This weekend, while much of the planet’s population is still tucked up in bed, the Gravel World Championships will be taking place in a tiny little place amid the enormous space that is Western Australia.

Nunnup, the host town, boasts some brilliant, albeit extremely tricky pea-gravel trails, and many people agree that it’s wonderful to see the World Championships of the fast-growing cycling discipline of gravel racing taking place outside the usual confines of Europe.

But there’s no getting away from the fact that it has been horrendously hard and very expensive for lots of riders to travel to the other side of the world to compete for their country.

Cycling's national governing bodies, British Cycling included, are unable or unwilling to devote thinly stretched funding to support riders travelling around the globe to take part in an event that isn’t featured on the Olympic programme.

In a statement, British Cycling said they are "not currently able to provide financial or operational support for riders attending this event." It has therefore fallen to teams and individual riders to pay their own way.

Despite all of this, the line-up is surprisingly strong. There are 63 riders taking part from Britain, including 2025 British champion Connor Swift and the current national champ Jenson Young who, along with teammate Sophie Wright, received assistance from Ribble Outliers to get to Australia.

“It wasn't like fully funded, just because it wasn't budgeted for at the start of the year, but yeah, they [Ribble] gave us a fair bit towards it, which is really helpful,” Young tells Cycling Weekly.

“Even though we ride in GB cycling kit, we’ve had no communication or any support or anything from British Cycling. It was the team that supported it and got us out here.

“I have not even heard from anyone at British Cycling. That’s a bit disappointing, really, that we've spent all this money to get here, and we’re riding in the GB kit, and to not even speak to us.”

Other riders have completely self-funded their travel, using sponsorship income and their own savings to get themselves and their bikes to Australia.

“I've had no assistance at all from British Cycling,” former British gravel champion and Traka 560 winner Maddy Nutt told Cycling Weekly, the night before the women’s elite race.

“They even charged us for the skinsuits, which we have to race in. I just used some of my racing budget from my sponsors as a privateer to get here.”

Another rider, Tom Martin, who races for Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli, told us that he had to shelve plans to compete at the Worlds when it became too expensive.

“I very nearly decided to go, after finishing in the top 20 at European Championships and racing near the front, along with being first British rider," he says. "But I made the decision [not to go] in the middle of the season. I was waiting to see if I could get some more financial support, but I didn't have enough budget."

He is philosophical about the event being so far away, though, saying: "We’ve had it good with the last three Worlds all being in Europe." And he's not surprised about the lack of funding and support from the governing body. "There never is [support], unless it’s an Olympic event, unfortunately. I’ve been to two mountain bike marathon worlds, both self-funded."

Still, plenty of elite riders from around the globe have made it to the Worlds, including Marianne Vos and defending men’s champion Florian Vermeersch, and the event does promise to be enthralling for those who are lucky enough to get there.

“The field is definitely not as deep as normal for World Champs, but it’s still very competitive” says Nutt. “There are [fewer] road riders dipping their toes in and giving the Worlds a whack, but still a good number of the gravel peloton have made it out.”

British Cycling's response

When we approached them for comment about the level of support being offered to riders at the Gravel World Championships, a British Cycling spokesperson said:

“We are proud to see British riders competing on the world stage at the UCI Gravel World Championships, and we recognise the commitment, preparation and personal expense that goes into representing your country at an elite level.

“As the national governing body for cycling, our role is to support and enable the growth of the discipline, helping create the conditions for long-term, sustainable development. Gravel is one of the most exciting and fastest-growing areas of cycling, and its success reflects the passion and commitment of organisers, participants, and the wider community. We value the role they have played in developing the discipline and will continue to work closely with them as gravel continues to grow.

“As a non-Olympic discipline, the funding and resources available to support gravel differ from those available in some other areas of the sport, and British Cycling is not currently able to provide financial or operational support for riders attending this event.

“We remain committed to supporting the growth of gravel and will continue to explore the opportunities and resources available to support future editions of the event as the discipline develops.”

Swedish rider Caroline Andersson has declared her season over after suffering injuries including four brain bleeds and two facial fractures in a crash at the UCI Road World Championships.

The 25-year-old, whose condition is now stable, was involved in a major pile-up with around 95km to go in the elite women’s road race on 26 September.

She was transported immediately to hospital, where she was diagnosed at the time with a broken collarbone, the Swedish Cycling Federation said.

Andersson has now posted her own update, detailing a longer list of injuries.

“After the crash I sustained 4 brain bleeds, 2 facial fractures, a broken collarbone and a broken pelvis. I'm stable now and in good hands,” she wrote on Instagram.

“My 2026 season is done – now It’s all about healing, especially my head, and taking the time it needs.”

Around 15 riders came down in the crash, which happened on a downhill stretch of the finishing circuit in Montréal, Canada. Andersson appeared to be the worst affected, as well as Australia’s Lauretta Hanson, who left the race in an ambulance and wearing a neck brace.

Hanson later wrote on Instagram that she was “banged up” with “a few broken ribs”, but thankful to escape a worse injury.

Andersson was one of two Swedish riders to enter the women’s road race; her team-mate, Julia Borgström, witnessed the crash and stopped to help, before withdrawing from the event in tears.

“Big thank you to the Swedish team for all the care and support, and to Julia – just for being my teammate through this,” Andersson wrote. “And thank you to everyone who has reached out, it means so much. I haven’t been able to answer all but I do appreciate it.

“I’ll be back when I’m ready.”

Andersson has spent the last four seasons with Liv AlUla Jayco, but has signed a three-year deal to join AG Insurance-Soudal from 2027.

Her best career results include a second place at the one-day Tour of Guangxi WorldTour race in China, fourth overall at this year’s Tour of Britain Women, and fourth at Le Samyn. She placed 11th in the road race at last year’s World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda.

Last month's women's road race in Montréal was won by Demi Vollering (Netherlands) in a two-up sprint with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland).

There's something about the World Championships that is almost unique in bike racing, with the possible exception of Paris-Roubaix; and never was this more in evidence than in the Worlds races at Montréal at the weekend. While the Grand Tours and some of the Classics can feel almost orchestrated, especially when one team or rider is clearly strongest (naming no names), the Worlds is a visceral, two-wheeled boxing match.

With huge numbers of fatigue-inducing kilometres already in the legs, and isolated from any outside help, we saw riders bludgeon each other repeatedly around the Mount Royal circuit, with varying levels of tiredness, desperation and determination all laid bare for the world to see.

If you watched those displays of no-holds-barred brutality in Montréal and wondered exactly what it took to be there at the sharp end of a race like that, fourth-place finisher Quinn Simmons has at least part of the answer for you.

Like his US teammates Matteo Jorgenson and new champion Brandon McNulty, Simmons posted his ride on Strava. All three files showed the outlandish 276km (171-mile) distance, the long hours in the saddle, and the vicious, serrated profile of Mount Royal's multiple laps.

But Quinn Simmons – who posts under the pseudonym Ricky Bobby (a fictional NASCAR driver) – reveals one parameter that is rare to see from a pro cyclist, and which gives a deeper insight into what it takes to be up there among the best: power.

The pop culture references don't stop with Simmons's Strava name – he called his Worlds ride 'Someone PLAY FREEBIRD', and quotes the film 'Miracle on Ice' in the description, writing: "You play 'em 10, you might lose 9. Not today."

On to that all important power. For a moving time of 6hr 24min 56sec, Simmons averaged 291 watts which, when taking into account the myriad climbs and changes of pace, translated to a monster normalised power of 361 watts. Other stats include an average heart rate of 150bpm, with a 190bpm maximum – achieved as he crested the Voie Camillien Houde for the eighth time, during his stint out front with Mathieu van der Poel and Primož Roglič. He also registered numerous Strava Achievements, including KoM on the Pont de 35 UP segment – a motorway bridge early on in course, of all places.

Speaking after the race, Simmons told NOS: "In cycling so many times you make a plan and it doesn't go well. We lose so many races every year. In the meeting last night… I mean we're all on different teams, and we said, 'no matter what, an American needs to finish on the podium'. And I said 'Hey boys, anything's possible. We race for the podium but more could happen if we ride like this. And we did exactly that."

Addressing his fourth place, just outside the medals, he said: "Whatever – who cares about missing a medal when the team takes the jersey."

France’s Paul Seixas cut a dejected figure as he passed through the media zone after the UCI World Championships road race on Sunday. He dropped his gaze to the ground, and responding to the press, brandished his performance “a disgrace”, after he cramped in the finale and fell out of contention.

The 20-year-old jostled alongside the favourites until the final 13.8km lap of the 273.4km race. As his rivals attacked each other in a last-ditch attempt to close the tearaway winner, the USA’s Brandon McNulty, Seixas posted up in the saddle, holding his left thigh.

He went on to finish 15th overall, having said before the race that “anything other than gold would be a disappointment”.

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” he told Eurosport afterwards. “What I did today is a disgrace. Cramping up like that, it’s a childish mistake. I’ve never cramped up in my life on a bike.

“I’m extremely disappointed, not only for myself because it’s what I deserve, but for the whole of France, the whole team, who did an incredible job and don’t deserve a leader like me.”

Second-year pro Seixas has held the spotlight this season as French cycling’s next big hope. He won the WorldTour stage race Itzulia Basque Country in April, followed by the one-day Classic La Flèche Wallonne, and went on to finish fourth on his Tour de France debut as the race’s youngest starter in 89 years.

He turned 20 last week, three days before the World Championships road race.

Berating himself afterwards, he wondered if his downfall had been due to dehydration. “Maybe I under-estimated how much I was sweating on the bike,” he said.

“It’s hard to be comforted right now. You can’t move on to something else so easily. It’ll take me a bit of time to process this, I think.”

France’s national coach, Thomas Voeckler, was more forgiving in his analysis of the race.

“Paul Seixas was part of the race with winners like that,” he also told Eurosport, pointing to Paris-Roubaix winner Wout van Aert (Belgium).

“[Seixas] said before the race that any result other than a victory would be a failure, so he sees it as a failure. He needs time to process it. It’s frustrating, but that’s sport... That’s what makes cycling. It’s no big deal. I’m upset for him more than for myself.”

France worked hard to control the race in the early stages, relying on Bruno Armirail in particular to reel in the day’s breakaway.

Looking back on how the race panned out, Voeckler said he wouldn’t have changed the team’s tactics. “When someone wins, that doesn’t mean they did everything right. And when someone doesn’t win, that doesn’t mean you have to throw everything away,” he said.

“There are disappointed countries – France is part of it, as is Belgium – but we have to be reasonable; we’re talking about a boy, and we’re disappointed because we knew he had the potential to do it, but the guy’s just turned 20.”

Seixas’s chance at rainbow redemption will come on home soil next year, when the ‘Super Worlds’ are scheduled to take place in France’s Haute-Savoie region, a two-hour drive from his home in Lyon.

Despite his disappointment over his road race result, Seixas still left Canada with a bronze medal, earned in the individual time trial.

He was the most unlikely of names on the start list: a team masseur, without a single UCI point, who hadn’t raced a bike in nine years. But Slovakia’s Vladimír Kováčik ended up one of the heroes of this year’s UCI Road World Championships, after he was drafted in at the last minute to represent his country, and held pace with the peloton for over 100km.

The 28-year-old masseur started alone for Slovakia in Sunday’s elite men’s road race in Montreal, Canada. His country was allowed to field up to four riders; however, all the other hopefuls either dropped out due to injury or prior commitments to their trade teams.

Failing to field a rider could have had repercussions on the nation's qualification for the LA Olympics in 2028; the UCI might have downgraded the ranking of Slovakia’s national championships for next year, meaning their riders would earn half as many qualification points.

So, with the deadline already passed for registering new riders, the national team coach turned to an unlikely source: 28-year-old Kováčik, who still held a racing licence, and had travelled to Canada as a soigneur for the squad.

“I don’t have words for this one. It's a dream for every rider, and I’m a masseur, so it’s crazy,” Kováčik told Eurosport ahead of the race start.

“The information was that the last rider was really injured and he couldn’t come, so a few days ago, it was the last option.”

