Healy strong into final in Montréal, Pogačar in another league | Video

Tadej Pogačar has taken another win, at Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, to add to an already remarkable season and ready himself for the Worlds

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has dominated the final at Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal to win the one-day World Tour race solo after attacking with 23km to go.

Ireland's Ben Healy, who was on the attack at Friday's Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec with about 60km to go, was in contention deep into the final today, but was lacking a few percentage points when the race split to pieces after Pogačar went for broke on the penultimate climb.

However, though Healy did not finish Friday's race, he got a much better work-out today as the season inches towards the Worlds in Zurich in two weeks. The EF Education-EasyPost rider was 22nd today, 1:05 down on the solo winner after almost 4,000 metres of climbing.

Pogačar was chased all the way to the line by Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) and though the Spanish rider got to within 24 seconds of the Slovenian, he never looked like getting on terms; Pogačar also giving away some time with a prolonged elaborate celebration.

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Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) won the sprint for 3rd place, from a 15-man group at 40 seconds, just edging Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) off the final spot on the podium.

While Healy was towards the front of the much reduced peloton when Pogačar attacked, nobody could live with the Slovenian and Healy played a more minor role after that, slipped backwards and racing for the minor placings.

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However, following his post-Olympics break, Healy now has three races under his belt and his form today looked better than it did on the first of the Canadian races on Friday or in GP Industria & Artigianato (1.Pro) in Italy last week, when he was 22nd.

He will be hoping that upward trajectory can continue for the next fortnight so he might mount a challenge for a medal at the Worlds, where the riders will face 4.300 metres of climbing on a very hard circuit.

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