Ulissi wins the Montreal GP 

Diego Ulissi has triumphed in the GP Montreal, beating the other six fugitive riders in his breakaway group as they jostled in the final sprint. For Ulissi this is the first one day classic he has ever won and surely one of the most prestigious successes in his career up to now, after his six stage victories in the Giro d’Italia. Ulissi and Marco Marcato were part of a larger break of sixteen riders, which took off with two laps to go until the finish. During the last curve on the uphill stretch, under Diego’s incentive only six pacesetters remained.

After 17 laps on a 12.1 km circuit and an elevation of 3892 metres, the rider from UAE Team Emirates prevailed in the final sprint, ahead of Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale).

Diego Ulissi: “I’m really very happy with this victory. After the Tour de France I continued working hard because I really wanted to try and clinch this race, which is particularly suited to my skills. Last year I arrived third behind two champions like Van Avermaet and Sagan. This year I told myself that if I arrived with them I would get beaten again, so I decided to race on the attack. My team mates were fantastic, especially Marcato and Conti, who worked the flanks and checked my adversaries, finally pushing to the limit in the main break. Sometimes to win you have to risk losing it all, and I was determined to achieve success all the way, today.”

Results

1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 5:22:29
2 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team s.t.
3 Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac s.t.
4 Jan Bakelants (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale s.t.
5 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo +6’’
6 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal +11’’
7 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team +16’’
8 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb +16’’
9 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe +16’’
10 Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Cannondale-Drapac +16’’