Adam Yates won one of the most entertaining editions of the GP de Montreal (World Tour race on a 12,3 km circuit for a total of 221,4 km), taking over the honour from his teammate Tadej Pogačar, who took the title in 2022.
The British rider added this special triumph to his satisfying season closing in the amazing performance by the whole UAE Team Emirates. Especially in the last three laps, the riders directed by Director Simone Pedrazzini led the head group with a very high pace, with Rafal Majka and Brandon McNulty who succeeded in heavily selecting the top contenders list on the toughest climb of the course, the Cote de Camillien-Houde (1,8 km at 7,3%).
On the final passage on the hill, Adam Yates attacked and only Pavel Sivakov (Ineos-Grenadiers) could follow him. The duo managed to freeze an advantage of 10”, also thanks to the riding of Marc Hirschi who controlled the situation in the chasing group.
On the iconic final 500 meters uphill straight, there was no way for Sivakov to bite back to the sprint from Adam Yates, who gave UAE Team Emirates the 49th victory of the season. 10th place went to Marc Hirschi.
Yates: “It was a really long day and the race was super hard. The guys did a perfect job for me, setting a high pace: I am not super explosive, so we knew that if we set a hard pace, we had chance to obtain a top result. On the last lap we went full gas, that was perfect, I went super fast in the climb and Sivakov was still there, so he obviously had good legs and good condition. I thought maybe I could be a little bit quicker in the sprint and that’s how it went.
I’ve been trying to win this race for years, I was second in 2015, a long time ago, good memories, but today I succeeded to win”.
Results
1. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 5:54:02
2. Pavel Sivakov (Ineos-Grenadiers) +3”
3. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) +12”
10. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) +29”