A champion's move, in the perfect style of his most beautiful victories: this is how Julian Alaphilippe won the Grand Prix du Quebec, dropping French Pavel Sivakov and a brilliant Alberto Bettiol on the final climb to the finish line.

THE RACE. As he had announced beforehand, Luca Vergallito (Alpecin Deceuninck) - who you can hear on Monday in the BlaBlaBike podcast - joined the day's breakaway together with Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and local riders Philippe Jacob and Félix Bouchard (Canadian National Team), enjoying the over 100,000 fans scattered along the 12 km Quebec circuit, who made their affection felt from the very first laps.

The 4 riders' advantage reached 6'30", with Lotto and Tudor being the most active teams in the chase. The race then proceeded smoothly until, about 75 km from the finish, Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) decided to break the torpor and attacked on the Côte de la Montagne, taking away a quintet. Joining him were Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), while Vergallito, Maciejuk and Bouchard remained ahead.

With 4 laps to go, the counter-attackers were also joined by Quinten Herman (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alberto Bettiol, Anton Charmig (XDS Astana), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Artem Shmidt (Ineos Grenadiers), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), with Van Aert and company once again caught by surprise and Pogačar leaving space for his teammates.

Vergallito and Maciejuk were caught by the first chasers 32 km from the finish, with the group, pulled by Visma and Neilson Powless's EF Education-EasyPost, but 1'15" behind.

With two laps to go, 12 riders were at the front: Sivakov, Skjelmose, Shmidt, Maciejuk, Hermans, Vergallito, Meurisse, Mohorič, Tronchon, Bettiol, Charmig and Alaphilippe, while behind, Powless and a spirited Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla) tried to react, working hard to close the gap to the breakaway.

At 13 kilometers, Pogacar attacked with the situation changing every kilometer: ahead remained Sivakov, Skjelmose, Hermans, Mohoric, Bettiol, Charmig and Alaphilippe, but Pogacar and his group started the last lap with a twenty-second delay. High speed made it impossible for the chasers to return, and thus the breakaway group regained vigor until it exploded at the foot of the last climb with the acceleration of Bettiol, Sivakov and Alaphilippe who went to contest the victory.

FINAL STANDINGS

1. Alaphilippe Julian (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) in 05:04:32
2. Sivakov Pavel (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) + 02
3. Bettiol Alberto (XDS Astana Team) + 04
4. Skjelmose Mattias (Lidl-Trek) + 14
5. Mohoric Matej (Bahrain Victorious)
6. Hermans Quinten (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
7. Charmig Anthon (XDS Astana Team) + 16
8. De Lie Arnaud (Lotto) + 17
9. Matthews Michael (Team Jayco-AlUla)
10. Strong Corbin (Israel-Premier Tech)