Preview GP Montréal 2024 | Tadej Pogacar on fertile ground, but also Visma | Lease a Bike and Lotto-Dstny!

The honors list of the GP Montréal indicates what you need to have in the legs to win the race: as much gravy in the legs as the Canadians have on their dish poutine. We see almost exclusively one-day contenders on the list of participants. However, after the coronavirus break, there has been a sort of turnaround: whereas before, it was a race for Flemish types, after 2022, it seems to go more towards the climbers.

Indeed, Tadej Pogacar triumphed in the race in 2022, and his teammate Adam Yates won it in 2023. And so it seems to be becoming more and more of a climbing race, especially when you look at the somewhat changing field of participants regarding rider characteristics.

2023 Adam Yates
2022 Tadej Pogacar
2021 Not ridden
20 Not ridden
2019 Greg Van Avermaet
2018 Michael Matthews
2017 Diego Ulissi
2016 Greg Van Avermaet
2015 TIm Wellens
2014 Simon Gerrans

The course hasn't changed much compared to 2023, but there is one essential difference: instead of 18 laps through the city of 1.8 million inhabitants, we'll do 17 this year. The lap hasn't changed, containing 269 altimeters spread over four vicious climbs. For the quick calculators: 269 times 17 = 4573 altimeters on Sunday!

That means Sunday's race will be many times harder than Friday's (GP Québec) since in that other metropolis, there were around 3,000 altimeters to climb. If we zoom in on the four mentioned climbs, the Cote de Camillien-Houde is the first and immediately the toughest. This hill is 1.8 kilometers long and has an average gradient of eight percent.

It then goes via a descent to the Cote Polytechnique, 780 meters at six percent. The steepest two hundred meters are also eleven percent, making it one of the most potentially crucial hills. After that comes the Pagnuelo climb in the Parc du Mont-Royal (600 meters at seven percent) and a fast descent to the final hundreds of meters.

Timing will be crucial on that finishing section: it runs at four percent uphill for some 560 meters, right along the beautiful Mont Royal climb in the Canadian city. If you use your strength too much, you will stall here.

Weather
On Sunday, the men can expect glorious racing weather! It will be about 27 degrees Celsius, while the chance of precipitation is virtually nil. And that is nice, especially when you consider that there is also hardly any wind.

Times
Start: 11 a.m. (5 p.m. Dutch time)
Finish: 3:45 p.m. (9:45 p.m. Dutch time)

There has been a clear division in Canada for the last two years. Quebec has become the race of choice for the punchers, while Montreal tends more towards the climbers. We also saw this in the winners, with UAE Team Emirates pioneers Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates. The former is at it again, with Tim Wellens and Juan Ayuso, among others, at his side. Top favorite, check!

Behind them are a wide range of riders, some of whom have already shown themselves in Quebec. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma | Lease a Bike tried there with an attack in the last ten kilometers but failed. Tiesj Benoot eventually finished nicely - just ahead of Per Strand Hagenes - in fourth place, with which they seem finished. Wilco Kelderman should also be able to get far in this race.

Tadej Pogacar, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), and Lotto-Dstny controlled everything in the finale. The Belgian formation had three men in the closing kilometers, but in the end, it had to settle for place thirteen for Arnaud De Lie. Montreal might be too tough for him, but in any case, it is inevitable that Maxim Van Gils and Jenno Berckmoes also have good legs.

Otherwise, we see many teams with multiple assets in their ranks. Jayco AlUla is, of course, there with Michael Matthews as the Quebec winner, but Simon Yates could succeed his brother on the honor roll. On behalf of Groupama-FDJ, Rudy Molard surprisingly made the podium in Quebec, but with Valentin Madouas and Romain Grégoire, they still have men who can go far.

Bahrain Victorious (Pello Bilbao, Matej Mohoric, and Santiago Buitrago), Lidl-Trek (Bauke Mollema, Toms Skujins, and Andrea Bagioli), EF Education-EasyPost (Ben Healy and Neilson Powless), dsm-firmenich PostNL (Romain Bardet, Kevin Vermaerke, and Frank van den Broek), Movistar (Alex Aranburu and Ruben Guerreiro) and especially home team Israel-Premier Tech (Stephen Williams, Derek Gee and Michael Woods) will also be aiming for an excellent result.

Top favorite: Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) 
Outsiders: Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious)
Long shots: Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Dstny), Wilco Kelderman, Tiesj Benoot (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tim Wellens (UAE-Team Emirates), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Stephen Williams, Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost)

This Canadian race can be followed on HBO Max at 4:50 p.m., while Eurosport's main channel connects after the European Championship. The finish is around 9:45 p.m.