The winner of the recent Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar, is among the riders registered for the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal (GPCQM) this fall, the organizing committee announced in a press release Tuesday morning.
Pogacar, who also won the Giro d’Italia this year, the Grande Boucle in 2020 and 2021 as well as the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in 2022, will be accompanied by a fine line-up of star riders for these UCI World Tour events which will take place on September 13 and 15.
Eritrean Biniam Girmay, Belgian Arnaud De Lie, Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe, Valentin Madouas and Romain Bardet, Australian Michael Matthews and Briton Tom Pidcock will also make the trip to North America.
Other headliners will be conspicuous by their absence, however, including Dane Jonas Vingegaard, champion of the Tours de France in 2022 and 2023 and second in 2024, Belgian Remco Evenepoel, reigning Olympic champion in the road race and the individual time trial, and Primoz Roglic, who is currently taking part in the Vuelta a España.
Riders such as Benoît Cosnefroy, winner of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in 2022, Matteo Jorgenson, winner of the Paris-Nice in 2024, Paul Lapeira, French champion in 2024, Matej Mohoric, Simon Yates, winner of the Tour of Spain in 2018, Alberto Bettiol, the Italian champion, Kévin Vauquelin, stage winner of the Tour de France in 2024, and many others will also be present.
On the other hand, local road cycling fans will be able to cheer on their favourites, since Quebecers Hugo Houle and Guillaume Boivin, as well as Ottawa’s Derek Gee — who competed in the Paris Olympics earlier this summer — and Ontario’s Michael Leonard are all registered for these events.
In total, 24 teams and 168 riders, from five continents, divided into the 18 best teams in the world and five invited ProTeams (Premier Tech, Lotto Dstny, Uno-X Mobility, Tudor Pro Cycling Team, Team Novo Nordisk) and the Canadian national team.
“The quality of this year’s field is a recognition of our ongoing commitment to delivering exceptional events, with a large crowd that always responds. As we head towards the 2026 World Championships in Montreal in September, our ambition is to continue to elevate these races to new heights, to the delight of cycling fans around the world,” said GPCQM CEO Joseph Limare in a press release.
De Lie is the reigning champion of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, while Yates took the honours of the Montreal event in 2023.