Sep Vanmarcke had won the battle for the coveted position on Simon Gerrans' wheel in the sprint at the end of the GP Montreal. In the end, the Belgian rider cracked and instead his Belkin teammates Jonathan Hivert and Bauke Mollema sprinted to top 10 results.

The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM’s aggressive racing style was nearly rewarded in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal on Sunday. Attacks by Bauke Mollema and Sep Vanmarcke couldn’t prevent a large group from sprinting for the win after 205.7 kilometres, though. Simon Gerrans proved to be the strongest in the sprint, just as Friday in Quebec, and Belkin’s Jonathan Hivert ended eighth, Mollema tenth. 

Vanmarcke started the last one-hundred metres in Gerrans’ wheel, but paid for his efforts a little earlier. The final acceleration of the Australian of team Orica-Green Edge was too powerful for the Belgian. 

“Gerrans was the man to beat, but couldn’t be beaten by anyone,” said Sports Director Michiel Elijzen. “Sep was dropped off in the right position by his team-mates, he sat perfectly on Gerrans’ wheel, but cracked in the last 100 metres.” 
 

Elijzen was pleased with how the plan worked out Sunday.

“The idea was to have Bauke, Sep and Steven Kruijswijk as fresh as possible in the final. We tried to do so by appointing Dennis van Winden, Nick van der Lijke and Tom Leezer as their guards, they had to navigate them safely through the race. David Tanner and Jonathan Hivert were given a free role.” 
 

Elijzen was satisfied afterwards.

“We used an offensive style and did what we had to do. We ended up with two riders in the top ten and that means we gathered some WorldTour points. Hivert put good use to his free role, but there was nothing to do against Gerrans.”