Preview: GP de Montréal. World Championship favourites go head-to-head in difficult climber-suited classic

The second round of the Canadian classics (GP de Montréal) will see the riders head to Montréal, where a circuit around the Mont-Royal will decide the race, which will take place on the 11th of September and conclude the week spent in Canada.

A total of 18 laps will be ridden in Montréal, there are over 4000 meters of climbing and 224 kilometers on the menu, making it harder and longer than Québec. The lap opens up immediately with it’s major feature, the Côte de Camilien-Houde, 1.7 kilometers at 7.6%. This will be the hardest section of the circuit and likely the one that will be attacked the hardest, finishing with 10.5 kilometers to go. A very fast descent follows, with the

Côte de Polytechnique coming after summiting with 6 kilometers to go, it is 800 meters long at 4.9% average gradient but goes up to 10%. And with 3 kilometers will be the Côte Pognuelo with 500 meters at 7.5%.

All three are very explosive climbs, where damage can be made. The riders will then very quickly travel back into the Avenue where the race is to finishing, going down it before turning back in the roundabout and within sight of the line. This won’t be a regular sprint however, with the final 600 meters featuring 4% of gradient which can alter the result of the sprints that will happen.

The final startlist features riders such as the following: Benoît Cosnefroy, Soren Kragh Andersen, Romain Bardet, Simon Clarke, Jakob Fuglsang, Sep Vanmarcke, Jasper Stuyven, Michael Matthews, Biniam Girmay, Geraint Thomas, Daniel Martínez, Adam Yates, Alberto Bettiol, Ruben Guerreiro, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Neilson Powless, Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte, Alessandro Covi, Tadej Pogacar, Diego Ulissi, David Gaudu, Guillaume Martin, Alex Aranburu, Warren Barguil, Peter Sagan, Pello Bilbao, Jan Tratnik and Matej Mohoric.

CyclingUpToDate prediction:
**** Wout van Aert
*** Tadej Pogacar, Michael Matthews
** Alberto Bettiol, Pello Bilbao, Adam Yates
* David Gaudu, Benoît Cosnefroy, Biniam Girmay, Ruben Guerreiro