The two Canadian WT race are held in Québec this Friday and this Sunday.
On Friday, it takes place in Québec (the city) :
I would say the 216 km race is for punchers-sprinters. Last year, Matthews🇦🇺 won; it is his race : he won it 3 times, has been on the podium each of the last 6 editions + 2 other times previously.
This year, the circuit was modified a bit compared to previous editions.
On Sunday, it takes place in Montréal :
https://gpcqm.ca/en/grand-prix-cycliste-montreal/
This 209 km race offers a longer climb, opening the race and adding climbers and classicmen to punchers, with still a few sprinters. Pogatchar🇸🇮 won 2 of the last 3 editions, and he will be there on Sunday (as well as in Québec on Friday).
The circuit remains the same as previous editions.
I quite like these races, although Pogacar participating will remove most of the excitement for me :(
Julian fixed that for you!
Québec resisted Pogatchar once more. Like Milan–San-Remo 😀
On the other hand, I sometimes have the feeling, that he takes this race as a warm-up for Montréal…
Yeah, quite sure he needs to gain back some “race feeling” after his break. And we might have something different in Montréal, but still… Wout finished before him today, so that means Wout wins in Montréal! (a man can dream)
Delighted to see Alan Philip win again 🙂 also nice to see Skjelmose show form after a terrible season with so many crashes…
Go Wout!
I was very confused when mcnulty attacked and pogacar was chasing…
But when pogacar caught up, i predicted he would gift the win… what a great guy
I always find these gifted victories kinda weird. If you want to gift someone a victory, stay back and don’t attack. Don’t make it obvious that you’re stronger.
if you’re in montreal, go ride the course tomorrow… you’ll be able to ride with the pros on their recon
Atrocious TV direction in Montréal. An even worse version of the bad TV direction we had on a couple of Belgian spring classics.
Not once could we see what was happening in the chasing group, or even how Simmons’ gap ahead of them was evolving. 2 camera-motorcycles and the helicopter (when he was present) stayed stuck for 20 minutes or so on the 2 UAE riders at the front of the race, after it had become clear that Simmons would not be able to catch up with them and that they would share the victory. Then there was 1 camera-motorcycle on Simmons, camera which never turned back to show if anything was coming behind, and that was it (we could only see Simmons himself trying to look back to assess his advance!).
25% of the cameras on Simmons; 75% utterly uselessly stuck on the 2 UAE riders (100% on static positions). 0% for the rest, the only place where something could happen.
On a side note, the TV director had already managed to miss the only thing everyone, all along the last 50 miles, expected and was waiting for: Pogatchar’s attack from the peloton. You had one thing to do today, you’ve known it for a month, and oops… 😀
Whenever I watch races from North America it seems like the TV directors don’t know a thing about cycling, which of course means that it’s hard to know what to film…
