The end of an epic French Canadian doubleheader was also the end of the men’s season for Rally Cycling. GP Québec and Montréal were the team’s first-ever WorldTour ranked one-day invites, and it took every ounce of fitness and experience the team had accumulated over what’s been the biggest stretch of racing in team history. The race is a serious punch in the gut, with two significant climbs hitting the peloton sixteen times. Over five hours of pain were dished out across Montreal, and the team ran an impressive, multi-faceted race.
GP Montreal, the final race of 2018 for the men. It was a year of incredible growth in the athletes’ capacity to compete at the WorldTour level, and they showed the fruits of their labor in Quebec.
Past and future stars of the pro peloton. Mentorship from some of the previous generation’s best racers (Carney, McCarty, Wohlberg) is invaluable to the team.
Is there anything happier and more relaxed than a Canadian racing on home soil? We wager no.
Nigel Ellsay got to the start early to line up on the front row. Turned out there was a reason for that.
But first…
The urban circuit in Montreal provided 16 laps and over 14,000 feet of climbing, a true classics-style race for only the toughest all-rounders.
Nigel Ellsay made the days breakaway with some aggressive moves on the second lap, and it stuck.
Brandon McNulty’s graceful frame and posture on climbs belies the youngster’s deep power stores, which he showed in the finale.
The course hit the Université du Québec à Montréal campus for a steep kicker KOM. These French Canadian students were pumped for the action.
Adam de Vos hits the steepest part of the University climb.
Ellsay had the ride of his year, even attacking his breakaway companions as things started to dissolve.
Robin Carpenter has an amazing ability to stay in the pocket. In the closing laps, pain shows on faces in different ways. Carpenter keeps his curtained.
A European-style course calls for a European-sized crowd at the finish.
It was a frantic sprint between some of the world’s toughest one day specialists.
McNulty was right in the mix, finishing in the top twenty on the uphill drag.
Expressions of fatigue and relief abound after the race. it probably doesn’t settle in immediately, but it’s finally time for Rally Cycling to rest.