Prior to Sunday, Kováčik’s last race came at a Polish one-day event in 2017 that he did not finish, then aged 19.

He lasted just over 100km within the peloton on his Worlds debut, before he was dropped on the entrance to the finishing circuit in Montreal, with around 168km to go, and pulled out of the race.

Speaking beforehand, he said he had done “a little bit of training, but just only like an amateur”.

“It was a little difficult to put the numbers on, because it was nine years ago when I did it for the last time. And I shaved my legs. Yeah really, really difficult,” he laughed.

The world title was won in the end by the USA’s Brandon McNulty, who soloed from a front group with 33km to go.

Slovakia have won the event three times in the past, all courtesy of Peter Sagan, who went back-to-back-to-back between 2015 and 2017. The country won gold in the under-23 road race in Canada last week through Viktória Chladaňová.

Brandon McNulty crossed the finish line alone in Montréal. But behind him, Team USA had spent the day making sure he would not have to win the world championship on his own.

There were teammates to launch attacks, teammates to cover the response and teammates still finding their way back into contention when the race seemed to have exhausted everyone. For sports director Michael Creed, the plan had been simple enough: "Numbers, numbers, numbers."

McNulty's victory delivered the United States its first elite men's road world title since 1993. It was an upset for the favourites, but Creed was careful about what that said about his team. Asked whether the Americans had been underdogs, he rejected the description.

"I don't think we were the underdog. I think we were about on par," he said.

Underestimated, though? That drew an unequivocal yes.

"But that's fine," Creed said. "That's a privileged place to be. There's no better zone to be than underestimated and have the fitness to prove people wrong."

Team USA had come to Montréal with one of the strongest teams it had fielded in decades.

It lined up with three protected leaders – WorldTour riders McNulty, Quinn Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson – and five experienced domestiques also all from the top tier of the sport: Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Artem Shmidt (Netcompany INEOS), Larry Warbasse (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Riley Sheehan (NSN Cycling).

"We all know that we're very capable riders and capable of winning on any given day. If we do everything perfect, we have a good shot at a medal," McNulty had said before the race.

Creed had paired that talent with a strategy built around keeping enough of them in contention to give the team options deep into the race.

In the team meeting, Creed had given them a specific target: always account for more than 10 per cent of the lead group.

"We're going to win by numbers," he said.

That ambition depended on something no sports director can guarantee.

"You don't expect everyone to have good legs on the same day, and everyone had great legs [today]," Creed said. "I'm sure if it came back, Matteo could've won."

In the press conference with the rainbow jersey and gold medal draped over his neck and shoulders, McNulty recounted how the team's numbers led to the winning move.

Simmons had been out front first, allowing McNulty and Jorgenson to play off his presence ahead. When the race came back together, McNulty took his opportunity.

"When it came together, I chose the moment to go," he said. "I know they were both just closing every move behind, and making sure the group is constantly starting and stopping, which favours a rider ahead."

That was the value of having several potential winners. With McNulty up the road, Jorgenson and Simmons could follow attacks without helping the chase. Every acceleration their rivals made risked bringing another strong American closer to the front.

And even deep into the finale, the U.S. numbers kept replenishing. Creed could scarcely believe it when Quinn Simmons returned on the last lap.

"How the hell did he come back?"

It was another American body in a race where each one mattered. As Creed described it, the climbs left riders too exhausted to commit fully to the chase. The effort required to bring McNulty closer also made it harder to finish the job.

"They go so hard on the climbs that everyone's gassed and no one can commit," he said.

Still, in the team car, Creed's nerves were anything but settled.

"That was a rollercoaster in the van," Creed said.

McNulty's smooth style made him difficult to read, but the speed felt wrong. The gap eventually fell to just 10 seconds. What had looked like a winning margin was suddenly almost gone.

McNulty was living the same uncertainty from the other side of the windscreen. Familiarity with the circuit had given him confidence in how to race it, but also an uncomfortable knowledge of how much road remained after the final corner.

"I knew they were coming close, and then the gap would grow, and then I know how long the last 500 meters are," he said.

He only accepted that he would win with 50 metres remaining. Around an hour later, at the press conference, he was still struggling to believe it.

"I didn't really think the jersey was something that could genuinely happen," he said. "It was my dream, my big hope."

For Riley Sheehan, that commitment had roots far beyond a national-team meeting.

"We've all raced with each other since juniors. We all know each other so well," he said. "We've all put everything into it, and it's incredible to have a guy like Brandon win. I couldn't be more happy."

They spent most of the season riding for different trade teams. Here, their familiarity helped turn a group of individual talents into a team willing to work for whichever rider could deliver the jersey.

McNulty described a connection that extended to the people behind the team. He had entered the USA Cycling programme at 15 or 16 and grown up around staff who were still involved. He and Simmons had won junior world titles, but the elite men's road race remained the prize everyone wanted.

"It's super special to do it with people that I've known since I was really a kid," McNulty said.

Sheehan's assignment was to support the trio of leaders, help set up Simmons' initial move and stay useful for as long as his legs allowed.

Sheehan has initially been left out of the team selection – an omission that had not passed quietly. He took to social media and spoke to our sister site, Cyclingnews, that he was disappointed and confused, as he believed he "could have been a really vital asset" to the American team. When Neilson Powless withdrew due to illness, Sheehan got his call-up after all.

When asked about this turn of events, Sheehan said a world championship in North America felt almost like a home race, and the course was one he wanted to race.

"I saw that we have a winning team," he said. "I wanted to be a part of this, and I know I can make a dent in it and support the guys."

His conviction was rewarded with a teammate in the rainbow jersey and all three protected leaders in the top 10: McNulty first, Simmons fourth and Jorgenson eighth.

For McNulty, those results proved that team's strategy had worked.

"If I go solo and there are two guys that are that strong, they're going to mark moves, and it's going to make it work," he said. "Really incredible from all three of us and the whole team, all eight of us."

For Creed, being underestimated had offered a freedom he knew would be harder to find after a performance like this.

"It's such an amazing position because everything is so much harder afterwards," he said.

The next time this group lines up together, its rivals will have a reason to count the American jerseys as carefully as Creed did.

With less than half a lap remaining, Summer McNulty, née Moak, snuck into the media tent alongside the finish line of the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal to see how her husband was doing.

Brandon McNulty was alone out front. There was a gap, but a small one. Behind him came the might of Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Michael Matthews (Australia), Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Isaac del Toro (Mexico), Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) and others.

"I'm so stressed out right now," Summer told Cycling Weekly.

Could he do it?

"I mean I hope so but I'm not going to say anything till it's finished. I'm freaking out but I hope he can do it. He deserves it."

Minutes later, McNulty soloed across the line, took a hard right towards the barriers and fell into Summer's arms.

That sentiment – that McNulty deserved it – kept coming. His American teammate Riley Sheehan said it, as did USA Cycling sports director Michael Creed. And trade teammate Tadej Pogačar, who had worn the rainbow stripes for the previous two years, took to social media to call him a king.

It is not every day that a domestique gets crowned as world champion.

"Maybe Tadej will have to ride for me a few days," McNulty joked after the race when a journalist remarked on Pogačar post.

Every domestique has his day

Since joining UAE Emirates XRG in 2020, McNulty has combined the demands of riding for the most formidable talent of his generation with the occasional opportunity of his own.

As a key domestique in the mountain stages, McNulty has helped Pogačar win three editions of the Tour de France, as well as one-day races like Milan-San Remo.

But his own results have long made clear what he can do when the opportunity comes: a Giro d'Italia stage in 2023, a Vuelta a España stage in 2024, the overall victory at the Tour de Pologne in 2025, and, notably, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in 2025 on the very roads where he claimed his world title today.

At that Montréal finish in 2025, Pogačar was beside him, the two celebrating together as McNulty crossed first. On Sunday, the American arrived alone.

We knew he was in form. At GP de Montréal earlier this month, McNulty placed third. Then, in the time trial last Sunday, he had been just 12 seconds off from a medal.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly earlier this week, he said: "I think there's a chance. If we do everything perfect, we have a good shot at a medal."

Still, much of the pre-race attention on a potential successor from within the UAE-Emirates XRG team had centred on Isaac del Toro. The young Mexican had won this year's GP Montréal and featured prominently among the favourites for the world title. But perhaps they'd been looking at the wrong UAE teammate.

A Team Victory

While not the all-out favourites, the Americans, as a unit, arrived as a strong contender. Van der Poel said he was watching out for them, as did Evenepoel. The question was which American rider to mark.

Team USA lined up with three protected riders: McNulty, Quinn Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson. Their strength gave them options, and they used them.

Simmons went ahead first. Jorgenson attacked later. When the contenders came back together, McNulty seized his moment, going clear with around 33km remaining.

Once McNulty was away, his teammates kept responding to the pursuit.

"I know they were both just closing every move behind," McNulty said with complete trust.

But for all the tactical advantages, there was still a brutal effort to finish.

"I've never been so empty,” McNulty said.

Meanwhile, in the media tent, Summer understood both the opportunity and the uncertainty.

A former junior national champion on the road and record holder on the track, she knew what it meant to reach the closing stages with a chance of winning.

She also knew what Montréal meant to her husband.

"He's feeling good. He's always happy on this course. I think that gives him a little bit of extra confidence."

McNulty confirmed afterwards that familiarity had helped. He had learned how to race these roads over successive visits. But knowing the course also meant knowing how much remained after the final corner.

"I knew they were coming close, and then the gap would grow," he said. "I know how long the last 500 meters are from the last corner."

He couldn’t believe it was won until roughly 50 metres remained.

Only then could he accept what was happening. Matthews would take silver, Van der Poel bronze. McNulty would become the first American elite men's road world champion since 1993.

Even in the press conference, the result had not quite sunk in.

"Has it been an hour now?" he asked. "I really don't believe it."

McNulty had spent much of his cycling life working towards this moment alongside people in the American programme who had known him since he was a teenager.

"The men's world road race has always been the dream for everyone in the organisation," he said. "It's super special to do it with people that I've known since I was really a kid."

He had fulfilled that ambition in Team USA colours.

In the coming week, McNulty will swap the red, white and blue for a rainbow-striped UAE kit as he's scheduled to line up at the Giro dell’Emilia on October 3.

Whether he will actually get to race for his chances on a team that holds two of the biggest talents in the peloton has yet to be seen, but for now he’ll enjoy wearing the rainbows.

"I hope I made [Tadej Pogacar] proud by keeping the jersey in the team," McNulty said of Pogačar. "I hope he enjoyed watching."

The answer was already there on social media.

"The King of Montreal 👑 Proud of you @brandon_mcnulty 🌈🥹" Pogacar penned.

Brandon McNulty claimed his first World Championship and the biggest win of his career in Montréal this afternoon.

In an unpredictable and attritional race the American timed his move to perfection, attacking with 33km left to race and, despite clearly struggling to maintain power in the final stages, held on to take the rainbow jersey.

McNulty is the first American to win the World Championship road race in 33 years. The last American to wear the rainbow jersey was Lance Armstrong who won in 1993 in Oslo.

The 28 year-old from Phoenix had not entered the race as one of the favourites but newly crowned time trial World Champion Remco Evenepoel, aggressive-riding Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel and young Mexican Isaac del Toro all rode strongly but ultimately came up short.

At the finish McNulty said he was “lost for words”. He said: “The last lap I was in zone two I was just dying but I kept pushing.”

He added he had joked with his wife this morning about winning. He said: “I knew something could happen but it’d take a miracle and today, I guess, miracles do happen.”

The American team used their strength in Montréal well and were present at the front of the race throughout first with Quinn Simmons, then Matteo Jorgenson, and finally McNulty.

Behind McNulty the closing stages were marked by the chasers trying to escape and claim the remaining medals but it came to a sprint with Michael Matthews taking silver and Mathieu van der Poel taking bronze.

The race in Montreal had been a chaotic affair. Soon after the flag dropped a group of 17 riders went clear. The biggest name among them was Biniam Girmay from Eritrea, but the sprinter was, rightly, not considered a serious threat for the win on the hill course.

