Arnaud De Lie takes breakthrough World Tour win as he sprints to GP de Québec victory

A victory in the making for a long time. Arnaud De Lie has taken his first World Tour triumph this afternoon at the GP de Québec, he was the fastest in the final sprint at the end of the Canadian race.

The breakaway of the day was made of Gianmarco Garofoli (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal - Quick-Step) and David Lozano (Team Novo Nordisk). A group however that was never a threat for the race, it was calmly controlled.

The break was caught with a whole 44 kilometers still remaining. The pace was never too high however, the race was played out in favour of the sprinters. In the hilly Québec circuit some accelerations would come but nothing too serious.

In the penultimate lap Ben Healy made a move briefly splitting the group, with Brandon McNulty and Pavel Sivakov also giving it a go, but were brought back. No team led the peloton alone, the fight for position began and would never stop afterwards.

AG2R led the way into the final set of ascents and defending champion Benoît Cosnefroy attacking at the base with 3.6 kilometers to go, immediately getting a gap and soaring off alone.

Jayco AlUla chased and caught the Frenchman with two kilometers to go exactly, with Neilson Powless attacking right away but unsuccessfully. A bunch sprint then looked inevitable as no other rider took the risk.

Jumbo-Visma led out the sprint, Corbin Strong was the first to launch a very strong sprint uphill, followed by Alex Aranburu. The Kiwi seemed to be heading to a massive victory as no-one had the legs to go through, except for De Lie who managed to power through in the final meters. Strong and Michael Matthews finished second and third.