TakeWorlds24 hours ago
Pogačar is officially out of Montréal after surgery ended his season. That doesn't open the field — it collapses it to Evenepoel and van der Poel, with everyone else chasing.
Evenepoel skipped the Vuelta entirely to chase a rare ITT-road race double, betting his whole season on this one course. Van der Poel is the one rider who matches him, but he's racing MTB Worlds in Val di Sole a month out — one crash from missing Montréal altogether. Van Aert arrives spent from his Tour green jersey push, and Pedersen is carrying Vuelta fatigue into a course with 3,700m of climbing that doesn't suit either of them.
Sources
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