With 106km to go the remains of the break was finally caught, thanks mostly from the pressing of Frenchman Bruno Armirail, he was distanced once the junction was made.

A few kilometres later France forced a split in the peloton drawing away a group that by the top of the climb numbered 11 riders. It was made up of Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, Brit Oscar Onley, Irishman Ben Healy, Belgian Maxim van Gils, Frenchman Alex Baudin, Norwegian Jørgen Nordhagen, Colombian Santiago Buitrago, Danes Anthon Charmig and Andreas Kron and Italians Christian Scaroni and Giulio Pellizzari.

But eventually it was shut down and with 87km to go Wout van Aert went on the offensive. His move was covered by Van de Poel and Onley.

The leading trio were soon joined by Charmig and Primož Roglič of Slovenia and Quinn Simmons from the USA.

As they crossed the finish line with six laps to go they had a gap of 40 seconds.

As the climb approached Tom Pidcock, among the outside contenders for the win, was seen making his way back to the back of the peloton after suffering a crash. It was bad timing as the pace was high.

On the climb Isaac del Toro came to the front and slashed the break’s advantage to 15 seconds, dropping much of the peloton, including Pidcock, in the process.

Perhaps sensing the vulnerability, van der Poel attacked the front group. Simmons and Onley responded and with 73km to go the three were alone at the front of the race.

The third group on the road, containing pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel and del Toro, was now 27 seconds behind the leaders. The trio of van Aert, Charmig and Roglič were halfway between them.

The following laps were marked by attack and counter attack from the groups behind the leaders.

With three laps to go all the groups could see each other in the finishing straight. And up the main climb Irishman Ben Healy, who had been busy animating the race, joined the front and on the descent the chase group finally came across. The USA’s Matteo Jorgenson immediately attack and took Giulio Ciccone and Pidcock with him.

They were brought to heel but no sooner had the group reformed than Brandon McNulty launched and swiftly built a buffer of 30 seconds.

As co-operation proved elusive in the chase with attacks and counter attacks McNulty’s advantage spiralled out to nearly a minute.

The final ascent of the main climb of the circuit saw Ciccone and Pidcock accelerate off the front in a bid to claim the remaining medals behind McNulty but they couldn’t build much of a gap.

McNulty was fading now but never let the chase get within 10 seconds of his rear wheel

At the finish, as McNulty looked over his shoulder, they sprinted behind and Michael Matthews came out on top ahead of Mathieu van der Poel.

Results

UCI Road World Championships 2026, men’s Elite Road Race: Brossard > Montréal (273km)

1. Brandon McNulty, United States in 6:17:04
2. Michael Matthews, Australia, +13s
3. Mathieu van der Poel, Netherlands
4. Quinn Simmons, United States, all at same time
5. Isaac del Toro, Mexico, +14s
6. Mads Pedersen, Denmark
7. Tom Pidcock, Great Britain
8. Matteo Jorgenson, United States
9. Giulio Ciccone, Italy
10. Ben Healy, Ireland, all at same time

Demi Vollering’s rainbow jersey came with an unwelcome addition: a hefty CHF 1,000 ($ 1,200 USD / £911 GBP) fine, a 25-point deduction in the UCI rankings and a yellow card.

The post-race commissaires’ communiqué states that the Dutch rider had been penalised for "using a non-compliant position or point of support on the bicycle" during the women’s elite road race.

The ruling cited article 2.12.007.9 of the UCI regulations, which prohibits riding positions or points of support on the bicycle that breach the rules and pose a danger to the rider or other competitors.

In plain terms, the rule penalises riders for adopting prohibited positions that could compromise control of their bike. Well-known examples include "puppy paws", where riders rest their forearms on the handlebars to reduce wind resistance, and the "super tuck", where they sit on the top tube rather than the saddle. Both are banned in road races and yield immediate disqualifications. The communiqué did not specify which position Vollering used or when in the race the infraction occurred.

When Cycling Weekly asked a representative of the Dutch team to clarify, they were as confused as everyone else and promised to find out what exact position led to such a hefty fine.

Fortunately for Vollering, the race results remain unaffected, and while she received a point deduction, her UCI ranking will largely be unaffected also. Prior to the World Championships race, the Dutchwoman led the published standings by more than 3,300 points, so the 25-point sanction will only make a minor dent.

This is not the first time the Dutchwoman made headlines for a fine. At the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in August, Vollering and her FDJ-Suez United teammates were fined for urinating in public. That fine, however, was significantly less expensive at 100 CHF per rider.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney had given everything. Demi Vollering still had the rainbow jersey. The silver medallist's first reaction?

"It wasn't 'oh yay, silver!'," the Pole said dripping with sarcasm. "It's like 'Fuuudddgeee'"

In the final 50 metres up the Avenue du Parc, she was empty, her leg had cramped, and she could not finish her sprint as she had wanted.

Demi Vollering had won the rainbow jersey, and while Niewiadoma could accept that she had been beaten, that acceptance came with a promise.

"It just means that I will now come home and work harder to beat her next time," she said.

This rivalry between Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney has been growing with each season. In 2023, Vollering passed Niewiadoma on the Tourmalet on her way to winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift; later that year, Niewiadoma took the gravel world title with Vollering finishing in third. In 2024, the Pole beat her on the Mur de Huy to win Flèche Wallone, then held her off by just four seconds to win the Tour de France Femmes.

This August, Vollering turned the tables, reclaiming yellow with Niewiadoma in second. The tension of that contest gave their rivalry an edge, but in Montréal both described a respect rooted in knowing how hard the other makes them work.

"In the end, your greatest competitors are also your greatest motivation," Vollering said. "When Kasia is chasing me, then next time you're like, 'I need to train harder.'"

Niewiadoma shared that in the lead up to the World Championships, she was revisiting all their head-to-heads.

"I was reminding myself in the last four or five weeks when preparing for today that once I beat Demi and I won the world champion jersey, so why not do it again?," she said of the times she came out ahead.

At this level, she explained, belief can determine whether a rider makes use of the strength she has. The opponent who creates the doubt can also provide the evidence needed to overcome it.

"Maybe [in the Tour de France Femmes] I cracked slightly mentally," she said. Confidence was fleeting, she explained. "You constantly have to work for it."

The Worlds offered an opportunity to put that lesson into practice. She wanted to reach the finish knowing she had used everything available to her. And she did. She had left it all out there.

She could take satisfaction in the racing they had produced. She called it one of the hardest races they had done, and was proud that it had shown women's cycling so well.

"You accept the fact that somebody was faster, stronger than you, and once you gave your absolute best, there are no what-ifs, and then it's kind of just easier to move on," she said.

Just metres past the finish line, Niewiadoma-Phinney was among the first to congratulate Vollering. When asked about this moment in the press conference later, Vollering said she would have done the same if the roles had been reversed.

"If Kasia would be world champion here, I also think it's very deserved," she said.

Vollering won the day's contest, but both leave Montréal wanting the same thing: to beat the other next time. Their mutual respect only sharpens that ambition. For everyone watching, the next encounter cannot come soon enough.

Only Demi Vollering will wear the rainbow jersey, but the new world champion was clear about how many riders it took to win it. Her breakthrough in Montréal belonged to an entire Dutch team that committed its strength and ambitions to getting her across the line first.

Puck Pieterse's devastating acceleration that contributed to Vollering's first solo attack was perhaps the most visible effort, but every Dutch woman played her role. Before Pieterse's attack, the Dutch spent long hours controlling the race, making adjustments when their carefully prepared formation was disrupted, and showing a collective willingness to keep working toward the same end goal.

"It's my biggest victory of my career," Vollering said, in no small part because of how the team had raced.

For Vollering, her teammates' commitment to go all in for her carried both reassurance and an enormous responsibility.

"You [race the world championships] with teammates who normally are your competitors," she said in the post-race press conference. "So it's hard to make a team work like they worked today. For that, I'm so thankful. I'm forever thankful for them for all their hard work."

Vollering ultimately secured her first elite road world title by outsprinting long-time rival Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland). Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) completed the podium.

Rich in talented riders, the Dutch are always a dominant force at the world championships. They have won five of the past 10 women's world road race titles, but their strength in numbers has sometimes been undermined by disjointed teamwork.

This year, the orange team lined up with one clear leader and six carefully selected riders to race in her service.

"In the past I have said it more often: that if you want to win a race with me, then we need to do it this way," Vollering said, about the solo leader tactic.

"To set a team in front of me and really sacrifice every team member to also make the race very hard and stay in control. And that's what we did today. It really took all the effort from every single team member to get to this point."

That clarity had been established months before the start, with national coach Laurens ten Dam building the selection specifically and explicitly around Vollering.

Before the race, Vollering revealed that a lot of conversations took place between Ten Dam and his riders to secure the riders' unwavering commitment. Vollering, in turn, welcomed the responsibility of being the sole leader, believing it could bring out the best in her.

Still, it was a considerable thing to ask of riders who could have had a chance at a medal themselves.

"It takes guts to ask this from a team," Vollering said. "I take a lot of strong Dutch girls with me, they all sacrifice their own chances for me, and then I will finish it off for you. But you don't know if you can finish it off.

"It's very hard to say that as well, to say, ‘OK girls, you need to work very hard for me, and then I will take the jersey for you.' But there is also a chance I cannot do it."

Her willingness to make that request, and to accept the uncertainty attached to it, was part of what she felt had changed.

Year by year, Vollering explained, she had become better at coping with and accepting the pressure that comes with being one of the top cyclists in the world. She trained her mind, learned how to control her emotions and, just as importantly, learned to tell the people around her what she needed.

She could ask for complete commitment of her team without treating the possibility of defeat as something unbearable.

"I can stay calm in the race and know that if it will not work out, the world will not end," she said. "In the past maybe it would feel like this as well, but now I also know that it's not like this."

The Dutch put that trust into practice throughout the race. Lieke Nooijen and Amber Kraak helped manage the early breakaway. Later, when Femke de Vries' crash disrupted the intended lead-out, Riejanne Markus took on responsibilities. Karlijn Swinkels set the pace before Pieterse delivered the acceleration on Camillien-Houde that blew up the front group with three laps remaining.

"The effort had to be as long as possible. So I just went full gas there," Pieterse said after finishing in sixth place.

"When Demi eventually went, I looked behind and there was actually nobody on my wheel anymore. I thought, well, that was hard enough."

Vollering used Pieterse as a springboard and went clear with some 32 kilometres remaining, catching and passing lone leader Maeva Squiban (France). But Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini gave chase and eventually reached Vollering with approximately 15km remaining.

The solo victory the Dutch had worked to create was gone. But Vollering had prepared for that, too.

"I have seen every single scenario coming by in my head," she said. "I've visualised this race a million hours, it feels like.

"The first scenario was to do an attack and stay out solo. That was, of course, the most ideal one. But then Plan B was, if they come back, that you switch as soon as possible to another scenario."

Longo Borghini's attack at the start of the final lap forced another response. Vollering caught her on the last ascent of Camillien-Houde, with Niewiadoma-Phinney following, before the Italian fell away.

"If she stays out over the top of this climb, then we have a problem," Vollering recalled thinking. "I knew I just had to pace this climb as hard as I could and catch her back before the top.

"You don't know what you can still do and what the others can still do. It was a nervous moment as well."

Behind her, Pieterse had reached her own limit. She had tried to disrupt the chase after dropping back from her lead-out, but could no longer follow when the strongest pursuers went across.

Even then, she trusted Vollering to finish the job.

"Demi has a really good sprint as well," Pieterse said. "I trusted that, if they came back, they would all be completely exhausted and she would still be the strongest."

That belief mattered to Vollering. The work already done on her behalf gave her another reason to persist through the uncertainty.

"It really helped to have a team who worked so hard the whole day for you," she said. "You have all the weight on your shoulders to finish it off as well."

Afterwards, she described the title as probably the biggest victory of her career, in part because bringing together riders who ordinarily compete against one another makes a World Championships so difficult to win.

"There were so many years that I also tried so hard and it didn't work out, and you're devastated as well," Vollering said.

"But this year it's finally worked out for me. I'm so incredibly proud to have delivered here and wear this beautiful jersey."

