Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouyges Telecom) won the Gran Prix Québec, the first race of the International Cycling Union (UCI) ProTour ever held in North America. The French champion attacked in the final kilometre of the 189km race and held off an elite chasing group by a single second. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) outsprinted the rest to take second, with Robert Gesink (Rabobank) finished third.
The first attack of the race came almost immediately from Canadian National Team rider Bruno Langlois, before a group of 13 riders got away on the second of fifteen 12.6km laps.
The group consisted of: Markel Irizar and Yaroslav Popovych (both RadioShack), Valerio Agnoli and Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Doimo), Bram Tankink (Rabobank), Jurgen Van de Walle (Quick Step), Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank), Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ), Sebastien Turgot (Bbox Bouyges Telecom), Alfredo Balloni (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Dominik Nerz (Milram), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) and François Parisien (Canada).
With the peloton, led by Team Sky and Euskalel-Euskadi, happy to let this group of riders clear, it steadily built up an advantage of four minutes by the sixth lap; this stabilised at around 3’30”, where it stood until five laps to go.
At that point, at 63km from the finish, the Caisse d’Epargne team joined the chase and the lead began to come down. Popvych, Veikkanen, Viviani, Fouchard, Turgot and Parisien were dropped by the rest of the front group; the remaining seven leaders were caught as they crossed the finish line with 2 laps to go.
As the peloton caught the breakaway a crash brought down a number of riders, including US champion George Hincapie (BMC Racing) and double Tour stage winner Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step). In the aftermath of the crash Fuglsang managed to stay ahead and was joined by Dries Devenyns (Quick Step).
With the duo’s lead no more than a dozen seconds Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) attacked the peloton and caught and dropped both riders. Before taking the bell for the final lap, Hesjedal was joined by Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Gesink, Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) and Fabian Wegmann (Milram).
The five riders gained an advantage of around 20 seconds on the peloton, but as they started the final climb with 2km to go it reduced to just 8 seconds. Breschel and Gesink were dropped by the ferocious pace set by Hesjedal, but the main group came together as they passed over the top.
As the group, which now numbered just twenty, passed under the flamme rouge marking the final kilometre, Voeckler put in one of his trademark attacks. The Frenchman was only able to get a few seconds clear, but this proved to be enough as he crossed the line alone. Boasson Hagen outsprinted the pack, with Gesink close behind him; for all his attacking Hesjedal was the best Canadian rider in fourth.
Result GP Québec:
1. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouyges Telecom
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky @ 1s
3. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank
4. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions
5. Daniel Moreno (Spa) OmegaPharma-Lotto
6. Alessandro Ballan (Ita) BMC Racing Team
7. Fabian Wegman (Ger) Team Milram
8. Maxime Monfort (Bel) HTC-Columbia
9. Francesco Reda (Ita) Quick Step
10. Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini