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It was Michal Kwiatkowski (Netcompany Ineos) and \u00c5dne Holter (Uno-X Mobility) who got away on the first lap and built a gap, soon joined by seven chasers to make it nine in the lead: Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep), Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla), Pelayo S\u00e1nchez (Movistar), Robbe Dhondt (Picnic PostNL), Robin Carpenter, Kieran Haug (both Modern Adventure) and Canadian national champion J\u00e9r\u00f4me Gauthier (Canada).<\/p>\n
By the end of the second lap, the leaders had a gap of a minute, and at first, UAE Team Emirates-XRG seemed to want to limit the gap, but eventually the peloton settled and slowed, and the gap grew to three minutes.<\/p>\n
The calm didn’t last for all that long, though, and soon the peloton were setting a high pace again, bringing the gap down to 1:30 after only five laps with UAE, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Pinarello-Q36.5 and Decathlon CMA CGM all contributing to the pace-setting.<\/p>\n\n With 135km to go \u2013 still 10 laps \u2013 the gap dropped back below a minute for the first time, and it became clear that the break’s day out front would be cut relatively short. The eighth time up the C\u00f4te Camilien-Houde eventually spelled the end, and despite their best efforts, all nine riders had been caught with 107km to go, a big final pull from Lidl-Trek sealing the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Pelayo Sanchez and Michal Kwiatkowski <\/span>(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis meant there was something of a reset starting the ninth lap, with Lidl-Trek coming to the fore to open up the next phase of racing. There was a brief respite as the peloton got a handle on things, but the counter-attacks started again quickly, with Lidl once again the animators: first Derek Gee-West got away in a group of four, and then when they were caught, Juan Ayuso and Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost) escaped the bunch.<\/p>\n
This pair built a better lead than the Gee-West group had, pulling out a 30-second gap over the next two laps, and they were joined by Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-QuickStep) with 65km to go. Despite now being three in front, they still held only a relatively small gap, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe taking up the role of chasing behind and keeping the break in check.<\/p>\n
At the back, every lap saw riders dropped, and with the circuit nature of the race, many of them pulled out as they went through the finish line.<\/p>\n
With 53km to go, on the C\u00f4te Camilien-Houde, Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) was the next rider to try to bridge the leaders, despite the gap now shrinking to closer to 10 seconds on the climb. As a result, he did just about make it to the leaders, but they were caught by attackers from the bunch just moments later over the top of the climb.<\/p>\n
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) used the catch to make his move, linking up with Leonard and pulling out a small group with Kelderman, Schachmann and Ayuso, but also Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). This group of seven had a small gap, with the peloton easing the chase as most of the main interested teams were represented in front.<\/p>\n\n