Pogačar top-10 in aggressive race in Quebec

Tadej Pogačar marked his return to racing since victory in the Tour de France with a solid 7th place after an aggressive team display at the GP Quebec in Canada.

The race took in a circuit around the city of Montreal over 200km with UAE lighting up the race around the 50km mark. Pogačar was attentive to attacks as the sprinters teams tried to keep things together on the flat punchy circuit. With -1km to go Pogačar found himself off the front with 3 riders from the Lotto Dystny squad including defending champion Arnaud De Lie.

A small hesitation saw the quartet swepped up by a chasing bunch and it was Quebec veteran Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) who took the sprint.

Pogačar: “It was a really good race , the team did a very good job to set it up. We managed to do a really hard last couple of laps but I was not sure of my last kilometre if I would attack or not, but I made the wrong decision, waited for the sprint and I was boxed in.

I wasn’t expecting such good legs so soon back after my break. I thought we might stay away when we were with three guys from Lotto but the group was coming back very fast. But I’m super happy to be back, the legs were turning good and I cannot wait for Sunday.”

Results

1.Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) 4:45:36

2.Biniam Girmay (Intermarche Wanty) s.t

3.Rudy Molard (Groupama FDJ) s.t

7.Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) s.t