Astana completely dominated the Grand Prix Montreal for most of the race as they wanted to set Enrico Gasparotto up for a win in one of his final races with the Kazakh team. In the end, he came up short and had to settle for 9th.
“The team was pulling to close the gap to the breakaway for a long time," Lieuwe Westra said after the Grand Prix Cyclistes de Montréal. "I don’t know how many laps, but it felt like forever."
Westra and his teammates were visible in blue at the front of the peloton for most of the second half of the race, and could hear the cheers of more than 150,000 fans, despite the unseasonable cold in Montréal on Sunday. Borut Bozic and Francesco Gavazzi took over for Westra after the Dutch rider pulled the peloton for almost three laps – nearly 40km – and worked to bring Enrico Gasparotto to the finish.
In the end Simon Gerrans won on Sunday, just as he did on Friday in Quebec City. Gasparotto finished ninth in a group of 21 riders, with teammate Francesco Gavazzi in 18th.
"Sorry for only 9th place in one of the last race with this jersey after 5 nice years together," Gasparotto wrote on Twitter after the race.
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