Going into the Grand Prix Quebec, one of the big questions was whether the course would be too hard for Alexander Kristoff. The big Norwegian was still there when sprint was launched but the uphill finishing straight was too much for the big Norwegian.

The 5th edition of the WorldTour Gran Prix Cycliste de Québec took place in the heart of the city on Friday. The 199 km race consisted of 11 laps of an 18,1 km circuit in the city of Québec.  Team Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff was in the hunt for victory, but the Norwegian sprint star just missed a little to take the win and will look to Sunday’s race as a second chance at winning. 

"Today we tried to do our best but in the end we missed a result. Alex Kristoff did his best in the last kilometers but maybe the uphill finish was too hard. Unfortunately Viacheslav Kuznetsov, who is also on good form, crashed with 15 km to go. He is ok but it was impossible for him to come back to the leading group. We have one more chance here in Canada on Sunday," said team director Torsten Schmidt.

A large break was finally shut down near the 7 km to go mark as more brief attacks came off the front in the last few short, sharp climbs to the finish line. An attack by Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) came in the closing meters with Simon Gerrans of Orica-GreenEdge quick to chase him down and steal the win for a repeat performance from his 2012 victory. Third place went to Garmin Sharp’s Ramunas Navardauskas. 

After a train transfer on Saturday, the one-day Gran Prix Cycliste de Montreal will take place in the heart of the city on Sunday.