Peter Sagan (Cannondale) established himself as an even bigger favourite for the world championships by taking an impressive solo win on the hard circuit in the Grand Prix de Montreal. Having joined a select lead group on the final lap, he launched his own attack on the day's final climb and no one was able to match the fabulous Slovakian who soloed across the line, pointing to his thighs.

Peter Sagan has always been regarded as one of the major favourites for the world championships but today his positioned himself right at the top of the list by winning the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal in solo fashion. The Cannondale rider escaped on his own on the final climb of the day and held off his rivals on the final 5km stretch to the finish while Simone Ponzi (Astana) beat Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) in a two-rider sprint to take 2nd.

Knowing that no one wanted to cooperated with him, Sagan knew that he had to do it alone and so he did. He responded to an acceleration from Hesjedal and immediately opened up a big gap.

Behind a chase group formed and despite the good collaboration, Sagan kept extending his lead for some time. Despite losing a little ground in the finale, his win was never in danger.

Local hero Hesjedal was on a good day and made a late attack with Ponzi. Those two had to decide the minor podium places in a sprint, with Ponzi emerging as the fastest. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) beat Filippo Pozzato (Lampre) in the sprint from the chase group.

Sagan and most of the main contenders will now travel back to Europe to focus on the world championships which starts next Sunday. The races in Canada have provided them with the perfect preparation.

A tough race

The 205,7km race consisted of 17 laps on a 12,1km circuit in Montreal. Two big climb in the first part made it a tough one and with 17 repetitions of the ascents, a gradual elimination race was expected.

The race was off to a fast start and the first rider to launch an attack was one from the Canadian national team. He tried his hand on the day's major climb but was quickly reeled in while new attacks were constantly launched.

A group is formed

Zach Bell (Canada) was the first to get a significant gap and he stayed ahead for a little while before being joined by Danilo Hondo (Radioshack), Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel) and Sergio Paulinho (Saxo-Tinkoff). At the first passage of the finish line, they were 48 seconds ahead of the peloton while Adriano Malori (Lampre) and William Clarke (Argos) had set off in pursuit.

Those two riders made it across and the 7-rider lead group was allowed to build up a 4.45-gap. OPQS started to chase, putting Jerome Pineau on the front, and they kept the gap stable at around 4 minutes for a little while. They were later joined by Sky who asked Gabriel Rasch to do some early work and the French-Norwegian duo kept the gap stable for a long time.

Cannondal join the chase

With 124km to go, Sagan showed his intentions by asking Brian Vandborg and later Guillaume Boivin to join in on the pace-setting duties. That was, however, only for a short while and they quickly disappeared. Instead, Sky's Danny Pate joined Rasch and Pineau on the front.

With 109km to go, Petr Ignatenko (Katusha) attacked and he quickly opened up a solid gap. A little later his teammate Rudiger Selig tried a similar move and for a long time, the two Katusha riders were in lone pursuit of the leaders, surprisingly not waiting for each other.

Sky up the pace

Selig quickly gave up on his mission while Sky upped the pace a bit further to make the race tougher which would suit Froome. Garmin had similar plans ad with 80km to go, Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson strung out the peloton on the race's biggest climb before once again leaving the work to Pate who was now the lone chaser in the peloton. The accelerations brought Ignatenko back into the fold while Malori suffered a puncture and had to spend a lot of energy to get back to the front group.

With 60km to go, a crash brought down Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (all Sky) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). Unfortunately, Froome was the only rider who could continue the race.

Bellemakers on the attack

Despite the crash, Sky kept the pace high with Pate, Ian Boswell and Joe Dombrowski setting the pace. Moments later Dirk Bellemakers (Lotto Belisol) attacked and bridged across to the front group from which Hondo, Bell and Agnoli had all been dropped.

The fierce pace saw gaps open up and Froome was now in a group of dropped riders. Geraint Thomas had to dig deep to bring his captain back in contention.

FDJ show their intentions

Up ahead, a 30-rider group had established itself and caught the front group. FDJ saw it as a good opportunity and Yoann Offredo did a huge job to keep the pace high. With 49km to go, it was, however, back together.