On the streets of Montréal, Demi Vollering finally succeeded in her quest to become World Champion, as she outsprinted Kasia Niewiadoma to claim the women’s elite road race title after a thrilling showdown between the two rivals on the final lap.

“I think I can still not believe it,” Vollering said in her post-race interview. “I worked so hard towards this goal. It takes guts to truly believe in it with your whole heart, to gather a team around you with such strong girls and they all sacrifice for you, when they maybe also have a chance. It means a lot from them, but I’m so proud of everybody from the team. They rode the whole race in the front and Puck [Pieterse] did an amazing leadout, so I couldn’t not finish the job.”

After Vollering initially went solo with an attack on the Côte de Camillien Houde with just under 40km to go, it looked as though she could go all the way to the finish, but Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini worked together and managed to bridge across to the Dutch rider on the penultimate lap.

“There were so many moments where I thought I went too early. It stayed so close the whole time, I didn’t dare to turn around and look back, because I thought they were almost in my wheel already,” Vollering continued. “At one point, they came back and I was like ‘oh sh*t’, but it was still not over. I had to believe in it from my little toe. I just dared, tried again and never gave up until the finish line.”

Longo Borghini then attacked on the uphill rise to the finish as they began the final lap of the race. However, her efforts would ultimately prove costly as she was then caught by Vollering and Niewiadoma on the Côte de Camillien Houde, before being distanced shortly afterwards.

Not wanting to take the race to a sprint, Niewiadoma attempted a final attack on the Avenue Pagnuelo with 4km to go, and though she briefly put her under pressure, it was ultimately not enough to distance her rival.

Vollering then led through the final corner before the sprint to the line, where she had still had enough in the legs to outsprint Niewiadoma in the final few hundred metres, as she took the victory that had eluded her for so long.

When asked about the final sprint, she said “I was not planning to give it away anymore from that moment. That was mine.”

Having finished runner-up in the road race in 2023, and with silver and bronze medals in the time trial, Vollering has finally added a World Championship title to her illustrious palmarès and will now have the honour of wearing the rainbow jersey for the next twelve months.

“I think it was an amazing race to watch, I’m very proud to be part of that and I cannot wait to watch it back,” she concluded.

How It Happened

The women’s elite road race saw the riders take on a 180km course around Montréal, with a 72.8km lead-in before eight laps of a 13.4km circuit, with an ascent of the Côte de Camillien Houde on each lap.

The race began with several riders from some of the less represented nations attempting to get up the road, before Marte Berg Edseth (Norway), Natalie Quinn (United States), Beatriz Roxo (Portugal) and Gergana Stoyanova (Bulgaria) formed a four-rider breakaway and established a lead over the peloton at the head of the race.

Their advantage would stretch to over four and a half minutes as they made their way towards the finishing circuit, before the group then began to fracture as Roxo and Stoyanova were both dropped on the climb up to Mont Royal.

In the peloton, there were a number of crashes in the lead-in to the circuit, as several riders hit the deck in the opening stages of the race.

However, the worst incident came on the first lap of the circuit, as a major pile-up in the peloton with 95km to go saw several of the pre-race favourites hit the deck, with Paula Blasi (Spain), Kim Le Court (Mauritius), Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) and defending champion Magdeleine Vallières (Canada) among those involved.

Those worst affected were Caroline Andersson (Sweden) and Lauretta Hanson (Australia), who were both taken to hospital immediately following the crash.

The crash also caused splits in the peloton, as many riders were also held up and forced to chase back on to the main group. Some were able to make it back on, whilst those such as Le Court were unable to regain contact and others simply abandoned the race.

Edseth then dropped Quinn from the breakaway, but both riders were caught by the bunch soon afterwards, meaning that the race was now open to attacks.

The first major move from the peloton came with 53km to go, as Maëva Squiban (France) went clear on the fifth ascent of the Côte de Camillien Houde and drew out an advantage of around forty-five seconds over the bunch.

However, on the following lap the contenders came to the fore, as Demi Vollering (Netherlands) launched an explosive attack off the front of the main group with 39km to go after a massive leadout from her Dutch teammates, immediately putting all of her rivals under pressure as the gap to Squiban vanished in an instant.

The French rider attempted to stay with Vollering as she powered past, but quickly began to slip backwards and latched onto the back of the chasing group as they went over the top of the climb.

The counterattacks then began behind, as Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) and Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) all made attempts to bridge across to Vollering over the next lap and a half, but they were unable to gain permanent separation from the rest of the group.

Niewiadoma then attacked again on the Côte de la Polytechnique with just over 20km to go, bringing Longo Borghini and Juliette Berthet (France) along with her, whilst Reusser and Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) found themselves distanced.

The chasing trio now had Vollering in their sights, as her advantage had shrunk to only a handful of seconds. They then made the junction with around 15km to go, with Berthet taking slightly longer to plug the gap, as she struggled to hold the wheel of the other two.

Going onto the final lap, Longo Borghini tried her luck from the four-rider group, as she attempted to go solo with an attack, distancing the others with a sharp acceleration on the short rise up to the finish line as they took the bell.

Her lead would be short-lived though, as Vollering put in a massive effort on the final ascent of the Côte de Camillien Houde, dropping Berthet and catching the Italian rider.

Another acceleration then saw Longo Borghini lose contact, with Niewiadoma the only rider able to follow Vollering as they went over the top of the climb.

The leading duo then worked together to extend their advantage, with those distanced continuing to chase behind.

Not wanting to go to a sprint, Niewiadoma then attacked on the short, steep rise of the Avenue Pagnuelo with 4km to go, but failed to distance her Dutch rival.

As they swung through the right-hand corner the road rose up ahead of them to the finish. Niewiadoma then launched her sprint from behind with around 150m to go, but Vollering was quick to react and would not relent until she had reached the finish.

Niewiadoma then began to cramp up in the final metres and was forced to settle for second place, as Vollering powered all the way to the line to become World Champion.

Longo Borghini then crossed the line a few seconds later to claim the bronze medal ahead of Reusser in fourth place, whilst other riders, including Berthet and Pieterse, came across the line in dribs and drabs in the minutes that followed.

Results

UCI Road World Championships 2026, Women’s Elite Road Race: Brossard > Montréal (180km)

1. Demi Vollering, Netherlands, in 4:45:09
2. Kasia Niewiadoma, Poland, +17s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini, Italy, +4s
4. Marlen Reusser, Switzerland, +8s
5. Juliette Berthet, France, +39s
6. Puck Pieterse, Netherlands, +1:36
7. Célia Gery, France, +2:55
8. Dominika Włodarczyk, Poland, +4:16
9. Maeva Squiban, France, +5:48
10. Franziska Koch, Germany, +5:51

A major crash marred the women's elite road race at the UCI World Championships in Montréal on Saturday, sending at least two riders to hospital and forcing several medal contenders to abandon.

Around 15 riders came down hard with approximately 95 kilometres remaining on a downhill stretch along Rue Saint-Urbain. The pile-up split the peloton and left several riders requiring medical attention.

Australia's Lauretta Hanson was taken to hospital on a stretcher and in a neckbrace for observation, according to Australian media. Details of her injuries have yet to be confirmed.

Sweden's Caroline Andersson received roadside medical attention before she, too, was transported to hospital. A statement by the Swedish Cycling Federation later revealed that she had suffered a broken collarbone and will have to undergo surgery, with her only other injury being some road rash on her hip. She is communicating with the doctors and has her parents with her at the hospital, along with a team doctor.

Sweden's Julia Borgström stopped to help Andersson before withdrawing in tears. Backteman said Borgström was physically okay but shaken by what had happened.

Others got up and remounted their bikes with torn kit and bloodied skin, attempting to salvage their races. Defending champion Magdeleine Vallières initially continued, but both she and Spain's Paula Blasi ultimately abandoned, removing two leading medal contenders from the race.

While the crash happened long before the decisive final laps, there is no doubt it reshaped the contest. Along with the withdrawals, a lot of riders got caught up behind the disruption and were now forced to chase including Australia's Sarah Gigante, USA's Kate Courtney and Mauritius's Kim Le Court-Pienaar.

For Vallières, the crash brought an emotional end to her title defence on home roads. Tears ran down her face as she climbed back onto her bike and continued around the circuit. With visible wounds to her leg and hand, she completed the lap before a deafening crowd welcomed her up the finishing straight, where she abandoned.

Blasi described road rash but little pain after withdrawing and criticised the risks being taken in the bunch. "When the race entered the circuit, it was crazy," she said, according to our sister site, Cyclingnews. "People were taking too many risks."

Cycling Weekly will report on the outcome and further medical updates as they become available.

At Friday evening's press conference with Dutch-speaking media, the Belgian team revealed plans to use bottle handups as a communications channel at the UCI Road World Championships.

Already tested with the Belgian under-23 squad, the system involves sticking written notes onto bottles handed to riders in the feed zone. With race radios banned, this gives Sport Directors a way to relay race updates, such as breakaway gaps, the composition of groups up the road and instructions on when to chase or attack.

Belgium will continue using roadside white boards as well, with the bottles providing another way to get information into the bunch.

"It's no genius invention. It's existed for a long time. But I've never raced like that. For me it'll be new," said Wout van Aert.

Van Aert has been outspoken about his dislike of racing without radios, and explained that riders cannot always get back to the team car for information. As such, he welcomed anything that could improve his understanding of the race.

In a peloton of around 180 riders, he explained, it is impossible to see exactly who is ahead, how much time they have or who has been dropped.

The experiment comes with potential downsides, however. A message only works if the intended rider collects the bottle.

"If you miss a bottle and there's an important message on it, you haven't seen it," said Remco Evenepoel, who believe sthe tactic still needs some fine-tuning.

Secrecy presents another complication. A bottle carrying a message reportedly reached a cameraman during the under-23 race, which led to Van Aert joking about the team needing a secret code.

Come Sunday, the Belgians have 12 laps of the Montréal circuit to perfect their bottle-hand-up tactic.

Belgium is lining up with Evenepoel and Van Aert as co-leaders, giving the team options but also a potential challenge. Evenepoel can attack from distance, while Van Aert provides a formidable option if a small group reaches the finish together. But the question is whether Belgium can make those strengths work together or if the two leaders will divide the team.

Pauwels believes that the race circumstances will determine which leader takes precedence.

Sunday's elite men's road race covers 273.7 kilometres with 3,803 metres of elevation gain, starting in Brossard before reaching the Montréal circuits. The race starts at 9 a.m. EDT / 3:00 p.m. CEST.

The 2026 UCI Road World Championships week is coming to a close in Montréal, and all eyes are on the elite road races this weekend. A brutally attritional course awaits, and Tadej Pogačar is out of contention for the men's race. Suddenly, the race predictions look considerably harder to call.

Pundits, riders, fans and bookmakers all have their picks. We asked AI to weigh in and provide its predictions, along with the bookmaker odds.

The predictions are ChatGPT's picks for who will win and join them on the podium. But the percentages translate bookmakers’ betting prices into an implied chance of winning. The two numbers don’t always agree. For example, AI narrowly chose Del Toro for the men’s road race, while the bookmaker’s favourite is Evenepoel.

AI's predictions for the elite time trials were spot on, but then again, Marlen Reusser and Remco Evenepoel, both defending champions, were the all-out favourites. Betting against them would have been a risk. Will it be correct about the road races, too?

*Odds sources include bwin, BetUS, The and Sports Geek.

Women’s elite road race: another Vollering–Niewiadoma showdown?

The Race:

The 180.4km route includes eight laps of Montréal's 13.4km Mount Royal circuit and a total of 2,570 metres of climbing.

What AI predicts:

In its predictions, AI reproduced the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift podium, favouring Dutch rider Demi Vollering's attacking strength over Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy). Its concern was a less selective finale.

"If [Belgian's Lotte Kopecky] survives the final climbs with the leaders, the finishing-speed balance changes sharply in her favour," AI said of Belgian Lotte Kopecky.

Our race favourites:

Even after pre-riding the course myself, I'm finding it difficult to make definitive predictions. Yet it would be silly to bet against Demi Vollering. The Dutch woman is the top favourite, with the results to back it up. This season, she not only won both Grand Tours she entered but dominated in the spring as well, winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne.

