Pogacar unable to make an impact, Alaphilippe wins in GP Québec with his typical acceleration
CyclingSaturday, 13 September 2025 at 08:21
Julian Alaphilippe won the GP Québec. The Frenchman from Tudor was the best in the Canadian one-day race after spending much of the day attacking. On the final climb, he was too strong for Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) and Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana). Top favorite Tadej Pogacar was unable to crown his attacks with a victory: he finished in the middle of the pack.
The GP Québec is one of two Canadian one-day races, along with the GP Montréal, which will be held this weekend. The races are a major goal for a large part of the peloton and are also perfect preparation for the World Championships later this month; that is why top names such as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Wout van Aert, Simon Yates (Visma | Lease a Bike), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) were present.
The hilly course, which was slightly modified compared to last year, lends itself to a more attacking race, as we have seen in the past. It started early: Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was joined by Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Canadians Philippe Jacob and Félix Bouchard, who were riding for the national team. Often, a breakaway lasts quite a long time here, but this time it was kept very short.
Once halfway through the race, the pace picked up in the peloton. Tudor got things going, which ultimately led to an attack by Julian Alaphilippe. The Frenchman didn't get away at first, but it made for an exciting phase where several riders tried their luck. In the end, five riders benefited, including Alaphilippe: he was joined by Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
Read on below the video!
Chasing group gets company
The gap with the leading group - where Jacob had already dropped out - quickly disappeared. While Meurisse was fighting hard among the chasers, there was also action behind them: Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) accelerated, causing four gaps to appear in the peloton. Eventually, a new group managed to join the chasers.
Politt now had a new teammate in the group in Pavel Sivakov, while Quinten Hermans joined Meurisse. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Artem Shmidt (INEOS Grenadiers), and the XDS-Astana duo Anthon Charmig and Alberto Bettiol also joined. At the last minute, Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) managed to make the crossing: twelve men in total.
This did not improve the situation among the chasers: skipping turns, leaving gaps... it all happened behind the leaders, where Bouchard had now dropped out. With 35 kilometers to go, the gap was closed. In the meantime, Pithie and Politt had dropped out, leaving 12 riders in the group again.
Continue reading below the photo!
Pogacar's attack not decisive
Visma | Lease a Bike was not present, forcing them to chase. But the gap was considerable: with 25 kilometers to go, the strong, large group still had a lead of more than a minute. But with the help of Jayco-AlUla and EF Education - EasyPost, the gap became smaller and smaller. Thanks to Charmig, however, it did not get smaller than 40 seconds, after which it was up to teammate Bettiol.
He would have to do it on the climb of the day, but behind him, Pogacar had started his attack. The world champion got a great lead-out from his team, but his acceleration was not world-class: Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) were able to catch up. They flew past the dropped chasers!
So the lead went from 40 to 30 to 20 seconds: it was going fast, but it wasn't closed in one go. This allowed a second group to catch up: Neilson Powless (EF Education) and Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) were able to catch up, but Brandon McNulty was also present. This could be crucial for team leader Pogacar. As a result, the group remained just out of the peloton's grasp.
Continue reading below the video!
Pogacar is chasing, but does he have enough time?
At the front, however, the remaining leaders continued to work well together. Charmig, in particular, kept the gap intact for his leader, Bettiol. The presence of Pogacar in the second group caused a bit of fear, causing many riders to hold back. So it was questionable whether the group would be able to catch up.
The Slovenian superstar did most of the work and pulled hard several times. But later, he held back, allowing McNulty to ride away. However, Girmay and Powless followed him, which played into the hands of the leaders. But it was all down to the final climb, which was really tough. The peloton caught the group with Pogacar: anything could happen!
McNulty and co were also caught. At the front, Bettiol accelerated even before the climb began. Alaphilippe, who hadn't done too much work before that, went with him, and Sivakov also joined them. Alaphilippe accelerated as he always does, and immediately left the pair behind. It was still a long way to go, and the Frenchman slowed down a little. However, he had just enough left to keep the chasers behind him. His compatriot Sivakov finished second, ahead of Bettiol: Pogacar did not get involved in the sprint for the podium places.
Results GP Quebec 2025
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
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Latest Comments
- Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
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- Well, he eventually Pogacar pays the price for his insane spring campaign which was really crazyRosenkohl196125-07-2025
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- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
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