GP Québec: Arnaud De Lie storms to first WorldTour win in Canada

Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) won the GP Cycliste de Québec with a commanding sprint victory ahead of Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) and Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla). While the young Belgian has been a sensation this season, the race was De Lie’s first win in a WorldTour race.

Although rain was rumoured to be coming on the days before the race, the race was run under sunny skies and with a relatively calm peloton, as very few attacks were launched before the final run through the streets of Old Québec.

Last year’s champion Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) attacked hard on the short steep climb rising from the St Lawrence River with 3km to go, but his move was never going to stick with a large group still around to contest the final sprint.

Even still, rumoured new AG2R Citroën recruit Victor Lafay (Cofidis) and North America's Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) both tried to muster one final dig after Cosnefroy was brought back, but they too were foiled by those gearing up for the sprint. While Jumbo-Visma looked like they were set to deliver Christophe Laporte to a win, De Lie proved to be unstoppable, coming from behind and blasting away from the rest of the sprinters on the long drag to the line.

“My big goal was to win a WorldTour race and I did it so my season was a big success,” De Lie said. "I know I have a lot of new challenges, like the European Championships to come, but this gives me lots of confidence.”

Corbin Strong was next across the line, with his Israel-Premier Tech team placing him in a good position throughout the race, while Michael Matthews was once again on the podium, despite having a subpar run into the race this season. It was the Australian’s sixth podium at the event he has won on two occasions.

A race according to the script

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

The peloton ascending the steep ramp up from the Saint Lawrence river in Quebec City

With rain rumoured to be due to come during the race, the GP Québec was, possibly due for a bit of a mix up. Like Milan-San Remo, the race has a form that is extremely conducive to late breaking racing, With rain, however, the proposition could change. With that anxiety amongst the peloton a frantic first lap opened up the race with attacks rolling right away.

Nearly every team saw the breakaway as an opportunity to take a stage at the breakaway. On the second lap, four of those riders forged clear, with Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Gianmarco Garofoli (Astana Qazaqstan) making the move before the peloton eased off the gas. Two other riders, Felix Hamel (Canada) and Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (dsm-firmenich). After those two riders darted away, their peloton spread wide across the road, content to let the six riders make up the breakaway of the day.

While they held out for around a lap, the two chasers stalled with a gap of still a minute with Hamel giving up the ghost with still over thirteen of the sixteen laps to go. Hvideberg continued to dangle ahead of the peloton for a couple more kilometres. With 150km to go, the rhythm of the day was set with four out front and a full peloton chasing.

Tudor Pro Cycling and an especially committed Intermarché-Cirus-Wanty led the charge to have the break. With their full complement of riders at the front of the peloton soon after the breakaway established itself, Intermaché seemed dead set on a sprint for their team leader Biniam Girmay.

As the race progressed, the gap settled at around the three and a half minute mark, before falling to 2:39 at 90km to go.

And then things got quiet, with the race fitting into a flow that a circuit race like GP Québec often enters. With the gap dwindling in dribs and drabs every lap, the race was firmly into its slow boil phase. Different teams would come to the front, and cycle through riders with the first 10km of the lap offering wide boulevards for constant position changing, while 4km of the lap twists and winds its way up and down through the walled Old Town portion of Québec City.

The rhythm of that divided lap in this edition of the race seemed to lead to a stalemate. While the four riders out front were strong, they were only a quartet. As the number of laps wound down, so did the break's advantage. At 44km to go to the finish the breakaway was swept up and the end game began with less than four laps to go.

Yet, even without a breakaway out front, the peloton continued to follow the same trajectory of shuffling the deck on the long wider boulevards of the loop, racing to the sharp left turn into the urban portion of the circuit and then easing off and looking around at the others at the front of affairs while domestiques and lesser riders were jettisoned by the diminishing peloton.

“In the end it turned into a stalemate because of the fighting into the corners,” Ben O’Connor told GCN after the finish. O’Connor was on teammate duty for his teammate and last year’s winner Benoît Cosnefroy.

“There weren't actually many attacks that were going on the seconds and third to last laps, which was actually pretty interesting. It was mostly just a position fight most of the time. I guess that's how it goes sometimes.”

By the time the race hit the bell with a little under 14km to go, and with the real last opportunity for riders to roll the dice for a longer attack, the race was bound for a fairly significant bunch finish.

Into the crucial left hander that led onto the one truly steep ramp in the course, O’Connor positioned his team and leader Cosnefroy perfectly, with Cosnefroy using what was essentially a lead-out to hit the climb hard and go solo overtop. In the end his move may have been too fast since no one could match him and he was left to try and ride the final 2km of rolling terrain to the finish alone.

By the next riser, Cosnefroy was reeled back in as the American Powless took a dig with Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) chomping at his heels, but they too were tracked closely by riders from the sprint oriented teams. When the peloton sailed under the one kilometre banner to start the interminable drag to the line.

At first it looked as if Jumbo-Visma had timed things perfectly for their French sprinter Christophe Laporte with two riders ahead of Laporte hitting out with less than 500 metres to go. Nevertheless, it was too early with Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Corbin Strong swamping the Frenchman with less than 200 metres to go.

From behind, even further back than Strong and Aranburu, came Arnaud De Lie who kicked from 15-20 riders back and made up so much ground to take a commanding lead in the final 50 metres and to take his first WorldTour win in fantastic fashion.