FDJ kept the pace high with Offredo and Arnold Jeannesson doing the work. On the next climb, Peter Stetina (Garmin) upped the pace even further but when he disappeared from the front, the pace went significantly down.

Many attacks

This kicked off a very aggressive phase. Stijn Vandebergh (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Offredo were the first to attack and they briefly created a group with Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha), Borut Bozic (Astana), Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Damiano Cunego (Lamore), Jack Bobridge (Belkin), Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r). When it was brought back Vandenbergh tried another attack but had no success.

Burghardt, Bobrdige, Jesus Hernandez (Saxo-Tinkoff), Antoine Duchesne (Canada), Hubert Dupont (Ag2r) and Fanio Aru (Astana) all tried different attacks but Boswell kept things together. Tiago Machado (Radioshack) hit the front on the climb and his fierce pace did huge damage.

A new group is formed

Alexei Tsatevich (Katusha) kept the pace high on the descent and when he took a short breather, Gorka Izagirre attacked. He was joined by Daniel Oss (BMC), Tim Wellens (Lotto), Kolobnev, Cunego, Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and those 7 riders got a solid gap.

Belkin started to chase, putting Steven Kruijswijk on the front, and he was joined by the Cannondale riders Alessandro De Marchi and Vandborg. They caught Alexey Lusenko (Astana) who has been in lone pursuit of the front group.

Contador plays his card

On the penultimate passage of the main climb, Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) attacked and he was joined by Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Jan Bakelants (Radioshack). Oss fell back to help the group get across and suddenly a strong 10-rider move was formed.

Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) attacked on the next climb but Sagan now sensed that the situation was dangerous. He launched his own attack, overtaking Marcato, and Froome was unable to keep his wheel.

Sagan joins the move

Sagan got across to the front group while Hesjedal tried an unsuccessful move from the peloton. However, FDJ and Garmin had missed the move and so Pierrick Fedrigo and Stetina collaborated to bring it back together.

Wellens, Cunego, Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) tried an unsuccessful attack but were countered by Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE). Amael Moinard (BMC) set off in pursuit and they both had solid gaps when the peloton - led by FDJ and Cannondale - started the final lap.

Gesink makes his move

On the lower slopes of the main climb, Offredo set the pace for FDJ. Halfway up the ascent George Bennett (Radioshack) launched the first attack which spelled the end for Moinard and Albasini.

Robert Gesink (Belkin) countered the move and quickly opened up a gap. Froome tried to follow him but was unable to do so.

A group of favourites is formed

Sensing the danger, Sagan made his own acceleration to bridge across to Gesink and he was followed by Bakelants, Vichot, Lars Petter Nordhaug (Belkin), van Garderen and Rui Costa (Movistar). Pozzato, Froome, Ponzi, Tony Gallopin (Radioshack), Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel) and Hesjedal also made it up to the leaders and when the pace went down, more riders joined from behind.

Froome tried an unsuccessful move but Nordhaug closed it down. Instead, Gesink made a sneaky move and quickly built up a solid gap.

Sagan makes his move

Cadel Evans started to chase, working for his teammate Van Avermaet. When he hit the bottom of the final climb, he had brought the gap to Gesink significantly down.

Hesjedal attacked and quickly overtook Gesink but moments later, Sagan kicked into action. He launched a furious acceleration that no one could respond to and he crested the summit as the lone leader.

A chase group is formed

Behind, a chase group with Ion Izagirre, Pozzato, Ponzi, Enrico Gaparotto (Astana), Vichot, Hesjedal, Van Avermaetm Bakelants, Nordhaug and Pozzato had formed and they worked well together. However, they kept losing time to the fabulous Slovakian who was 18 seconds ahead with 2km to go.

Hesjedal and Ponzi attacked and while they did a good job to get closer to Sagan, they never made the junction. Sagan took a huge solo win while Ponzi beat Hesjedal in the sprint for 2nd.

Result:

1. Peter Sagan 5.20.07

2. Simone Ponzi +0.04

3. Ryder Hesjedal

4. Greg Van Avermaet +0.07

5. Filippo Pozzato

6. Rui Costa

7. Enrico Gasparotto

8. Lars Petter Nordhaug +0.09

9. Ion Izagirre

10. Jan Bakelants