Undulating and attritional, this course certainly suits someone who excels in punchy Ardennes Classics races, and that includes Vollering. She's also lining up with a strong Dutch squad who are "all in" for Vollering, so it would be quite a surprise if she does not end up in the medals.

In the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in August, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was Vollering's main rival. But historically, the Polish rider hasn't had the best luck at the World Championships.

She won bronze in Leuven in 2021, but since then, her best result was a 10th-place finish in Kigali last year. Still, with wins at the Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Trofeo Binda to her name, this course could be a turning point for the Pole.

Another rider I'll be looking at is Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mauritius). With only one other compatriot in the race, she won't have the level of team support that her rivals can rely on, but the course suits her strengths. With wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Britain overall and stages in Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, she specialises in long, rolling terrain and steep, punchy climbs.

Similar in ability to Le Court is Belgian's Lotte Kopecky. But she's a bit of a question mark. The former World Champion does well on the punchy climbs and took some resounding wins this season at Milan-San Remo, Nokere Koerse and a stage of La Vuelta Femenina. But we haven't seen much of her later in the summer, and it's hard to gauge how her form is.

The World Championships are notorious for delivering surprise winners - just ask Magdeleine Vallières Mill. As such, there are a few dark horses I'll throw in: Kate Courtney (USA), Paula Blasi (Spain) and Franzi Koch (Germany).

Men’s elite road race: Del Toro gets AI’s vote

The Race:

The 273.7km route includes more than 3,800m of elevation gain and 12 laps of the Mount Royal circuit and Camillien-Houde climb (2.3km at 6.2%).

What AI predicts:

Bookmakers say Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) will follow up his time trial medal from earlier this week with another gold on Sunday. But AI's vote went to Mexican star Isaac del Toro, pointing to del Toro's victory in the GP de Montréal earlier this month.

"The counterargument is national-team support," AI argued with itself, explaining that Del Toro will race without the UAE team support that normally surrounds him in trade-team competition.

What we predict:

Yes, Evenepoel is indeed a clear favourite after his win in the time trial this past Sunday, but he's far from the only one. Belgium is lining up with both Evenepoel and Wout van Aert as co-leaders, giving the team options but also a tactical challenge. Evenepoel can attack from distance, while Van Aert provides a formidable option if a small group reaches the finish together. The question is whether Belgium can make those strengths work together.

Still, Evenepoel's palmares speaks for itself. Beyond his time-trialling and climbing prowess, the 26-year-old has long proven himself in punchy one-day races, with wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Amstel Gold Race, Clasica San Sebastian, and Worlds to his name. His recent win at the GP de Québec is another reason to expect him at the sharp end on Sunday.

But Van Aert is having quite the year himself. His Paris-Roubaix victory in the spring, followed by two stage wins and the green jersey at the Vuelta a España, suggests he's arriving with both confidence and form. The repeated climbs could take the sting out of his sprint, but he's exceptionally good at surviving hard races and still finding something extra at the finish.

Another rider everyone will be watching is France's Paul Seixas. Having only just turned 20, he's young enough to remain something of a question mark, but his results are already those of a serious contender. This season, he won La Flèche Wallonne and the overall at Itzulia Basque Country, finished fourth in the Tour de France and took second at the GP de Montréal. Clearly, the terrain suits him.

Then there's Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), who's playing down his chances and suggesting the course might be a little too difficult for him. The accumulated climbing is a fair concern, but betting against him would be unwise. The former World Champion's 174km solo victory at the Tour of Luxembourg last week suggests he's in form. So if the favourites hesitate or let the race come back together, he's exactly the rider who could make them regret it.

And finally, a dark horse pick:

Team USA is lining up with a very deep field. It's hard to tell whether they'll go for Brandon McNulty, who has won in Montréal before, or Quinn Simmons. Et GP de Montréal earlier this month, McNulty and Simmons placed third and fourth, respectively. Then, in the time trial last Sunday, McNulty was just 12 seconds off from a medal, so his form is certainly there. Speaking to Cycling Weekly earlier this week, he said: "I think there's a chance. If we do everything perfect, to have a good shot at a medal."

As Ashlin Barry powered up the finishing straight on Montréal's Avenue du Parc, he was riding toward Team USA's first U23 men's road world title.

Along the course, he had seen his friends, heard his family's cheering and even picked out the barking of his dog. What didn't quite register was that nobody was going to catch him.

"Disbelief. It's surreal," Barry said of crossing the line.

The Toronto-raised American, who rides for the Visma–Lease a Bike Development squad, celebrated his 19th birthday with a resounding victory at the UCI Road World Championships, after spending much of the race out in front.

The American had been part of a five-rider breakaway that formed early and spent more than 100 kilometres off the front. Then, with 30 kilometres remaining, Barry took off on his own.

"I didn't think I could follow the best guys on the climbs so I tried to find a way to get ahead," he explained.

At times, his advantage dropped down to a precarious 20 seconds, but Barry held off the chasers over Montréal's punishing climbs.

"I kept thinking I was going to get caught. I expected it, but somehow it never happened," he said.

With 200 metres remaining, his chasers were out of sight. Barry could finally sit up, stretch out his tall frame and enjoy the reception from fans pounding the barriers.

"It was just unreal being out there," he commented. "It really felt like a home race out there."

Héctor Álvarez of Spain outsprinted the remnants of the breakaway for silver, banging his handlebars in frustration, while Norway's Jesper Stiansen took bronze.

Today's gold medal is the young talent's second medal at the World Championships, following his silver medal in the Kigali time trial in 2025. Other accomplishments include several junior national titles, second-place finishes in the junior races at Paris–Roubaix and E3 Harelbeke, and a second overall in the World Omnium Championships on the track in 2024. When he signed with Visma–Lease a Bike, the team called him "one of the biggest talents of his generation."

But long before Barry chased a rainbow jersey in Montréal, his parents had written their own chapters on the roads around Mount Royal.

A family affair, three generations deep

Barry is the third generation of his family to build a life around cycling with Montréal playing a central role in each chapter.

His mother, Dede Demet-Barry (USA), is a former junior road world champion and the Olympic time-trial silver medallist from Athens 2004. She raced and won the Montréal World Cup on these roads in 2002 on a steel Mariposa bicycle built by her father-in-law, Mike Barry Sr.

His father, Michael Barry, represented Canada at three Olympics and raced all three Grand Tours during a professional career that included stints with US Postal, Discovery Channel and Team Sky. He rode his final professional road race at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in 2012, with young Ashlin watching from the roadside.

"My first memory of cycling is watching my dad race these roads," Ashlin Barry said. "I've dreamed of racing on this course, too."

Fourteen years later, Barry got his chance, with his parents watching from the roadside. After crossing the line, he fell into their arms and thanked them for their support.

The Dutch women have rarely lacked riders capable of winning the world title, but getting all that talent to work towards the same result has sometimes been the harder part.

In Montréal, too, the seven-rider roster is packed with possibility, and there could be several cards to play. There's Puck Pieterse, winner of La Flèche Wallonne in 2025, whose explosive climbing makes her a threat on short, steep ascents. Multi-time national champion, Riejanne Markus, brings a combination of climbing strength and time-trial power. And, of course, there's Demi Vollering, one of the peloton's biggest stars and winner of this year's Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

Even the absence of Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold has done little to diminish the roster's fire power.

"We have a really strong squad here, and we're in a privileged position as the Netherlands," Vollering told the media on Thursday night, adding that the roster changes impacted the team's strength little.

"I don't necessarily think we have a weaker team here," she said. "That's something really special about the Netherlands — having so many riders to choose from."

But the leadership question is settled: the team is all in for Vollering.

"The girls are all fully on board with it, and we have a really strong squad," Vollering said.

Her role comes with the pressure to deliver. Vollering welcomes it, starting that the responsibility can bring out the best of her.

"The past has shown that when we have a good Plan A, I respond really well to that," Vollering said ahead of Saturday's road race at the UCI Road World Championships. "Because then I can't hide behind other strong riders.

"I actually like that kind of pressure, knowing that all those riders are doing it for you. Ultimately, that gives me that extra little percentage during the race to finish it off."

There is good reason for the Dutch to value this clarity. They have won five of the past 10 women's world road race titles, but their strength in numbers has sometimes been undermined by disjointed teamwork.

In Leuven in 2021, a succession of attacks left them short of riders to deliver Marianne Vos in the sprint, where she took silver behind Italy's Elisa Balsamo. In Zürich in 2024, Vollering accelerated behind a break containing teammates Vos and Riejanne Markus, helping bring it back before finishing fifth as the Dutch missed the elite podium altogether.

This time, national coach Laurens ten Dam has explicitly built the selection around Vollering, with conversations over the preceding weeks and months helping establish a shared understanding of her leadership role.

"I think [ten Dam] has done a really good job with that," Vollering said, explaining that he had been in regular contact with the riders and relayed their positive feedback to her.

Vollering is already seeing evidence of that commitment. During the course recon, Femke de Vries offered to set the pace for one of her planned climbing efforts. Puck Pieterse enthusiastically joined the idea, and the exercise became a shared challenge — one that took Vollering well beyond the intensity her coach had prescribed.

"We enjoyed it and had fun, so that was nice," she said. "I really like seeing that the girls came up with the idea themselves. That shows confidence in me."

The confidence within the group does not mean Vollering considers her own performance guaranteed. She believes she is in good form, but said the real answer will only come once the race is underway and she can measure herself against the opposition.

She also expects a long race to demand patience. An unpromising feeling early on need not dictate the outcome.

"Even if you don't have the very best legs, I think you can still get a long way on this course," she said. "You should never let your head drop, because it's so long. Things can change again during the race."

What the Dutch intend to do with that distance remains private. Asked whether they had already identified the point, or the lap, on which she would make her move, Vollering offered assurance without revealing the details.

"I think we have a really good plan, and it's super clear to all of us. But of course I'm not going to tell you," she said smiling.

The elite women's road race takes place on Saturday, 26 September, starting in Brossard at 9 a.m. local time (EDT). The 180.4km route includes eight laps of Montréal's 13.4km Mount Royal circuit and a total of 2,570 metres of climbing.

In the absence of the reigning champion Tadej Pogačar, and on a course that suits his explosivity, Britain’s Tom Pidcock is looking forward to his “best shot so far” at winning the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday.

The 27-year-old is among the favourites for the elite men’s road race in Montreal, Canada, which stretches 273.4km and counts 12 laps of a punchy city-centre circuit. He placed 6th on a similar course at the Grand Prix de Montréal earlier this month, a result that gave him confidence ahead of his fifth elite Road Worlds.

“It’s definitely a course that suits me, that’s for sure,” Pidcock told Cycling Weekly and other media in a round table interview earlier this week.

“I think it’s a course that also favours saving for one big move. If you ride it attritionally and make efforts all the time then I think, in the end, it’s difficult to make the proper difference, to get people off your wheel. The climb’s not very steep.”

Following the GP de Montréal, Pidcock travelled to Colorado in the US for some last-minute altitude training. He arrived back in the Canadian city on Thursday evening, in what he feels is “really good” form.

“I did some VO2 efforts at 2,500m for the first time ever, and I actually managed to do them, so that must be quite a good thing,” he said. “But in one-day races, you can get it wrong, even if you feel good leading into it.

“I think becoming road world champion would be something that would be truly amazing in my career. It’s going to be so hard to win. I think this is my best opportunity so far in my career, that’s for sure.

“But having said that, I think the depth is so deep I might not even stand on the podium. I think it’s quite an open race, and even having said that, it’s my best shot so far.”

Part of Pidcock’s increased chances comes due to the non-attendance of Slovenia’s Pogačar, the winner of the last two road world titles, who is recovering from neck and collarbone fractures suffered in a crash at the Vuelta a España last month.

Asked if Pogačar’s absence will make the race more open, Pidcock said: “100%. I wouldn’t know who to bet on now. If Tadej was racing, I would have bet on him.”

