The rain pounded down in the final laps of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal Sunday, the second of the two WorldTour events in Quebec, Canada, and combined with the 3893 meters of climbing there was a skeleton group that remained from the large peloton that began the day some 5 hours and 20 minutes earlier.

Everything exploded on the final 12-kilometer circuit when six men went clear over the Mont Royal climb: two leaders and four chasers led, followed by a decimated peloton.

“Bauke [Mollema] hesitated when the six riders went clear,” explained director Adriano Baffi. “He thought it would be better to wait and not go, but in the end these riders were never caught and it turned out to be the wrong calculation. But he also said that he was not on a super day, and maybe if he was there he would be sixth or seventh at most.”

The wet roads gave the advantage to Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) and Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) who led the chasers by 12 seconds and the decimated peloton by 18 seconds. Their gap never lessened; instead they added a few precious seconds in the final four kilometers, gaining enough time to play a shortened game of cat ‘ n mouse in the final 300-400 meters.

64 finishers from 168 starters gave testament to a tough parcours raced under brutal conditions. Wellens outlasted Yates in the game of patience, forcing him to jump first and take the lead on the downhill final meters, then sling slotting around him for the win.

The chasers arrived on their heels with Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) sprinting to the final podium step, followed seconds later by the splintered peloton that included Bauke Mollema, who finished in 17th place.

“Honestly, I am little disappointed,” continued Baffi. “We used [Julian] Arredondo to go in the first break on the first laps, and he did it, and Fabio [Felline] crashed in the middle of the race when there was already a big fight going on and he was not able to come back to the peloton.  So we only had Bauke in the front, and he did his best in the end, he did his job, but I am a bit disappointed with the others. We didn’t expect them to be there in the end, of course, but I have to say that I expected a little more from them.”