Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal | “You see, cycling isn’t complicated!”

Like the others, Hugo Houle was powerless against Tadej Pogačar’s show of force on Mount Royal.

“Let’s go boys, let’s go!” Hugo Houle had the best seat in town when Tadej Pogačar ordered the last two teammates with him to put the pedal to the metal at the foot of the penultimate climb of the Camillien-Houde route on Sunday afternoon.

The Quebec cyclist from Israel-Premier Tech (IPT) knew that the directive from the Slovenian from UAE was equivalent to his “coup de grâce”, he who had thrown his last forces at Michael Woods, Jakob Fuglsang and Derek Gee, his three teammates in an already well-worn peloton. All he had to do was warn them in his earpiece of the thunderbolt that was coming.

A kilometre further on, after a final relay from his Polish lieutenant Rafal Majka, Pogačar tightened his brake levers and got up from the saddle to give around fifty furious turns of the pedals.

American Matteo Jorgenson (Visma), who had just emptied half of his bottle on the road to lose a few grams, tried in vain to follow him before sitting down again. The same for Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), although not the last to arrive.

Turning left, just after the ghost bike in memory of the late Clément Ouimet, Pogačar already had the field clear behind him. The odometer showed that 23.3 kilometres separated him from the last of the 17 crossings of the finish line drawn further down on Parc Avenue.

Despite the overwhelming heat and the efforts already made, the reigning Tour de France champion, his black shorts stained with salt crystals, never wavered after giving himself a lead of around thirty seconds, a lead he managed until the end of the 209.1 km of the event.

After a first sprint success ahead of Wout Van Aert in 2022, Pogačar therefore won solo at the Montreal GP, a first since the inaugural triumph of the Dutchman Robert Gesink, who had however flown away on the last climb of Camillien-Houde to resist the comeback of Peter Sagan by just four seconds in 2010.

Pogačar finished 24 seconds ahead of Spaniard Pello Bilbao (Bahrain), who had separated himself from the chasing group on the final climb of Mount Royal. Alaphilippe (+40 s) settled the sprint for third place, at the end of which Woods, draped in his Canadian champion’s jersey, finished eighth, thus equaling his best result of 2019.

A lord on two wheels

But on Sunday, the tens of thousands of spectators had their eyes fixed on the only real hero of the day, Pogačar, who remained hungry after his seventh Friday in Quebec, where he regretted a tactical error in the last kilometer. In Montreal, no one would deprive the author of the Giro-Tour double of a 22^e victory in 2024.

“It was incredible!” commented the world number one, who arrived at a run in the press room. He was probably anxious not to miss his flight back to Paris in the evening, he who had missed the outward flight due to an administrative glitch.

“The atmosphere two years ago was definitely not like today. I really enjoyed it. The crowd at the finish line, that last kilometer, was incredible. There were so many people, and also on the climb to the top. It’s a real climb, and there were so many spectators. The other two climbs were also full of people. In fact, the whole course was invaded by the crowd! I’m super happy to have ridden in such an atmosphere here in Canada.”

With his lead, Pogačar allowed himself to deviate from his trajectory 400 meters from the wire to tap the hand of his friend Michael Matthews, the Australian winner on the Grande Allée who had retired a little before the end in Montreal. The UAE trainers and a few lucky spectators on the edge of the fence were also able to congratulate him.

After raising his arms, Pogačar made a gesture with his right hand, as if he was asking people to moderate their enthusiasm before he crossed the line. What was the point of this strange gesture? “You see the statue at the finish? The guy was doing the same thing! It just meant: keep calm!”

After the Sunday drummers, Sir Georges Étienne Cartier (1814-1873), the politician in question on the famous monument bearing his name, certainly never thought that he would one day inspire one of the best cyclists in history.

The Slovenian, who is only 25 years old, is nevertheless a being apart, who beats time with the peloton and always finds a way to liven up the show. A lord on two wheels in his garden.

Big stock

The success of the three-time Tour de France winner was built on the relentless work of his team, which gave very little room to the breakaway trio of 20-year-old Torontonian Michael Leonard (Ineos), young Belgian Gil Gelders (Soudal) and veteran Dries de Bondt, who caught them two laps later.

After reaching the five-minute mark, their priority was quickly cut in half, the fault of UAE who gave no one time to breathe during the 17 loops of 12.3 km.

“It was a fast race all day,” confirmed Guillaume Boivin, who came to meet his family in the large VIP tent following his retirement with four laps to go.

“There were maybe two more relaxed laps,” said the man who mainly focused on coaching his IPT teammates at the start of the event. “All the other laps, I didn’t see much below 400 watts on the hill. It’s stock. Every year, they make the day harder and harder. Today, I think they were looking for revenge compared to Quebec.”

Pogačar said he was “grateful” that the organisers had cut one loop from the circuit compared to his previous participation.

“The race was still really tough today, but the team was at its best,” he noted. “We executed our plan well, and the race situation was in our favor. We made things tough in the last few laps, and they set me up for an attack with two laps to go. Everything went perfectly for us in the race.”

“You see, cycling isn’t complicated!” joked Hugo Houle, 51^e 8:43 behind the winner. Indeed, it certainly isn’t for Tadej Pogačar, who has made an appointment for the World Championships in two weeks in Zurich.