By Jamie Finch-Penninger – @FishysCP
The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal is the second and harder of the two Canadian classics races, and like the GP Quebec, it is a relatively new addition to the cycling calendar, only having been raced since 2010. Both the Canadian races have become important preparation for the World Championships, and riders who want a chance at the rainbow stripes either ride the Vuelta or the Canadian classics. The circuit race format used here is unusual in the World Tour, and is part of the reason that is offers good Worlds preparation, as the Worlds course is almost always a circuit race as well. The GP Montreal has typically been won by puncheurs or climbers, with the winners list comprising of Robert Gesink, Rui Costa, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Peter Sagan and Simon Gerrans. Only Gerrans win came down to a bunch sprint, due mainly to the very strong work of Orica-Greenedge on the last lap.
The Course
17 laps of a 12.1 kilometre circuit which circles the University of Montreal campus. It includes 2 climbs in the first half of the course, the Cote Camilien-Houde (1.8 km, 8%) and the Cote de la Polytechnique (780 m, 6.3%). The rest of the course is made up of flat or descending roads, except for the final 500 metres to the finish line, which angle upwards at 4%.
The Australians
Michael Matthews comes into this race as one of the favourites after sprinting to 2nd in the GP Quebec, just being a bit too far behind the winner Rigoberto Uran when he jumped. He was pretty invisible in the final kilometres, but he was where he needed to be where it mattered, and he will be happy with his performance. His form since returning from a rib injury in the Tour de France has been fair, he took a win and a 2nd place finish in the Tour of Alberta against moderate sprinting opposition, but his 2nd in what was a very tough finish to Quebec will have given him a lot of confidence for this race, and more importantly the Worlds. At his best, Matthews will cope with these climbs, and he has shown in races like Amstel Gold that he can handle a lot of climbing in a race and even follow the best in attacks on them. His sprint on uphill finishes like this one is world-class, and not many will fancy their chances against the Aussie if it is all together going into the finish. That may be his downfall however, as he will be a marked man, and all the other teams will try everything to either drop Matthews or attack away from his group. Orica-Greenedge would normally control things for their main man in that instance, but they were strangely absent from the race in Quebec, where if they had been making the pace at the end and bringing Uran back, Matthews would have been able to take the win. In fact Adam Yates was the only one to finish in the front group, and he had been on the attack earlier, and wasn’t able to help his sprinter in the finale. Matthews will need his team to be stronger here, as he won’t be able to control all the attacks by himself.
The other Australians in the race are Michael Rogers, Simon Clarke, Nathan Haas and Heinrich Haussler, who will be racing in support of their team leaders and the mostly Australian Drapac team are also present and they’ll most likely be racing for Lachlan Norris, who is their best on the climbs.
Other Contenders
Sprinters: Alexander Kristoff, Fabio Felline, Tom Boonen
Attackers: TJ Slagter, Greg Van Avermaet, Phillip Gilbert, Rigoberto Uran, Bauke Mollema, Michal Kwiatkowski, Julien Alaphillipe, Rui Costa, Alexis Vuillermoz, Tony Gallopin.
Verdict:
It will be a tough task for the sprinting teams to keep this race all together into the finale, and it looks more likely that a small bunch of attackers will decide the race between themselves. Bauke Mollema looks like a likely candidate for the win in that case, and he’s the one I’ll nominate for the win.
For a more detailed preview of the race, check out my website [email protected]
