Deceuninck – Quick-Step to GPCQM

One of the most successful riders of the year, Julian Alaphilippe headlines our seven-man squad for the Canadian World Tour races.

The peloton travels this week to North America, for two events which have always delivered plenty of spectacle and emotion since their inception in 2010. First race, scheduled on Friday, is the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec, which will see the peloton cover 16 laps of a 12.6km circuit that includes four demanding climbs: Côte de la Montagne (375 m, 10%), Côte de la Potasse (420 m, 9%), Montée de la Fabrique (190 m, 7%) and Montée du Fort (1000 m, 4%), the last of these being where the winner has emerged at most of the past editions.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, the peloton will take on the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal (219.6 kilometers), another race run on a circuit, this time 12.2 kilometers in length, similar to the one used at the World Championships in 1974; Côte Camillien-Houde (1800 m, 8%), Côte de Polytechnique (780 m, 6%) and Avenue du Parc (560 m, 4%) are the three difficulties of the day, which should shake up the bunch and be used by the riders as springboard to victory.

After resuming competition at the Deutschland Tour, Julian Alaphilippe continues his road to the Yorkshire World Championships, this time in Canada, where he is set to race for the first time in three years. The leader of the UCI World Individual Classification will be joined by Kasper Asgreen – a winner of three races so far this season – Dries Devenyns, European ITT Champion and Clasica San Sebastian victor Remco Evenepoel, Danish neo-pro Mikkel Honoré, Enric Mas and Pieter Serry – riders who will give our team several cards to play, as Davide Bramati mentioned when previewing this weekend’s appointments.

“We head to Canada with many of the guys who did a very strong Deutschland Tour two weeks ago, riders who are motivated to be again in the thick of the action and bring other good results to the team in what has been another remarkable season. Quebec and Montreal are two really tough races and hardly give you a moment of respite, but our roster possesses the depth, strength and determination necessary to be there when it will matter and have a say in the outcome”, explained Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s sports director.

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