Running concurrently with the final weekend of the Vuelta a España, the Canadian GPs are a final opportunity for one-day specialists to hone in their form at the WorldTour level before the Bergen world championships, with the Grand Prix Montréal the penultimate one-day race on the WorldTour calendar this year before Il Lombardia in October.
Sagan, who won last year's Québec race, won the Montréal event in 2013 and has enjoyed strong results across several appearances in Canada. Van Avermaet pipped him in Montréal last season, and has never finished outside the top 10 in Québec in five career starts.
Urán, second overall at the Tour de France this July, took a surprise Québec win with Quick-Step in 2015. His return to Canada will coincide with the end of the two-week period he publicly gave his Cannondale-Drapac squad to find sufficient funds to continue in 2018.
Giro d'Italia winner Dumoulin will arrive at Québec following a BinckBank Tour overall win. Runner-up in Québec in 2014, he will be joined by fast-finishing teammate Michael Matthews, who won the sprint for second there behind Urán the following year.
Other top names on the provisional start list the race announced this week include Tony Gallopin and 2015 Montréal winner Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Sky's Sergio Henao, Trek-Segafredo's Bauke Mollema, FDJ's Arnaud Démare and Orica-Scott's Simon Gerrans, who became the first and only rider to win both events in the same season in 2014.
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