The 23-year-old Italian netted our team’s first top 3 finish at the World Tour race.
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl concluded the Canadian weekend with another impressive display at the hardest of the two World Tour one-day races. Taking in 18 classified climbs and over 4000 vertical meters, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal was again animated by a breakaway until the last two laps, when the race properly came to life.
Around twenty kilometers from the finish, two riders moved clear and established a 40-second gap over the peloton, an action that promised a lot only to be reeled in on the last lap. That was when the race-winning move formed, five riders taking off on the penultimate ascent of the day. Andrea Bagioli was there for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, helping the group extend their advantage to an insurmountable gap that allowed the quintet to play a cat-and-mouse game on the finishing stretch.
Despite being the most inexperienced of the five, Bagioli played it smart and did a great sprint at the end of the 221.4km race against his more seasoned opponents, taking a well-deserved third in Montreal, and with it, his best result since turning pro in a World Tour one-day event.
“Everything happened on the last lap, and when the attacks of the favourites came I sensed it could be the right moment to go, so I went and did my best to stay there. I felt good despite this demanding course, one of the hardest of the season, and in the sprint I gave everything. I am content with my podium, it’s a good result going into the last weeks of the season, and I hope to come back here one day and win it.”
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
