Christopher Froome of BritainLaurent Rebours/The Associated Press
Tour de France champion Chris Froome and two-time winner Alberto Contador will join Canada's Ryder Hesjedal as headliners at UCI one-day cycling races next month in Montreal and Quebec City.
The 2011 Tour winner Cadel Evans and 2010 champ Andy Schleck will also be in the peloton as 21 eight-man teams tackle the hilly streets of both cities in the only UCI WorldTour events held in North America.
The tour stops Sept. 13 in Quebec City and Sept. 15 in Montreal.
Froome, the first reigning Tour de France winner to take part in the Canadian races in their four-year existence, heads the Sky Procycling squad. Contador leads Team Saxo-Tinkoff, Evans leads BMC Racing, Schleck is with Radioshack Leopard and Hesjedal, the 2012 Giro d'Italia winner from Victoria, with Garmin Sharp.
Other notables include the three past winners of the Montreal race: Robert Gesink (2010), Rui Costa (2011) and Lars Petter Nordhaug (2012). Slovak Peter Sagan, with 16 race wins this year, is also in the field.
The entries include 19 ProTeams — the world's top cycling squads.
There will be strong Canadian representation with David Veilleux of the Europcar team, Dominique Rollin of FDJ, Francois Parisien of Argos-Shimano and Hugo Houle with AG2R.
There is also a Canadian national team that includes national road race champion Zach Bell and under-23 champ Antoine Duchesne.