Lars Petter Nordhaug wins the Grand Prix Cycliste De Montreal 2012
Lars Petter Nordhaug of Team Sky Procycling continued his superb form and secured the second Canadian Grand Tour race of the season, the Grand Prix Cycliste De Montreal on Sunday.
The Norwegian completed the 205.7 kilometre race in a total time of 5 hours, 38 minutes and 29 seconds and occupied the top podium spot.
The victory is considered as one of the best wins of his career, considering the fact that Petter had to compete against some of the top cyclists participating at the Canadian event.
The cyclist joined Team Sky back in 2010 after spending a period of five years with Team Maxbo Bianchi through 2005-09.
Petter will leave the British side at the end of 2012 season and will be seen in Team Rabobank colours for 2013.
“I am leaving, but I’m happy I could get my chances to win,” Nordhaug noted after crossing the finish line. He also managed to secure a first place finish at the Trofeo Deia along with a stage 3 win at the Danmark Rundt 2012.
The Norwegian finished second at the National Road Race Championships, third at the National Time Trial Championships, third overall at the Glava Tour of Norway, fourth overall at the Criterium International and occupied the sixth overall position at the Tour of the Basque Country 2012.
“I tried to cover the moves, but with 3km to go I felt good and Edvald [Boasson Hagen] was screaming on the radio ‘go’. I thought I would get beaten in the sprint but I wasn’t,” he briefed.
Moreno Moser of Team Liquigas-Cannondale and Alexander Kolobnev of Team Katusha finished two seconds behind and achieved the second and the third positions.
Moreno’s teammate, Peter Sagan was a pre-race favourite but Team Liquigas cyclist could not time his sprint and missed out on the opportunity.
“I would like to have helped Peter so I went to the front of the group. I was on my own there so I followed Lars”.
“I’m happy about this result; I didn’t feel good to start but towards the end, I started to feel better so I’m happy with this result.”
Simon Gerrans of Team Orica-GreenEdge and Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky Procycling fell further 2 seconds behind and achieved the third and the fourth positions in the respective order.
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