Peter Sagan takes solo win in Montreal
Peter Sagan (Cannondale) secured a nail-biting solo victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on Sunday. After attacking with three kilometres to go, he crossed the finish line just seconds ahead of chasers Simone Ponzi (Astana) in second place and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) in third.
“The race was really hard,” Sagan said. “I saw some riders going on the climb and everyone was going hard. I tried to attack over the last climb and I wanted to ride alone. I thank my team for their hard work. The win was very good because I got one more victory from my adventure here in Canada.”
Hesjedal won the best Canadian rider award for his podium performance.
The peloton lined up for the start of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal along the Avenue du Parc, located at the base of Mont Royal. They raced 17 laps of a 12.1-km circuit that included a two-kilometre climb over the mountain, totalling 205.7 km.
Canadian road champion Zach Bell (Team Canada) made the first attack at the base of the climb along the Camilien-Houde. He was followed by Danilo Hondo (RadioShack-Leopard), Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Sergio Paulinho (Saxo-Tinkoff). Shortly after, William Clarke (Argos-Shimano) and Adriano Malori (Lampre-Merida) joined the decisive seven-man move.
The breakaway maintained a five-minute lead ahead of the main field during the first half of the race.
Petr Ignatenko and Rudiger Selig (Katusha) tried to get away from the field on separate occasions but both ended up riding in limbo just behind the breakaway before getting pulled back into the peloton.
Teams Cannondale, Omega Pharma-QuickStep and Sky did much of the work to reduce the time gap to the breakaway during the last half of the race. A crash through a U-turn just before the finish line caused Sky’s Richie Porte and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke to abandon the race with five laps to go.
Lotto-Belisol’s Dirk Bellemakers attacked at the base of the climb and bridged across to the remnants of the breakaway. That move caused a series of additional attacks that ultimately brought the peloton back together.
Several large breakaways ignited over the climb during the final laps, however, Sagan was able to bridge across to most of them.
Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) and Amael Moinard (BMC) attacked coming into one lap to go but the peloton reeled them back on the last ascent over Mont Royal.
Robert Gesink (Belkin), who won the 2010 edition of the race in Montreal and won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec just two days ago, made a strong move over the top of the climb and created a small gap. Sagan bridged across to him followed by a series of key riders including Hesjedal, Ponzi, Jan Bakelants, Chris Froome (Sky), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Arthur Vichot (FDJ), among others.
Hesjedal was very aggressive during the final seven kilometres of the race. Sagan proved to be the strongest in the group and made his winning move with three kilometres to go. Despite a strong chase group, no one could bring him back before the finish line.
