Yates beats Sivakov in sprint at Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal

Adam Yates proved too strong for Pavel Sivakov in a sprint finish, as the UAE Team Emirates rider took victory in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal

Adam Yates’ excellent 2023 was capped off with Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal title on Sunday. Following a strong show from his UAE-Emirates team, Yates beat Pavel Sivakov in a two-up sprint at the climax of a wet day in which a single rider led the race for 170 km. After claiming April’s Tour de Romandie trophy, Yates wore the yellow jersey for four days upon winning the opening stage of the Tour de France and finished on his first Grand Tour podium. Michael Woods was the top Canadian in 15th.

The riders had 18 laps of 12.5 km for a total of 221.4 km. Each lap contained the Côte Camilien-Houde climb up Mont Royal, 2.3 km of 6.8 percent. Rain dogged the peloton.

Over the first few laps, Florian Vermeersch was the lone fugitive, taking KOM points along the 170 km he was out in front. Team Canada’s Matisse Julien was between the Belgian and the pack starting on Lap 3.

By the midpoint of the race, Vermeersch was 4m 30s ahead of the pack, several bridging moves having sputtered out. There were around 20 DNF’s by this point.

The Lotto-Dstny rider retained his advantage with 6 laps remaining. Israel-Premier Tech, Groupama-FDJ and Lidl-Trek were all prominent at the front of field when the rain started again.

By lap 15 when Vermeesch returned to the bunch. Groupama-FDJ pulled up Côte Camilien-Houde, uncoupling Hugo Houle and putting Julian Alaphilippe into difficulty. Friday’s winner Arnaud De Lie attacked on a rise.

On lap 16, De Lie’s lead was 12 seconds. Rafal Majka caught him on Côte Camilien-Houde, fragmenting the peloton in the process. Gee, Alaphilippe and 2018 winner Michael Matthews were momentarily tailed off.

UAE-Emirates kept up the work at the business end of the group going into the penultimate lap. Again the big climb whittled down the group. Brandon McNulty collected the maximum KOM points on top and suddenly he was tied in points with the intrepid Vermeersch. Matthews had obviously recovered well, because he bolted going into the last lap.

The Aussie heard the bell just ahead of the pack. In 500 metres he was dropped out the back as UAE-Emirates went to work again. Adam Yates attacked and Pavel Sivakov came along. The Brit dropped the Ineos man, who’ll be Yates’ UAE-Emirates teammate next season once more. French champion Valentin Madouas chased both.

Sivakov returned with 8 km to go. Sivakov was on the front for the sprint.

Yates swung out to the right sprinted, Sivakov  had no response. Alex Aranburu, fourth at GP Québec yesterday, rounded out the podium in third place.

VIDEO: 2023 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal Highlights

2023 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal Top 10

1  YATES Adam UAE Team Emirates 5:54:02
2  SIVAKOV Pavel INEOS Grenadiers 0:03
3  ARANBURU Alex Movistar Team 0:12
4  MADOUAS Valentin Groupama - FDJ 0:12
5  VELASCO Simone Astana Qazaqstan Team 0:12
6  YATES Simon Team Jayco AlUla 0:12
7  O'CONNOR Ben AG2R Citroën Team 0:17
8  IZAGIRRE Ion Cofidis 0:24
9  SKJELMOSE Mattias Lidl - Trek 0:29
10  HIRSCHI Marc UAE Team Emirates 0:29