Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) has triumphed in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (1.UWT), beating six other riders in a sprint at the end of the 205-kilometre race.
The result marks the biggest one-day victory of his career for Ulissi, who has also taken six stage victories in the Giro d’Italia.
The race consisted of 17 laps of a 12.1 km circuit and a total of 3892 metres of climbing. Ulissi and team-mate Marco Marcato were part of a larger break of sixteen riders, which took off with two laps to go remaining.
Coming into the last curve on the uphill stretch, only six riders remained in contention. Ulissi prevailed in the final sprint, ahead of Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale).
Diego Ulissi: “I’m really very happy with this victory. After the Tour de France I continued working hard because I really wanted to try and clinch this race, which is particularly suited to my skills. Last year I arrived third behind two champions like Van Avermaet and Sagan.
“This year I told myself that if I arrived with them I would get beaten again, so I decided to race on the attack. My team mates were fantastic, especially Marcato and Conti, who worked the flanks and checked my adversaries, finally pushing to the limit in the main break. Sometimes to win you have to risk losing it all, and I was determined to achieve success all the way today.”
Results
1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 5:22:29
2 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team s.t.
3 Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac s.t.
4 Jan Bakelants (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale s.t.
5 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo +6’’
6 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal +11’’
7 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team +16’’
8 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb +16’’
9 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe +16’’
10 Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Cannondale-Drapac +16’’
