In an uphill finish to the 201.6 kilometres race on Québec City's Grande Allée, 21-year-old Lotto-Dstny rider De Lie prevailed in a bunch sprint.

He held off challenges from New Zealand's Corbin Strong of Israel-Premier Tech in second and Australia's Michael Matthews of Team Jayco-AlUla in third to take victory in 4 hours 47min 36sec.

Spain's Alex Aranburu of Movistar Team in fourth missed out on the podium, with Slovenia's five-time Grand Tour stage winner Matej Mohorič of Team Bahrain-Victorious fifth.

Britain's Adam Yates of UAE Team Emirates, third in the general classification on this year's Tour de France, was among the other leading names competing and crossed the finish line in 11th place.

De Lie expressed his delight at his maiden UCI World Tour triumph, which came despite having to start his sprint earlier than he would have preferred.

"I tried to save as much energy until the final sprint, that was crucial today," said De Lie, who earlier this season suffered a suffered a pneumothorax, fractures of the left clavicle, a rib and the upper part of the sternum, following a fall.

"As this is only my first time racing GP Québec, I’ve watched the past editions many times and it learned me a lot.

"We rode the perfect race with the team, but I was a bit far towards the final sprint.

"Luckily I still had two teammates left who brought me up.

"I had to launch early and had some work to do but I could take a good speed and held it to the line.

"To beat riders such as Corbin Strong and Michael Matthews on finishes like these is not easy.

Canada is due to host another one-day event on the World Tour with the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on Sunday (September 10).