Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal preview
The first ProTour race to cross the Atlantic Ocean is the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec on 10 September, shortly followed by the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal on 12 September, in the French-Canadian province of Quebec. The Union Cycliste International confirmed a five-year license for the pair of one-day races, with the possibility of an extension to 2018.
“The fact that they are hosting these ProTour races here and they have a license to host them for the next five years means that, within that scope, cycling will develop and interest of cycling will be strong within the city and province of Quebec,” said UCI president Pat McQuaid.
Sunday’s race follows an historic route in the city of Montreal. Five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx won the 1974 World Championships on the same route, while Bernt Johansson won the Olympic Games Road Race two years later. Four World Cups have since been held on the same route, which begins at the base of Mont Royal, the mountain in the center of the city, and opens with a three-kilometre climb followed by a route which wraps around the mountain. Riders will circle the 12.6km circuit 15 times for a total of 189km.
"Both cities are very historical in cycling and outside of cycling," said Bauer. "When you put cycling in cities like that, with circuits, you gain very historical and recognizable races."
Bauer will be directing the Canadian National Team at both races, with a roster of 10 riders, including Dominique Rollin, David Veilleux, and Canadian National Champion Will Routley, forming a seven-man team for each race.
"Both courses lend themselves well to championship-style racing," said Steve Bauer. "Which means it is going to be suspenseful and exciting from lap one to the very end, there will be no boredom. They lend to breakaways, attacking and a lot of pressure every lap. We are looking forward to extremely difficult and very animated races."
The races are being promoted by Serge Arsenault, the promoter for the Montréal World Cup and the Tour Trans-Canada, and are part of an on-going effort by the UCI to bring professional cycling the popularity it enjoys in Europe on an international scale. The success of the events will be a deciding factor in whether or not Quebec has a chance of hosting the UCI Road World Championships in 2015, which McQuaid considers to be a realistic year to host the event outside of Europe again.
“We have had an unwritten rule to move outside of Europe every seven years,” said McQuaid. “Because of globalization, because of demand and requests in what we feel is a big interest, we will be discussing with my management company when we meet in Melbourne in two or three weeks time of the possibility of bringing that seven years down to five years.”
The Worlds are being held in Australia this year, but are almost always hosted by a European country. The last time they were held outside of Europe was in 2003 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where Igor Astarloa and Susanne Ljungskog were the champions.
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