Remco Evenepoel has made a successful start to his nearly three-week stay in Canada, winning the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec. He beat Giulio Ciccone in a two-man sprint to take his eleventh victory of the season.
Just as he did ahead of the Tour de France, Remco Evenepoel once again showed that he can benefit from an extended break from racing. His last competition before Québec had been the Clásica San Sebastián, which he also won.
The race in Québec covered 206 kilometres over a circuit that had to be completed 20 times. The action really picked up in the final third, with a series of attacks causing new groups to form. With 27 kilometres to go, Remco moved clear alongside Ciccone, eventual third-place finisher Anthon Charmig and Alessandro Pinarello to catch race leader Alberto Bettiol.
A chasing group was never able to close the gap, which had remained at around 20 seconds for a long time. Remco, Ciccone and Charmig then entered the final climb together. The Dane was dropped almost immediately, leaving Ciccone on Remco’s wheel. But in the final sprint, Ciccone was unable to match him.
The victory in Québec was Remco’s first in North America. It also completed his list of victories across the continents, having previously won races in Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa and South America.
On Sunday, the sister race in Montréal will serve as a dress rehearsal for the World Championships road race, which will take place exactly two weeks later. In between, on the following Sunday, Remco will compete in the World Championships individual time trial.
“I didn’t really feel that good in the first part of the race. But luckily, I found the right strength in my legs again towards the end, so I was able to win the sprint. So I’m very happy. One lap after we went clear, we had a nice gap. I didn’t have the explosiveness I needed on the final climb to really drop the other two, but I kept going and trusted my sprint – and it was the right decision to go for the sprint.
After a longer break, it’s never easy to get back into the rhythm, especially when your first race back is such a hard one. Sunday is the next step. There are a lot of big challenges waiting for us over the next two weeks.”
— Remco Evenepoel
