ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
Isaac del Toro beat teenage rival Paul Seixas in a two-man sprint to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal on Sunday, two weeks out from the World Championships, securing UAE Emirates-XRG's fifth consecutive title in the race.
The 22-year-old Mexican continued his fine season, which has already seen him win Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and the UAE Tour, as well as finish third at the Tour de France.
With his UAE Emirates-XRG teammate and reigning champion Tadej Pogacar out of the worlds due to a broken collarbone, Del Toro will be one of the favourites.
The worlds take place in Montreal and use much of the same circuit as the 214.4km GP, although it is more than 50km longer.
Seixas had launched the fireworks in the final 12km, attacking on the 1.8km-long Voie Camillien-Houde, which with its eight percent average gradient was the toughest climb on the circuit.
He quickly caught and surged past lone leader Ben Healy and distanced all his rivals. Del Toro, though, counter-attacked and easily caught Seixas. The young pair worked well together to ensure that they would contest the victory.
Seixas led into the final kilometre and when Del Toro launched his sprint for the line with 300m left, the French teenager seemed to be caught napping. Del Toro's kick was simply too strong for Seixas.
His UAE teammate Brandon McNulty, last year's winner, beat fellow American Quinn Simmons for third place with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, who had won Friday's Quebec GP, winning the sprint for fifth.
"We tried today with numbers in the final. Everybody was so strong today in our team. We had Adam in the final part in the breakaway, then Brandon went with Quinn Simmons, and I tried to follow the big moves behind. In the end, we had pretty much a great situation for us. They just put me into the place to try to fight for the victory, and I’m just super glad to have these guys around me. They support me so much and to be in this team with these guys, it is thanks to them," Del Toro said.
"Thanks to the guys, they tried to help me a lot. It was a strange situation at the beginning of the race, we didn’t understand so much [the tactics] of the other teams. Then we decided to put a normal pace, but I didn’t feel so well. They supported me and we tried again in the final part of the race.
"I try to do my best always, but we are human beings. Not every day will be super. Today, the team committed to me so much that I wanted to do the best job possible. I didn’t feel so well, but thanks to Brandon, Adam, Felix, Florian, Jhony and Tim, it was easier to win this race."