Instead, the Briton singled out two other favourites. “I think the two stand-out guys are [France’s Paul] Seixas and [Mexico’s Isaac] Del Toro,” he said, also citing time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) as a rider who will “for sure be good”.

As for Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and Wout van Aert (Belgium), two names that feature prominently on contenders lists, Pidcock believes the amount of climbing – 3,800m – makes it “not their perfect course. But they will still do well, I have no doubt about that.”

Already this season, Pidcock has won five times for his trade team, Pinarello Q36.5. He also finished ninth at the Tour de France, and earned his second career mountain bike world title.

He will lead the British squad in the men’s road race alongside Adam Yates, his former team-mate at Ineos Grenadiers, now of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and winner of the GP de Montréal in 2023.

“[Adam and I] kept trying to have a call [to discuss leadership tactics] and then it kept getting cancelled. People were on flights and recons and all sorts of things, but no, we will discuss it,” Pidcock said.

“It’s no different to any other race. Adam has won Montréal before, he’s got a lot of experience, and has also been part of the winning team [at the GP de Montréal] for the past five years. He’s very experienced on this course.”

The eight-rider British squad also includes Oscar Onley, Fred Wright, Callum Thornley, Mark Donovan, James Shaw and Finlay Pickering.

The elite men’s road race is the final event of this year’s UCI Road World Championships and is scheduled to start at 9am local time (2pm BST) on Sunday 27 September.

Mathieu van der Poel believes a hard, attritional race could improve his chances of claiming a second road world title in Montréal, arguing that accumulated fatigue can help him bridge the gap to the pure climbers on a course he describes as being on the outer edge of his capabilities.

The Dutchman pre-rode the World Championships circuit ahead of Sunday's elite men's road race and found it largely in line with his expectations. The climbing is substantial enough to make him cautious about his chances, but not enough for him to rule himself out of contention for a second rainbow jersey.

“It was more or less in line with what I expected," Van der Poel told the media on Thursday evening. “Like I said before, it's simply a difficult circuit. Probably just on the limit, but not impossible."

Reiterating what he has said throughout the build-up to the Worlds, Van der Poel added: “I don't think I'm one of the biggest favourites, but I still have a chance of winning the race if everything goes well."

Van der Poel compared the twisting, constantly undulating nature of the Montréal circuit to Glasgow, where he soloed to gold in 2023, although he was quick to point out one significant difference.

"The climb here is obviously harder than what we had in Glasgow," he said.

“Glasgow was even more about short, punchy climbs, whereas here, especially from around the last 500 metres before the finish all the way to the top, it's longer. It's a really difficult climb. But a lot will depend on how the race develops."

For the race to play out in his favour, Van der Poel is hoping for a tough, attritional contest. While he revealed that he is currently lighter than he was in the spring, the 31-year-old is not built like a pure climber. Instead, he believes his ability to continue producing high power after hours of hard racing could help offset that disadvantage.

"I think it's to my advantage if it's a hard race," he said. "That knocks the numbers down for everyone a little towards the end, and I think that allows you, as a Classics rider, to get closer to the climbers.

"The harder, the better, I think. If I'm good, of course. I think one of my strengths is that after a hard race I can still produce my watts. The harder the race is, the closer I get to the real climbers, so to speak."

That does not mean the Netherlands intend to take responsibility for making the race hard from the outset. Van der Poel expects other nations to take up that task while the Dutch team focuses on staying alert to moves as they develop.

“I don't think it's up to us to make it hard," he said. “There are other countries better suited to doing that. But we'll be attentive. I think more than enough countries already have plans to make the race hard, so it'll be up to us to be alert and make sure we're there."

A World Championships without Pogačar

The absence of Tadej Pogačar hangs a tactical picture in Montréal.

Van der Poel believes the Slovenian's absence could encourage a much broader group of riders and nations to race aggressively, with contenders who might otherwise have been racing for the minor medals suddenly seeing a path towards the rainbow jersey.

"Because Tadej isn't here, I think a lot of riders suddenly see a chance to become world champion," Van der Poel said. "That will change the race."

But how exactly it changes the race, Van der Poel cannot predict.

"I've thought about it a lot, but I don't have an answer either," he said. "Like always, I can write down a thousand scenarios, but on Sunday there will only be one, and we'll have to react to that."

Van der Poel admitted Pogačar's absence was a loss, both from a sporting perspective and because of what the Slovenian represents while wearing the rainbow jersey.

"I do think it's a shame," he said. "For the race and in general as well. As world champion, he's a figurehead for the sport. He's simply the best rider of the moment, and I think it's nice when a rider like that wears the world champion's jersey."

Without race radios at the World Championships, Van der Poel expects the uncertainty to be amplified. It is an environment he believes suits his instinctive style of racing.

"That's always the beautiful thing about a World Championships: it's very unpredictable," he said. "Especially without radios, suddenly it can be over. I think that's something that suits me."

When asked about his main competitors, Van der Poel singled out Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas as riders who have that valued combination of climbing ability and endurance needed for an attritional race.

He also pointed to France and the United States as nations to watch with strength in their depths.

‘It's not over if you can't follow once'

Van der Poel said that his course recon reinforced his view that the main climb will be the decisive feature of the circuit, but the shorter ascents that follow could become increasingly damaging as the kilometres accumulate.

It'll be an attritional race, no doubt, but the course does provide opportunities for riders to claw their way back on, Van der Poel thinks.

"If you're still riding hard yourself, maybe you lose 15 seconds if you're having a good day, and then the race certainly isn't over. Of course, that isn't going to work every lap either. But that's what makes it interesting," he said.

Van der Poel arrived in Canada after a remarkable victory in Luxembourg, where a 174km solo stage win showed promise of his late-season condition.

"On the one hand, it shows that the form is good, but it's no guarantee of success this Sunday."

There is also a degree of ease that comes from already knowing what it takes to win a World Championships. Asked whether his 2023 title gave him an advantage over younger contenders such as Seixas, Van der Poel said experience could make decision-making easier in the decisive moments.

"I think it's always a little easier to make decisions during the race when you've already won," he said. "The goal is still to try to become world champion again, but maybe it gives you a little more calm and makes it easier to make decisions in the final."

Van der Poel goes into Sunday's race, the last of his season, in an unusual position: not the obvious favourite, but unwilling to rule himself out.

"I'm looking forward to it..It's also my last race of the season. I've never raced here before, and it was always the plan to do Québec and Montréal at some point, but that never happened. I've worked hard for it, like everyone probably has, so hopefully I can make something beautiful out of it."

Isabella Holmgren’s teammates couldn’t contain their joy.

Crossing the line long after the sprint for the medals had taken place, they screamed with delight, then darted through the media tent towards the podium to cheer for their Bella.

But on the podium, Holmgren herself looked to be fighting back tears. Yes, she had won silver in the under-23 women’s road race at a home World Championships, but she had come for gold.

After an attritional 10 laps around the challenging Montréal circuit, the race came down to a two-up sprint with Slovakia’s Viktória Chladoňová, last year’s runner-up, reaching the line first. From the small chase, Belgium’s Fleur Moors won the sprint for bronze 33 seconds later, ahead of Switzerland’s Mara Winter and Australia’s Talia Appleton.

The repetitive 134km/83.3-mile course packed a serious punch with 2,690 metres/8,825 feet of climbing, gradually wearing down the field. Slovakia raced a smart race with a rider in the break at all times. Sofia Ungerová did a lot of the work for the country, staying out front with Finland's Wilma Antila for six laps. The breakaway was finally caught when, with 31 kilometres remaining, Chladoňová, Holmgren and Moors made the decisive move.

Homgren did a lot of work and even tried to shed her breakaway companion but Chladoňová held firm, surviving the Canadian’s attacks before coming around her in the sprint to claim the rainbow jersey.

"For sure, I wanted to win in front of a home crowd," Holmgren said in the press conference afterwards. "I'm disappointed to not win for Canada, but there were so many positives from today, so I can't be too upset."

Holmgren and Chladoňová both race on the WorldTour for Lidl-Trek and Visma-Leas a Bike, respectively, and know eachother well. As such, Holmgren knew the Slovakian has a kick and tried to avoid a sprint, but each time Chladoňová stayed with her.

“I gave everything on that first climb on the last lap, and it wasn’t enough to be solo. And then I tried again on the last climb, but once again, [Chladoňová] was able to follow," she said.

"In the end, it came down to a sprint, which isn’t ideal for me, but I did everything I could on the day."

Behind Homgren's medal was a collective Canadian effort. Alex Volstad and Kiara Lylyk kept the team near the front and covered attacks, while Holmgren's twin sister, Ava Holmgren, raised the pace on a climb after Holmgren asked for a harder race. Sydney Swierenga also covered moves and provided support.

"I think [the medal] was won by the whole team today, and I'm really proud of that.," Holmgren acknowledged.

"I'm just really grateful to have raced in Canada and to see everybody out supporting us," she said. "So I think it was a positive day altogether."

"It'll be a bit of a shitshow," one team manager warned me beforehand.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, I found myself corralled with hundreds of the world's best cyclists, waiting for the motos to roll us out.

It felt like a gran fondo with an extraordinary entry list. Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel, Isaac del Toro, Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma, Lotte Kopecky: a who's who of cycling, out there alongside juniors and under-23s, all waiting to get onto the same stretch of road.

And, well, me.

It was recon day at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal: a two-hour window on closed roads in which riders could scout the technical city circuit for the upcoming road races. For weeks, months even, they had been studying maps and elevation profiles. Now they could turn those diagrams into something they could see, feel and remember, provided they could find enough room.

I had joined a group of New Zealanders for the ride, rolling out from their downtown hotel towards the start line. Like everyone else at Worlds, their matching national jerseys suggested a uniformity. Their bikes and helmets, however, advertised the trade teams they call home for most of the season.

The Worlds offers compatriots one of the few chances to become teammates. Today's objective was learning the road. Learning how to work with the people wearing your jersey would have to happen in race meetings, on daily rides and during the downtime in between.

When the motos moved, we rolled away together. Riders chatted and laughed, and pulled phones from jersey pockets to collect something for social media later. Some junior men were getting air over speed bumps or showing off their wheelies. It had the crowded, sociable feel of a neutral rollout.

From the start line we descended for about 200 metres before heading straight into Camillien-Houde, the climb that could very well decide the outcome of these championships. It arrived too soon for the mass of riders to spread out, so we tackled it together.

About half a lap in, without warning, the unofficial neutral rollout ended. Up ahead, a little space had opened up, someone put some power through the pedals, and the pack began to stretch. Groups that had been riding socially were suddenly strung out in single file with riders testing their legs and picking lines at speed.

No one was calling out potholes or cracks anymore, yet Montréal's streets were littered with them. And while I was grateful for my loaner bike, I was sorely wishing its tubed 25mm tyres were tubeless 30s instead.

Everyone seemed mindful - because nobody wants to ruin their chances of a medal on recon day - but we were still screaming downhill in a crowd that mixed the literal best cyclists in the world with 17-year-olds still learning to ride in the bunch.

That directeur sportif had a point.

By lap two, the various purposes of the recon became apparent. Some riders, like Niamh Fisher-Black and Remco Evenepoel, were taking an easy look around. Others were putting in efforts or testing how a climb or corner felt at speed. On Camillien-Houde the second time, Zoe Bäckstedt came zooming past me, fully in the zone. And I spotted Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney cutting the course to repeat a particular section. Still others tried to fit as many complete laps as possible into the limited time available.

Who they rode with varied, too. Van der Poel had his longtime training partner Freddy Ovett for company. Others rode with team managers or coaches - often zooming by on Vespas.

New Zealand junior Mia Collins had programme's manager, Dan Gardner, a former professional cyclist, to help guide her. With Collins on his wheel, Gardner showed her lines through corners, where to stay alert, and where she would need to be near the front of the bunch come race day.

For riders who'd already pre-ridden the circuit, the closed roads offered a chance to check the details and to finalise decisions around gearing and tyre choices.

"This circuit is so short and technical that with a couple of laps, you can pretty much get it in your head, and you just need to memorize a couple key points," said Fisher-Black, who won silver in last year's event.

