After Friday’s racing, the peloton took on GP Montréal this Sunday where a hillier and more challenging parcours awaited them with multiple laps around the city. It was a fast start to proceedings with multiple attacks but eventually things settled down when a three rider break went clear. With all Team dsm-firmenich PostNL riders in the peloton, focus remained on staying safe and saving energy as the laps counted down.
Some strong riding by the team saw Romain Bardet, Warren Barguil and Kevin Vermaerke well positioned to make the dramatically reduced peloton of around 50 riders when the pace really ramped up, and the race headed into the final 20 kilometres. On the longest climb of the course Pogacar made his race winning move, while Bardet battled hard to make it into the next selection as the group thinned down even further. The closing lap saw multiple attacks, with Bardet himself trying several moves but unfortunately he couldn’t slip away, ultimately fighting it out to an 11th place finish come the line in a the reduced sprint for the final podium spot.
Bardet expressed: “It was a pretty tough race as expected, but I had positive feeling on a circuit that I like. Everyone in the team did their best to stay upfront and help us. Personally, I missed a bit of positioning and strength to go for a top result in the final but fighting for a podium place is a good start to launch the autumn classic campaign.”