UCI WorldTour: De Lie and Yates take over Canada

The Belgian wonderkid won his first one-day classic of the UCI WorldTour, before the British stage race expert achieved a feat unprecedented for him since 2015.

Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) were born 10 years apart and they both displayed the same childish smiles last week in Canada, where they could only revel in their successes.

The young Belgian De Lie struck first, with an amazing sprint to dominate a worn out peloton in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec. It was his first victory in the UCI WorldTour, and although he’s only 21 years old, it felt like it had been long in the making, given how successful and impressive the “Taureau” (“Bull”) has been since he joined the professional peloton at the beginning of 2022.

The British rider, used to making the most of his climbing skills in stage races, put the hammer down on the hills of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal until he got the better of Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers). A couple of months after he won the first stage of the Tour de France, donning the yellow jersey, Yates took his 14th UCI WorldTour victory but only the second in a one-day race, eight years after he won the Donostia San Sebastián Klasikoa.

Both of them were elated with their successes and their performances. Not only did they take career-defining victories on the line, they did so in impressive fashion.

A “fantastic” win with a brilliant sprint

First held in 2010, both Canadian classics joined the calendar of the UCI WorldTour the very next year. And they always caught the attention of Arnaud De Lie, born in March 2002.

The Belgian rising star notably saw his compatriot Philippe Gilbert win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 12 years ago, before stars like Peter Sagan (winner in 2016 and 2017) and Michael Matthews (2018, 2019) built themselves the best record to date in the first of the two events traditionally held at the beginning of September.

“As a little boy, I watched the race on television and to win here on my debut and already adding this victory to my palmares is fantastic,” De Lie celebrated after he made his way onto the list of winners.

“I’ve watched the past editions many times and I learned a lot,” the young Belgian elaborated. History taught him it was “crucial to save as much energy as possible until the final sprint” and it was especially true this year.

The winner in 2022, Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) put in a very strong attack within the last 4 kilometres but the French puncheur was caught with 2 kilometres to go. Teams set up the sprint and De Lie was a natural favourite but he was quite far behind when he started his effort.

“I had to launch early and had some work to do but I could take a good speed and held it to the line,” he explained.“ To beat riders such as Corbin Strong and Michael Matthews on finishes like these is not easy. So I’m over the moon with this first victory on UCI WorldTour level.”

Adam Yates flies high

As the peloton headed to Montréal, on the roads that have inspired the creation of the road race route for the 2026 UCI Road World Championships, De Lie hinted the second of the Canadian UCI WorldTour events would be “a bit harder”. And UAE Team Emirates made sure the racing would match the Belgian’s prediction, with the likes of Rafal Majka and Brandon McNulty setting a brutal pace leading to Adam Yates’ triumph.

The British star succeeds his teammate Tadej Pogačar. And his runner-up, Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), will join UAE Team Emirates next season.

“I am not super explosive, so we knew that if we set a hard pace, we had a chance to obtain a top result,” Yates explained. “On the last lap we went full gas, that was perfect, I went super fast in the climb and Sivakov was still there, so he obviously had good legs and good condition. I thought maybe I could be a little bit quicker in the sprint and that’s how it went.”

A winner of the Tour de Romandie this year and runner-up in the Critérium du Dauphiné ahead of his Tour de France performances (3rd overall), Yates snatched a one-day race victory in what may very well be the best season of his career.

“I’ve been trying to win this race for years, I was second in 2015, a long time ago, good memories, but today I succeeded to win,” the Brit celebrated. He now has 23 professional victories, including five this season alone. As for UAE Team Emirates, they’re up to 49 wins this season - a record for the squad.