For her, today was meant to be an easy day, which was a good thing, too, because she didn't think anything more could happen during recon.

"I'll do a few laps today, but it's an easy training day for me," Fisher-Black said. "Anyone trying to do proper training today can give up."

The championship's defining circuit follows roads familiar to anyone who has raced or watched the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. It measures just 13.4 km (8.3 miles), but packs in 269 metres (883 feet) of climbing per lap. Repetition is the problem. As Fisher-Black put it, the climb could be "cumulatively decisive".

It never felt flat. We were either climbing, descending, negotiating bends or finding a way around road furniture. Technical and punchy, it makes for an attritional race at full speed, the kind where riders drop off the back lap after lap until only the strongest remain.

Of course, three laps around the course can only tell you so much. The preceding flat(ish) run-in, the repeated climbing, and all the tactics that can happen between efforts leave room for several outcomes. Fisher-Black cautioned against naming a definitive favourite for the course.

"So many different people can win here," she said. "Every [move] is dangerous at Worlds."

The end of the recon ride did not mean the end of the day's obligations. Riders still had broadcast headshots to sit for. These are the faces that will appear on screen when the race gives the television director a reason to introduce them.

Then came the bike checks, particularly for the juniors and under-23s riders who'll be the first to tackle the course.

Junior gearing restrictions are no longer in effect, but there is still plenty for the UCI commissaires to inspect: frame and fork approval, the minimum weight of 6.8 kg, and those carefully optimised riding positions. Even the angle of the brake hoods has its own measuring gauge, checking that their inward tilt stays within 10 degrees of the handlebar drops.

For mass-start road racing, handlebars must measure at least 400 mm across their outside edges, including tape, with at least 280 mm between the innermost points of the brake hoods. Riders who had angled theirs a little too aggressively - and there were a few - were told to straighten them before racing or risk being disqualified.

With the photos and checks finished, it was back to the hotels for lunch, team meetings, stretching and whatever downtime remained.

The manager's warning had been fair. But amid the jumble, hundreds of riders had been getting what they came for: a corner taken at speed, a pinch point committed to memory, a better sense of where they will need to be when the action heats up.

The elites still have a few days to refine their plans. But for the under-23 women and junior men, it's an early bedtime and race day tomorrow. Both face ten laps of the circuit.

The women's under-23 road race starts at 9 a.m. EDT on Thursday, September 24, followed by the junior men at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Aalia Clay won bronze in the junior women’s time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal on Tuesday, adding an international podium to a breakthrough season.

"It means a lot," Clay said. "It was pretty unexpected to me, and it’s pretty exciting."

The British rider completed the short, 10.7km course in 15:42, 24 seconds down from Poland’s Maria Okrucińska's race-winning time. Belgium’s Yana Decruyenaere earned the silver medal, 12 seconds back. Clay beat Switzerland’s Anja Grossmann to secure the final podium place by just seven hundredths of a second.

With 22 riders having completed the course already, it was Grossman who stormed to the first time under 16 minutes. She then got to enjoy the hot seat for 20 minutes before Decruyenaere unseated her.

Clay was the 39th rider to start with 20 more riders to go after her. She set the sixth fastest time coming through the first time check but while many competitors lost pace heading to the finish, Clay maintained hers, ultimately shaving less than a second of Grossman's time to nudge her off the podium altogether.

This result follows her victory at the British junior time trial championships in July as well as successes on the road.

In June, she became the first junior to win the women’s Ronde van Wymeswold overall, before adding top-10 finishes at the junior editions of Druivenkoers–Overijse and Grand Prix de Plouay.

At 17, this is Clay's first season as a junior. It was also her first World Championship appearance.

With those results and another season in the junior ranks ahead, Clay already has a target for her return to the World Championships.

"Hopefully to continue with this form next year and maybe world champion next year - that would be really cool," she told the media after the race.

She added that she's uncertain about her chance in "hilly France," but she hopes she'll be selected for them again. "And definitely aim for a jersey."

First, though, comes the junior women’s road race in Montréal. On Friday, Clay will line up alongside Scottish national road race champion Melanie Rowe, Zoe Roche, Peggy Knox, and Gabby McHugh, who is the only member of the British junior women’s squad to arrive with previous road world championship experience.

The race will take place at 2:15 PM local time / 7:15 PM BST.

For Enzo Hincapie, the final 600 metres of the junior men’s World Championships time trial could not end soon enough.

"I’m pretty dead right now," the American said after finishing 12th in Montréal on Tuesday. "That was a pretty long 26 minutes. Probably the longest 600 meters of my life from that corner to the finish, so I’m glad that’s over."

Hincapie finished 56 seconds behind Spain’s Benjamín Noval, who won the rainbow jersey with a six-second lead over Belgium’s Vic de Smet. Denmark’s Malthe Risbjerg completed the podium, 16 seconds off Noval's time.

There was a familiar family connection between the winner and the American. Hincapie’s father, George, and Noval’s father, also Benjamín, spent four seasons as teammates at US Postal and Discovery Channel. Their sons are now establishing themselves on the world stage, with Enzo making his second Road World Championships appearance after racing in Kigali last year.

Twelfth was short of the result Hincapie had wanted, but he was already looking towards another opportunity.

"I obviously wanted to fight for a medal in the time trial, but the legs weren’t there at all today," he said.

"I’m not really gonna let that bring me down. I’ve just got one more race to go and that’s my main target, so we’ll see how I feel on Thursday."

The course demanded careful pacing, taking riders through a somewhat technical opening and a flatter middle section before an uphill finish. Hincapie suspected he might have spent too much energy early on.

"The first part felt a bit more sneaky than I thought to be honest," Hincapie said. "You don’t really feel the effort because you have the race adrenaline and then you get to kind of coast for a bit in the corners."

But by the closing stages, the effort had caught up with him. By the time he turned into the uphill finishing straight, he didn't even look up.

"I just wanted to not see how far it was and see how hard I could go to the finish and not think about where I really was," he commented.

Enzo has already collected five U.S. junior national titles across road racing and time trialling. And Tuesday’s disappointment has not diminished his interest in racing against the clock.

"I really like the time trial. I think it’s really humbling," he said. "I think it’s good for you to get out there and, and test your limits and learn more about yourself. I don’t want limit myself in disciplines. I want to see how good I can get in each discipline."

The question about what he had learned this time, however, came a bit too soon after the finish.

"I’ll have to reflect when I get back to the hotel," he said.

The reflection will be short, however, as his next target is just two days away.

Thursday’s road race offers terrain he has become familiar with through watching the Grand Prix de Montréal with his family each year. His father raced that event a few times in his time too, and was able to offer his son some insights.

Hincapie expects that it'll be a hard race and one that requires constant attention.

"I don’t think you should really be sleeping at all at, at any point in that race," he said. “It’s all about being in the right position and hitting the climbs in a good spot.

"I'm looking forward to it. It’s going to be a long race [and] a lot of times up the climb, so just git to keep fighting."

For the road race, Hincapie will be joined by Sylvan Garrelts, Cormac Nagle, Rowan Nistal and Kashus Adamski, who finished 13th in the time trial.

The junior men’s road race takes place on Thursday, September 24, starting at 1:30 p.m. EDT, and covers 134 kilometres (83 miles) with 2,690 metres (8825) of elevation gain.

Australian rider Cameron Rogers has said that cycling is "brutal" after he suffered a race-changing mechanical during the under-23 time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal.

The misfortunate incident for the 21-year-old happened early in his effort on Monday, and presaged an angry outburst, which was captured on camera. According to his maths, he would have ended up on the podium had he not had the mechanical, although this is impossible to ratify. Ryan Gal of the Netherlands was a surprise winner, winning in 37:26 over the 31.3km course, 3:24 ahead of Rogers.

Rogers' chain dropped off his chainring, leading to minutes on the roadside as a mechanic tried to get his bike going again. As a result, he slammed his saddle and shouted "f*cking piece of sh!t" as his chances of a competitive time went up in smoke. He ended up having to finish on a road bike at one of the biggest events of his season.

Posting on Instagram on Tuesday, he said: "This sport is brutal. 3:17 - lost time spent standing still. 3:24 - time from the winner.

He said the facts of the incident were: "9.9km into the race, I lost my chain. It came off outside the chain guard, meaning the guard had to be removed with a tool before I could get going again.

"My derailleur had bent into the wheel and had to be bent back," he continued. "The damage put the derailleur into crash mode, leaving me unable to shift for the remaining 21.4km. I was stuck in my biggest gear: 66x11. With 3km to go, I was forced to switch to my road bike to make it to the finish."

"It took everything not to throw it all away and get in the car," Rogers wrote. "But I’m glad I didn’t because afterwards I could look at the numbers and put the race into perspective. Despite everything that happened it showed me that it was possible, just wasn’t meant to be yesterday.

"I want to thank everyone who helped get me here and gave me the opportunity to stand on that start line in the best possible shape. To Netcompany-Ineos, AusCycling, Boy Sanders, Simon Watts, Dario Cioni and everyone behind the scenes who has supported the work that went into this, thank you.

"Yesterday wasn’t the result we came for, but I’m proud that I kept racing through it. There’s more to come."

Imagine the pitch meeting for the Road World Championships. Once a year, we get the best bike riders to come to a city somewhere in the world, one they may never have been to before – let alone to ride a bike in anger – and we get them to race over an extraordinarily long distance. They won’t be riding for their normal trade teams , of course, that would be silly. They’ll race in national teams, creating some odd mashups and squads with wildly different strengths. The peloton is huge, too, with different countries allowed different numbers of riders. Oh, and of course, there are no race radios, because any kind of organisation would be too normal.

It creates a kind of anarchy wherever the Worlds lands. This year, it’s the turn of Montréal in Canada, which is perhaps a bit more familiar due to the men’s WorldTour race the Grand Prix de Montréal, which takes place on a similar circuit. But nothing can be assumed when the UCI’s flagship event rolls into town. The route this year is hard, but not the extreme brutality of Rwanda last season; as a result, the ‘riders that could win it’ category is pretty wide open, from Isaac del Toro to Wout van Aert for the men, Demi Vollering to Cédrine Kerbaol for the women. There could also be someone no-one has thought of yet in the rainbows by the end.

The stage is set for chaotic things to happen, whether that’s Magdeleine Vallieres’ unexpected victory in Canada last year, or Mathieu van der Poel’s win after he crashed and broke his shoe in Glasgow in 2023. With the junior and under-23 races to come before the elites, too, there’s a chance to discover the stars of now and the future, on a grander scale than usual. We might be familiar with the ‘Mont Royal Circuit’, but the race really could go any which way, especially as the women will ride 180km, and the men 273km.

The men’s race this year will be made different by the absence of Tadej Pogačar, and while the world’s best cyclist will be missed, it creates a much more open race. With the Slovenian not able to solo from incredibly far out, will someone try and ape him? Or will there be a group of favourites deep into the race? Will there be a final sprint? Again, until the kilometres are tackled, we won’t know.

The best women in the world, meanwhile, will be itching to make up for missed opportunities. There is a whole tranche of big names who have never pulled on the rainbow bands: Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini and Kasia Niewiadoma to name three, who have finished in the top 10 four, seven and six times, respectively. There are only so many chances to win the Worlds, and it would be career-defining for whoever wins it.

I’m looking forward to all of the road races, and my secret hope is that both the elite men’s and women’s events produce new winners – I like seeing someone different in the rainbow bands. And, whatever happens, the anarchy should make for excellent entertainment.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

Ben Wiggins arrived at the UCI Road World Championships aiming for gold. But he left the men’s under-23 time trial outside the top 10, struggling to understand how a ride that had felt so strong could deliver so little.

The British rider finished 11th, one minute and seven seconds behind the Netherlands’ Ryan Gal, missing both the podium he had expected to challenge for as well as a top-10 placing.

"I said I wanted to come here and go for gold or at least, at the very least, a medal," Wiggins said shortly after finishing.

"I’m very surprised, especially with the performance I’ve put in there."

