September 13/24 17:13 pm - Matthews Wins Quebec for Record Third Time

Posted by Editor on 09/13/24
 

Michael Matthews (Jayco Alula) left it to the final 175 metres of the GP Quebec on Friday to burst to the front of the race and win for the third time, a record; he has also won the GP Montreal once. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), the Giro and Tour winner who was favoured, finished seventh. Guillaume Boivin (Israel Premier Tech) was the top Canadian, finishing with the front group in 31st place. Hugo Houle (Israel Premier Tech) was 67th, Quentin Cowan (Team Canada) 76th, Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) 110th and Michael Leonard (Ineos Grenadiers) 117th.






Photos by Ivan Rupes


Photos by ontherivet.photo


The 16 lap, 201 kilometre race opened with the obligatory attack from the line, which initially contained six riders before slimming down to four - Team Canada riders Félix Hamel and Jonas Walton, Artem Shmidt (INEOS Grenadiers) and Frank van den Broek (Team DSM-Firmenich). The group went out to nearly six minutes before the peloton began to slowly reel them in.



Félix Hamel followed by Jonas Walton at the front of the break




With 9.5 laps to go, Walton was the first to come off. Hamel hung on until 6.5 laps to go, before he finally cracked from the pace on the climbs set by Euro pros Shmidt and van den Broek. The gap was coming down, but slowly - with five laps to go the two leaders still had 4:40. However, the peloton was starting ramp up the pace and the leaders were clearly flagging.

With three laps left the gap came down to 3:30, and UAE surged to the front on the Cote de la Montagne climb. With 25 kilometres and two laps to go it was down to 1:25, and it was just a case of wondering if the leaders could start the final lap still in the lead - the answer was that they could not. Two riders jumped off the front - Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R) and Gil Gelders (Soudal Quick-Step) - and dangled between the lead and the peloton, but they were swept up before the start of the Cote climb, and the leaders were caught shortly after the top of it.

Jan Tratnik (Team Visma | Lease A Bike) attacked almost immediately, with fellow Slovenian Pogacar on his wheel, but they were quickly brought back, and the peloton seemed to sit up and take a breather for the start of the final lap. Then, American Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma | Lease A Bike) jumped away and started to time trial as everyone else looked at each other. The American got as much as 18 seconds before the speed behind started to pick, and he was caught on the Cote climb with only 3.5 kilometres to go.

Julien Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick Step) attacked hard over the top of the climb, with six riders joining him, including Pogacar and defending champion Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Destny). They got a gap, but De Lie had two team mates with him and Pogacar decided to back off, which allowed the field to come back to them.

The sprint was messy, with Pogacar and De Lie swarmed in the final 200 metres, when Matthews exploded to the front, battling Tiesj Benoot (Team Visma | Lease A Bike) until the final 25 metres, when the Belgian faded enough to allow Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) come by him for second and third. Pogacar took the Mountain award despite van den Broek being first up the Cote climb eight times, due to the very heavy weighting for the final lap. Hamel and Walton finished eighth and ninth in the Montagne competition.

"This victory means a lot to me. My season started well with the Classics and then I had no results until today. To come back here today and win is very special. To win my third Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, I faced probably the strongest field I've ever raced against here. It's an emotional moment for me because I recently lost my grandmother," says Michael Matthews.

"It was a tough day. Compared to last year, the race was harder, my legs felt like they were hurting, and the last two laps were difficult. My team did a great job and I got myself back into contention in the last 600 metres, but Michael Matthews was the strongest rider today," says Biniam Girmay.

"I'm just very happy, I want to enjoy it. Third place here is really a great reward for me after a very complicated start to the season. I had a good feeling in training. I've recently been a dad, so this podium is for my son Gino," said Rudy Molard.

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