Arnaud De Lie wins the Quebec Cycling Grand Prix

(Quebec) Belgian Arnaud De Lie, 21, won the Quebec cycling Grand Prix in a sprint on Friday, the best victory of the Lotto team rider’s young career.

It’s the 17th^e success for “the bull of Lescheret”, the first at World Tour level, the first division of world cycling.

“I was still missing a big victory. I’ve been watching this race since I was little, I’ve seen all the editions, so to have this victory on my record is just huge,” he commented.

The Walloon asserted himself powerfully to overtake the New Zealander Corbin Strong and the Australian Michael Matthews, winner in 2018 and 2019, in the final meters.

“I tried to keep as much strength as possible to get to the sprint. I looked at the last editions and saw that Matthews came out very late each time,” added De Lie, the second Belgian to win in Quebec after Philippe Gilbert in 2011.

He succeeds Frenchman Benoît Cosnefroy who tried everything to retain his title by breaking away from the peloton 3.5 km from the goal. But the AG2R-Citroën rider was caught a kilometer further by the pack.

De Lie will be able to aim for the double on Sunday during the Montreal GP even if this second part of the Canadian autumn presents a hillier profile.

“It’s going to be very tough, our best card will undoubtedly be Maxim van Gils. But you never know, anything can happen, because I really have a very good condition,” he stressed.