Max Schachmann lights up the World Tour one-day race.
Another Canadian weekend is in the books. After racing on the streets of Quebec on Friday, the riders were now present in Montreal, which in just two weeks will host the World Championships - the first edition in eleven years to take place in North America.
The course was an incredibly demanding one: 16 laps of a 13.4km circuit, a total of 72 climbs and 4300 vertical meters. That made for a selective race, and Max Schachmann - our best rider in Quebec, where he finished tenth - went on the attack early, joining a dangerous move that put pressure on the peloton, managing to hold off the chasers until the last three laps, when they were reeled in. From that small bunch, two riders went clear and eventually Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) took the victory, while Andrea Raccagni finished as the first Soudal Quick-step rider home.
Schachmann, who tried to anticipate things by going on the attack with 60 kilometers to go, talked us through the race: “The heat made things more complicated today. The pace was very high with each lap and the bunch exploded, so I decided to go on the attack. I could feel the effort of Friday when the others started accelerating from that leading group and I got dropped. However, I have no regrets, because I wanted to see how far I could go, so at the end of the day, it was a good test.”
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
