2nd place for Pello Bilbao in Montréal

At the second Worldtour race in Kanada, Pello Bilbao of Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS was only beaten by a certain Tadej Pogacar, securing 2nd place in Montréal with a courageous ride. Two days before, he had already finished within the top10 at the one-day race in Québec, which Edoardo Zambanini managed to do in both races as well.

Some of the best riders of the pro peloton took the trip to Canada for the two races of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec et Montréal. After all, these two one-day races are part the UCI's Worldtour. Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS lined-up a team around Pello Bilbao, Santiago Buitrago and Matej Mohoric, with Edoardo Zambanini as an option for breakaways. For sprint decision and general assistance the team was relying on Matevz Govekar, Nicolo Buratti and Nikias Arndt. After all, the race in Québec, in particular, had seen some sprints of larger groups in the past, whereas such a scenario was more than unlikely in Montréal due to the tougher circuit.

The race in Montréal was held in proper summer conditions. As the circuit with the Côte Camilien-Houde as its main climb and some shorter ramps had to be covered 16 times, the total ascending meters added up to 4500 meters. At first, three riders went up the road to form the early breakaway that was to remain in the race lead all the way to the 50 kilometre to go mark. Before the peloton got hold of them, Matej Mohoric attacked, bridged the gap to the early attackers and soldiered on, dropping the others one by one. But the pace of the chasing peloton was too high, so the Slovene of Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS was brought back with three laps to go and the race was set to be relaunched.

On the penultimate passage of the Côte Camilien-Houde the inevitable happened as Tadej Pogacar capped off the strong pacing work of his teammates with a scorching attack with 24 kilometres to go. As his gap quickly grew o 20 seconds, Pello Bilbao managed to bridge the gap to the first chasers who could not close the gap to Pogacar anymore. On the last lap Pello Bilbao made good use of the longest climb to ride away from the chasers and then keep the growing chase group at bay with a solo effort to secure 2nd place. This podium result is a welcome lift in morale for both the Basque rider and Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS that saw another of its riders finish in the top10 with Edoardo Zambanini in 9th.

Two days before, the early breakaway had given the peloton a decidedly harder time at the race held in Québec. The last remaining attackers were only caught when the race entered the bell lap. And from the attacks came thick and thin, with some big names getting into the mix. But on the approach to the finish straight, it all came back together and the race had to be decided in a sprint of a larger group. While Michael Matthews scored his third career win in Québec, two riders of Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS finished in the top10, with Pello Bilbao in 9th and Edoardo Zambanini in 10th.

RESULTS
13TH GRAND PRIX CYCLISTE DE MONTRÉAL: MONTRÉAL - MONTRÉAL, 209.1KM

1. Tadej Pogacar, SVN, in 5:28.15 hours

2. Pello Bilbao, ESP/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.24

3. Julian Alaphilippe, FRA, + 0.40

Photos: Sprint Cycling Agency