Although Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) insisted after the race that 'every year is different' in terms of his preparation for the World Championships, there was something familiar about his performance at the GP Québec on Friday.
In 2016, the World Champion hit the accelerator inside the closing metres on the Old Quebec circuit to snag a win ahead of Greg Van Avermaet.
In the 2017 edition of the race, the still-reigning World Champion followed the same script to perfection, defending his title with Van Avermaet again finishing as runner-up.
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"It's like if you stamp the same results from last year. The style of the race was very similar," Sagan acknowledged after the 201.6km WorldTour event. It wasn't only top two placings that followed the same template. Cannondale-Drapac's Rigoberto Urán, who won the race in 2015 and tried to do the same with a move in the finale in 2016, made a late attempt to get clear yet again this year.
"Everybody expected that Rigoberto Urán was going to attack in the last kilometre, and he did it again," Sagan said. "All the guys just went behind him, and after I was waiting just for the last hundred metres."
Surely, an identical result to the one that preceded last year's winning ride at Worlds will provide the 27-year-old Slovakian with a welcome benchmark ahead of his bid for a third straight gold medal. There's not much time left for tuning up as the challenge of defending his rainbow jersey, and Sagan now has confirmation that he's in winning form when it comes to hilly circuit races in September.
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