Chris Horner  0:00:31

73 Markel Irizar  0:09:02

DNF Sergio Paulinho

DNF Yaroslav Popovych

Photos courtesy of Glenn Kasin