GP Montréal: Adam Yates beats Pavel Sivakov in a two-up sprint

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in a sprint ahead of Pavel Sivakov (Ineos-Grenadiers) after a commanding team performance from UAE. Alex Aranburu (Movistar) put on an impressive climbing performance to win the sprint for third behind.

The race was run under stormy weather in Canada with the pivot Mount Royal proving to be decisive once again. Yates launched his move after a multi lap effort from his UAE team to make the difference on the climb. At the top, Sivakov was the only rider to come close to the Brit and the two were able to time trial to the line ahead of a select chase group of favourites.

Yates’ teammates Brandon McNulty, Marc Hirschi and Rafal Majka all played pivot roles in the multiple laps of setup riding to launch Yates to victory on the final lap.

"We came in with a great team, Quebec doesn't suit us as much so we knew it would be about today," Yates said after the race. "We didn't commit too early and we started setting the pace with three or four laps to go. the team did an amazing job and I was able to finish it off."

"Its a super hard race because there is not one corner or one climb where you know you need to be in front so I tried to save as much energy as possible and arrive when I needed to arrive, not before."

A moist day around Mont Royal

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Florian Vermeesch made up the day's only breakaway, soldiering on solo for the majority of the laps

The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal started under a downpour in the shadow of Mount Royal. After the warmth of the previous days, the skies finally delivered on their promise from Friday of rain in Quebec with a soggy start to proceedings.

On tap was 220km of a circuit that amounted to hill repeats, with every lap climbing thyroid the wooded climb of Mount Royal, or the Cote Canmilien-Houde (1.8 km at 8%) as it was labelled in the road book. Whereas Quebec was for the durable sprinters, Montreal is for the climbers with a kick.

When the race got underway, attacks were limited at first as the rain stretched the peloton out in a line as each of the riders got the bearings on the limits of the traction available to them around the turns of the circuit.

Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny) was the first rider to get clear, pulling away on the first lap and building a 25 second advantage by the top of Mount Royal on the second lap.

Vermeersch, a former Paris-Roubaix podium finisher in the rain autumnal edition in 2021, was an unsurprising rider to see at the head of affairs. What was surprising was the lack of attempts for riders to join him, with most of the peloton seemingly content to let the Belgian strongman dangle alone.

While a few riders tried, nothing stuck with the exception of Matisse Julien (Canada) who broke free and rode solo between the groups for a couple of laps before a mechanical ended his day out front. Vermeersch continued alone out front, behind the peloton saw a number of riders lose contact and pull the plug early, the biggest victim being Tim Wellens who climbed off with 12 laps left to race.

As the laps ticked by, Vermeersch pushed his advantage out past the three minute mark as the rain continued to fall. On the fifth lap, two riders were able to break the stalemate at the head of the peloton with Manuele Boaro (Astana Quazaqstan) and Harrison Wood (Cofidis) escaping on the climb.

Nevertheless, the two riders couldn't even get close to Vermeesch who kept pulling out his gap over the peloton. The two riders would be brought back into the peloton after a couple of laps in no man's land.

Ahead, Vermeersch kept increasing his advantage. When he crossed the line for the tenth time, his gap was past the five minute mark and Israel-Premier Tech had migrated their full team to the front of the peloton to begin to muster a chase.

Daryl Impey (Israel-Premier Tech) was especially prominent at the front of the peloton in what was his final race as a professional.

His day would end with applause from the crowd, hugs from the team’s support – including fellow veteran Simon Clarke who had pulled out of the race earlier in the day – and tears from the South African himself.

As the race closed in on the final the pace ratched up with Lidl-Trek and Groupama-FDJ adding to the pacemaking. Slowly but surely the peloton ate into the advantage of Vermeesch, while each lap brought with it new riders finding themselves off of the rear of the race. Attrition in Montreal is the name of the game.

Vermeesch’s advantage started to plunge as the race wore on, dropping from five minutes to three minutes and then to only a minute with five laps to go. By 54km remaining, Vermeersch was caught and the race for the final was back to where it was at the start, albeit with fewer riders heading round the lap.

