September 13, 2010 (Montreal, QC) – A fabulous weekend of ProTour racing in Canada for the first time, culminated with a smiling Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions beaming on the podium in front of appreciative fans in Montreal. The Canadian superstar bettered his fourth place at the Quebec City ProTour with an impressive ride that had him chasing down adversary Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank in the final stages of the 193.6km race in Montreal for an exciting finish. For Gesink it was payoff for his gutsy attack up the Mount Royal climb on the final lap.
“It’s the biggest one-day victory for me, and with such a special parcours it made it so difficult, leaving me doubting whether I could hold it to the finish,” commented Gesink at the press conference. The tall thin Dutchman used the closing pitch on Mount Royal to launch a solo bid to victory, leaving the diminished peloton of forty riders looking to Hesjedal to lead the chase. “Yes, I wanted to wait until the last lap, and I knew it would be the best place,” explained Gesink, who excited TdF fans this past summer with his panache in the mountains, “the last ten kilometers were very painful.”
The race became animated when two riders escaped and were soon joined by three more but one crashed on his own leaving four off the front until lap nine with a gap as high as 3:30. Chris Horner (USA) Radioshack lead an attack of five riders that eventually bridged to the four leaders but the nine-strong group were reeled in by the start of the final lap with Canada’s Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions) pulling the pack to catch them. Soon after Levi Leipheimer (USA) attacked but Gesink surprised all with a massive counter attack.
With his mouth wide open and his focus on the finish line Gesink surged over Mount Royal and soloed towards the Cote de la Polytechnique where knew Hesjedal was coming. “I thought we would get back to him, as we had great riders chasing and a lot of road left,” said Hesjedal, referring to his breakaway companions who managed to separate themselves from the rest of the field over Mount Royal. In the final move were Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky and Olympic champion Sammy Sanchez (Euskatel-Euskadi) along with Liquigas’s young star Peter Sagan, Mauro Santambrogio (BMC), Hairmar Zubeldia (Radioshack) and Maxine Monfort (HTC-Columbia).
These six riders never let Gesink get any further than twelve seconds up and came as close as four seconds before running out of time. Gesink powered across the finish line for the win throwing his hands in the air as Sagan drifted past Hesjedal for second with the rest of the break and the peloton trickling in.
“It was more than good,” beamed Hesjedal after taking the bronze medal and the most combative rider award. “It’s been a big learning experience. I wouldn’t have thought in a 1,000 years that I would be up here capping off the season I’ve had”.
The Team Canada p/b SpiderTech squad had a harder time of it on the Montreal course with most unable to hold on to the final split. It would be BC native Tuft who showed his strength by driving the field with one lap to go to bring back the leaders securing the finale ascent on Mount Royal for his friend and teammate Hesjedal. Tuft was the next top Canuck in 57th place while Will Routley in 65th was the best placed rider for Team Canada p/b SpiderTech.
After raising his profile to yet another degree with two incredible ProTour races, Hesjedal seemed relaxed and happy, stating his only real concern now was trying to match his performance next year. As the dust settled, it was the end of a wonderful exhibition of world class racing put on by the city of Montreal and organizer Serge Arsenault, with another four years secured for more fireworks yet to come.