Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec 2024: Everything you need to know about the one-day race through Quebec
Thomas Huber
· 11.09.2024
Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec: The most important facts in brief
- Date: Friday, 13 September 2024
- Distance: 201.6 kilometres
- Start & finish location: Quebec
- First edition: 2010 (12th edition)
- Last year's winner: Arnaud De Lie
- Record winner: Simon Gerrans, Peter Sagan, Michael Matthews (twice each)
- Organiser: Grands Prix Cyclistes de Quebec et de Montreal
The one-day race through the Canadian city of Quebec forms the "Laurentian Classics" together with the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec was held for the first time in 2010 and has been part of the UCI World Tour since 2011. This makes it one of the youngest races in the top league of professional cycling and one of the few races outside of Europe. Record winners are Simon Gerrans, Peter Sagan and Michael Matthews, who have each triumphed twice in the classic through Quebec.
Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec 2024: The route
Compared to last year, the route of the one-day race has not changed. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec runs through the centre of the city, which has a population of over 500,000. There is a 12.6 kilometre circuit that is ridden a total of 16 times. This results in a total length of 201.6 kilometres. The terrain is undulating - after all, a total of almost 3,000 metres in altitude are covered.
The start of the circuit is downhill and leads through the city's green spaces such as the Parc des Champs-de-Bataille. The riders then ride along the St Lawrence River on flat terrain before the third part of the course is clearly the most challenging. The last 3.6 kilometres are not only mostly uphill, they also lead through the winding old town and are not entirely easy technically. The last part of the circuit contains four short, crisp climbs: first the Cote de la Montagne awaits with gradients of up to 13 per cent, followed by the Cote de la Potasse and the Montee de la Fabrique, before the circuit ends on the Grande Allee on a straight stretch with a gradient of 4 per cent.
Cote de la Montagne and Cote de la Potasse as key locations?
In recent years, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec has usually featured a bunch sprint on the Grande Allee. If riders want to avoid a sprint, there are two options: Riders could break away on the Cote de la Montagne, which has an average gradient of 10 per cent, and Benoit Cosnefroy also showed in 2022 that the Cote de la Potasse is also suitable for a breakaway. The Frenchman launched his attack on that climb two kilometres before the finish and crossed the finish line just ahead of the onrushing peloton.
The favourites
Classics riders who are particularly strong sprinters have the best chance of winning the day. The pace is always high during the one-day race, and there are repeated bursts of speed. One-day specialists are best placed to keep up under these conditions. Because there is often a bunch sprint on the uphill terrain of the Grande Allee, sprinting skills are usually also required. Last year, Arnaud De Lie from Team Lotto-Dstny came out on top in this way in the classic.
The schedule
- Start: 13 September 2024, 17:00 (11:00 local time)
- Arrival at the finish: 13 September 2024, approx. 21:45 (approx. 15:45 local time)
Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec 2024: TV broadcast and live stream
The one-day Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec will be broadcast on television and live streamed. The TV channel Eurosport 1 broadcasts the race live and free-to-air from 16:45 to 22:30. The fee-based streaming service Discovery Plus will broadcast the classic match live from 16:45 to 22:30.
All winners of the race
- 2023: Arnaud De Lie
- 2022: Benoit Cosnefroy
- 2021: not carried out
- 2020: not carried out
- 2019: Michael Matthews
- 2018: Michael Matthews
- 2017: Peter Sagan
- 2016: Peter Sagan
- 2015: Rigoberto Uran
- 2014: Simon Gerrans
- 2013: Robert Gesink
- 2012: Simon Gerrans
- 2011: Philippe Gilbert
- 2010: Thomas Voeckler
