Published September 15, 2013 04:26PM
Peter Sagan (Cannondale) won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on Sunday.
The 205.7-kilometer race featured 17 laps of a 12.1km circuit and more than 12,000 feet of climbing around Montreal.
Simone Ponzi (Astana) was second at four seconds back, while Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) was five seconds behind Sagan in third.
Sagan was favored to win Sunday’s race as well as Friday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, but he finished the latter in 10th place. Sunday’s victory came after a decisive attack in the closing kilometers.
“It was hard,” Sagan said. “All teams wanted to tighten the race in the final but I was able to attack on the final climb.”
With 5km left, Sagan made his move and surged to the front of the race. From there, he time trialed his way through the course as the trailing group tried to chase him down.
In the final kilometer, Sagan appeared to slow a bit and snuck a few glances behind him to see where his chasers were. At that point, the race was all but over and he coasted across the finish line, pointing to his thighs as he did so.
Information from AFP was used in this report.