With four laps left to the race, Groupama-FDJ moved to the front en masse to help setup Valentin Madouas for the final. Madouas has been in a good vein of form and was hoping to be the first French winner of the GP Montreal, a surprising note for a race that has a French spirit running throughout the weekend.

The pacing was interrupted by a surprising attack halfways through the lap from GP Quebec’s winner Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny). The Belgian team seemed to be keen on racing aggressively in Montreal after their win on Friday, with De Lie and Vermeersch playing attacking roles without having to look after any real favourite for the race.

De Lie only managed to get a handful of seconds on the peloton as he started the third to last ramp up Mount Royal and he was quickly brought back into the peloton as UAE Team Emirates hit the front in a big way with Majka putting in a huge dig up the only extended ramp on the lap and shattering the peloton.

UAE plays a flawless hand

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Yates capped off an impressive ride by UAE in the final

The acceleration was sharp enough to catch out the likes of Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step).

UAE came into the GP Montreal as the team most likely to dictate proceedings with a deep team of possible winners. While they surely were hoping to have Tim Wellens and Diego Ulissi deeper into the race, the team still had last year’s fourth place finisher Adam Yates, Marc Hirschi and Brandon McNulty as options for a result.

Through the finish with two laps to go the peloton had swelled back to around fifty riders with Alaphilppe, Matthews and Laporte back into the mix, even though it looked as if the race would ignite once again on Mount Royal.

Mijka continued his effort up the climb, raising the pace once again before he finally pulled off and Brandon McNulty opened up the taps and caused the peloton to shatter even more with Adam Yates moving to second wheel after being nearly invisible for the previous 200 kilometres.

McNulty continued the pace after the climb and even with the peloton swelling again, with a couple of the fast men returning to the fray, it was clear that UAE was preparing for an attack from Adam Yates on the last time up Mount Royal.

Nevertheless, Micheal Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) tried to break the script with an attack on the Côte du Polytechnique (780 metres at 6%) and had a slight gap into the final bell, but his more was never going to threaten UAE’s plan as Rafal Majka returned to the front for one final dig.

Matthews was brought back as the race hit the base of Mount Royal and the final UAE leadout started, first with Majka swinging off and then McNulty emptying his tank to launch Yates. As soon as he accelerated, it was clear he was in a class of his own as the likes of Mathias Skjelmose and Valentine Madouas were not able to touch his draft as he sailed away.

The only response that amounted to any type of challenge came from the gangly figure of Pavel Sivakov who dangled a couple seconds behind Yates as he sprinted his way up the climb. Yet, as we have seen in previous editions, the race was far from over with a rolling run to the line providing ample real estate for a chase.

Crucially for the both of them, Sivakov was able to pull back Yates and the two former, and future, teammates worked well together to hold a ten second gap to the chasers who were working in fits and starts behind the leaders.

Yates’ teammate, Marc Hirschi, was playing the key role of spoiler as the rest of the group – Aranburu, Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Simone Velasco (Astana Quazaqstan), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) , Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Julain Alaphiippe (Soudal Quick Step) – tried to rally a comeback from behind.

While their attacks would come close, as the leading duo approached the final 180 degree turn to the finish their lead looked set.

In the sprint, the final result never seemed in doubt, especially when Sivakov, the generally less explosive rider, was marooned through the final turn. Sure enough, that was all Yates needed and as soon as he moved right it was clear he would take the win.

Even still, the GP Montreal title is a big win for Yates who adds the Canadian one day title to his San Sebastian win in 2015 as the two WorldTour one day races he has to his name.

While Sivakov did not claim the win, the second place in Montreal was a good consolation prize for the Frenchman who was left off of the Ineos Grenadiers team at the Vuelta a España for what appears to be political reasons around his transfer to UAE next season.

Behind, Aranburu took third ahead of Madouas and an impressive Simone Velasco.