Surprise was the word of the afternoon. Ryan Gal was quick to call himself a surprise victor. He was the 27th rider to roll down the starting ramp and proceeded to set the new fastest time at all the time checks with an average speed of more than 50kph.

Of the 26 higher-ranked riders to follow, only three riders were able to beat Gal’s time by the second time check. Yet, all three lost speed on the rollers into the finish. Italy's Nicolas Milesi ended up in second place, seven seconds off Gal's time, and Hector Alvarez of Spain rounded out the podium, 12 seconds away from the gold medal.

In the media tent, mere minutes after his finish, the British U23 time trial champion watched the podium finalise on a TV.

As he fielded questions from the media, he was scrolling through the pages of his cycling computer in disbelief.

 "I've done some of my best numbers ever. Whether they're true, I don't know," he said. "Yeah, to be honest, I have no idea [what happened]."

Looking at his screen, Wiggins reported an average power of 440 watts - a figure he would normally expect to put him among the top contenders at this level.

Perhaps there had been one indication that the ride was not unfolding as he expected, the 21-year-old said, thinking out loud.

"You know, on the flat sections, I just felt like I was maybe a [kilometre] an hour or two off from where I'd want to be...so kind of across the whole course really," he said. "I don't know why that is."

He wondered whether changing conditions might have played a part, having noticed strong results from some earlier starters. But he offered no firm explanation.

"This isn’t me making excuses," he said. "I’m just pointing out, I don’t know."

“I’m a bit lost for words right now."

Wiggins started taking cycling seriously relatively late, at 16, but soon demonstrated his promising talent. In 2023, he won junior time trial silver, a performance that helped establish his credentials beyond his famous surname.

He loves the time trial discipline and is not planning on giving it up any time soon, no matter the setback.

"This is a discipline I’m really passionate about, and I’m never going put it away," he said. "Back to the drawing board and we’ll go again soon."

When asked to elaborate, Wiggins said his first task will be to properly digest and analyse the performance, then help his British teammates in Friday’s road race.

The European time trial follows in a couple of weeks, offering another chance before the end of his season.

"[The time trial] just doesn't lie. The best guy wins on the day most of the time, so I like that," he said, even if that means disappointment at times.

"There's a lot more to [time trialling] than just legs and numbers and things, as I've learned today. It's something I want to keep working on. I know what I am capable of."

Ava Holmgren’s first goal for her home World Championships was simply to reach the start line healthy. On Monday in Montréal, she went considerably further, finishing sixth in the under-23 women’s time trial and taking renewed confidence into Thursday’s road race.

The Canadian Lidl-Trek rider clocked 28:42 over the 20.3km course, finishing 1:01 behind race winner Felicity Wilson-Haffenden of Australia, who added an under-23 title to her previous junior rainbow jersey. Nienke Vinke of the Netherlands took silver, with Belgium’s Luca Vierstraete completing the podium.

Wilson-Haffenden was second at the first checkpoint before moving ahead at the second. Her winning time of 27:40 was the only ride under 28 minutes, ending Vinke’s hour in the hot seat.

For Holmgren, who missed the medals by approximately 16 seconds, improving four places on last year's result carried particular significance after a difficult season.

"My first goal was to just show up on the line healthy, and it’s been a hard year for me in terms of health, so I’m really happy with that," she told Cycling Weekly.

"Sixth place compared to 10th last year is a big improvement, so I’m happy with that."

Her performance followed third place at the Tour de Gatineau, giving her another encouraging result heading into the road race.

American Kylee Hanel was Team USA’s highest finisher in 21st place.

She arrived in Montréal after a breakthrough season that included victories at Unbound Gravel 100 and the U.S. under-23 time trial championships, alongside a stage win and the youth classification at the Tour of the Gila.

Those performances helped earn her a stagiaire opportunity with Visma-Lease a Bike.

She raced the Montréal course on the team's Cervélo P5, explaining afterwards that she had ridden her time trial bike only four times.

Hanel has spent the past month racing in Europe while also maintaining an off-road programme in the Life Time Grand Prix at home. At the finish, she still bore a black eye from a crash last month and acknowledged the accumulated fatigue.

"I think towards the end of the season you get a little fatigued. I’ve done a lot of racing," she said. "So it’s more of my body’s kind of getting ready to rest. But I mean, it felt good. It felt fine."

The course’s repeated efforts presented a challenge of their own.

"It’s just a whole lot of punchy stuff, and that’s not my strength yet. But work in progress."

The result came as Hanel continues to gain experience on the road, with her stagiaire spell offering a chance to test herself alongside WorldTour riders. Asked whether those opportunities brought added pressure to perform, she said the expectations were her own.

"Right now I’m the only one that’s putting pressure on myself."

Hanel intends to continue combining road and gravel over the next two years. Returning off-road also means returning to a familiar racing community.

"It’s a different environment, so different people. I know a lot more people there, so I get to race with my friends," she said.

First, however, comes Thursday’s road race. Hanel said the American squad had yet to work through its tactics but speaking for herself, she said her aim was to "race her best race."

Holmgren, meanwhile, is looking forward to racing in front of home supporters and alongside her twin sister, Isabella (Lidl-Trek).

"My only other race with her this year was the Tour de Gatineau, and we did really well," she said.

The sisters made the final break together there, and Ava is eager for another opportunity to work together.

"She’s super strong, and I know how hard she’s been working for this, and she can see the same with me."

Beyond her sister, Holmgren will have family and longtime supporters on the roadside, including people who helped her make the move to racing in Europe.

"I’m happy that I can finally show them how hard we work, and they can see it firsthand," she said.

Asked about Team Canada’s chances on Thursday, she said: "I think we have a really strong team, and if we can play our cards right, we can go for the best result."

Holmgren is set to line up alongside her twin sister Isabella, Kiara Lylyk, Alexandra Volstad and Sidney Swierenga in Canada’s five-rider squad.

Hanel will be joined by US under-23 road champion Katherine Sarkisov, Alyssa Sarkisov, Mia Aseltine and Lidia Cusack.

The women’s under-23 road race starts at 9 a.m. EDT on Thursday, September 24, with riders tackling 134km and 2,690 metres of climbing.

The 2026 UCI Road World Championships officially opened when Zimbabwe’s Skye Davidson rolled down the starting ramp of the women’s elite time trial.

But she contested her race on a rather unusual setup. Where we’ve become used to seeing the latest and greatest of incredibly sleek, wind-defying machines, hers looked…well, a bit dated.

She rode what appeared to be a 2015 Cervélo P3, complete with rim brakes, mechanical Shimano Dura-Ace and Profile Design clip-on aerobars. She was rolling on a Zipp 404 front wheel and a Zipp 808 rear wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tyres.

Still a serious time-trial bike, but roughly a decade old, borrowed at the last minute and a size bigger than her usual ride.

As it turns out, the bike belongs to Zimbabwe team manager Nathan van Vuuren, who lent Davidson his bike after hers broke during the course recon the day before.

"This bike is the first time I’m riding it, 'cause my bike broke yesterday," Davidson explained. "The derailleur hanger snapped and the jockey wheel broke, but it's done that three times in the last week."

Van Vuuren, who stood noticeably taller than Davidson as we spoke afterward her race, came to the rescue and offered his own bike.

"Good thing I brought it," he remarked.

Davidson usually rides a 54cm bike but was happy with the 56cm loaner.

"It's not the end of the world," she said of the substitute. "I mean, it’s great considering, you know, compared to my road bike, which was my only other option. It’s great.”

Davidson is a former multi-time Zimbabwean national road race and time trial champion who previously rode for the University of Edinburgh cycling team while studying astrophysics. She hasn’t raced a time trial in a couple of years and started first.

“I was actually very happy that I was going off first, ’cause I think it kind of removes all of the pressure,” she said. “And it was quite nice having the motorbike in front to follow.”

There was also the relief of knowing there was a little breathing room before the biggest names came through.

“Not having too many of the big, big riders going immediately after me, so that was quite nice,” she said.

Once underway, the temptation was to attack the technical opening too enthusiastically.

“The beginning bit is very hard to not go out too hard because of all the corners, and you kind of want to ride it quite aggressively,” she said. “I think I did go out a little bit too hard, which is absolutely fine. I can learn from that.”

She found a rhythm through the first three quarters before the effort began to catch up with her.

“My legs were really, really killing me towards the end. But I think I managed to back off just enough to ride the last 4Ks up all the hills.”

Davidson finished 40th.

“All things considered, I am quite happy,” she concluded.

Davidson’s World Championships continue on Saturday, 26th September with the women’s elite road race.

The Cervélo’s championship aren’t over yet either. It will make another appearance in the junior men’s time trial.

The first test of the 2026 UCI Road World Championships left Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates XRG) just 12 seconds short of a medal, and gave fellow American Artem Schmidt (Netcompany INEOS) encouragement ahead of the road race.

For both, the time trial offered reasons for optimism, even if Sunday's challenge will demand far more than a strong, sustained effort.

McNulty finished fourth as Belgian's Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull - Bora - hansgrohe) claimed his fourth consecutive time trial title, briefly occupying the second-place hot seat before the final contenders pushed him out of the medals.

The margin was narrow, and his immediate reaction was satisfaction with a ride that confirmed his condition.

"12 seconds from the medal is not bad," McNulty said. "I’m happy with the ride.

"I think it showed the work was paying off and, yeah, hopefully I can keep getting better."

For 22-year-old Schmidt, the challenge lay in deciding where to push and where to hold something back. Speaking to Cycling Weekly before he knew his finishing position, 18th, he was pleased with how he had managed the effort.

"I think I left mostly everything out there," he said. "It's super easy to lose momentum with the potholes, and trying to gain that momentum back is super tough."

The next task is turning those individual efforts into a collective performance in the road race. McNulty believes the Americans have the strength to make an impact, describing the squad as "the best team I think the U.S. have had."

In 2025, McNulty crossed the line first here to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. Compatriot Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) finished third that day. On their returns to the same race earlier this month, McNulty and Simmons placed third and fourth, respectively. Something, McNulty said, he can take confidence from.

"I think there's a chance. If we do everything perfect, to have a good shot at a medal," he said.

But he is very realistic about the opposition, naming the likes of Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) among the fiercest competition.

"We have our work cut out, but I think we have a good team to race aggressively," he said.

"There are a ton of strong guys that I don’t think we’ve ever really beaten before, so it’s going to be hard," he said. "But I think we have numbers to at least play our cards well."

Schmidt expects to contribute in support.

"The road race is a different type of beast than the time trial," Schmidt said.

"But I have a good threshold and good one-hour power to help the guys as much as I can."

For McNulty, fourth place provides a timely indication of form before returning to roads where he has already won.

"I love the circuit, so I’m excited," he said. "But it’ll be a hard day."

Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) and Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) delivered the expected victories, but the road to the rainbow jerseys received mixed reviews. The Formula 1 race circuit aside, rough surfaces, potholes, tight corners and the difficulty of carrying speed became recurring themes in riders’ reactions to a course that tested more than pure power.

Brandon Rivera (Colombia) crossed the line with a badly rubbing front wheel, torn clothing and bloodied skin. Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) hit a barrier and was nursing a sore hand as he spoke to journalists. Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) saw his podium challenge disrupted by a slide-out in the closing technical section.

"The roads are pretty low quality and having half the road is really hard to judge with the cones," said Hayter, who finished 18th. "You don’t quite carry the speed the same as a normal road."

Silver medallist Filippo Ganna (Italy) also criticised the surface during his press conference, saying he had expected better and that "everyone would have benefitted from a better road."

For American Brandon McNulty, familiarity with the roads did little to soften the demands of the closing kilometres. The former Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal winner briefly occupied the second-place hot seat before finishing fourth, 12 seconds off a medal.

"You hit those corners with a lot of fatigue in your legs. It never feels good," he said.

The finish was familiar from his previous appearances in Montréal, but that offered little comfort.

"I think that was one of the worst times I’ve done it," he said.

The men’s crashes followed concerns from riders in the women’s race who tackled their longest time trial in the event’s history.

For Spain’s Paula Blasi, distance was not the issue. She felt she had the form to produce a strong ride, but struggled to find confidence.

Blasi, one of the season’s breakout stars on the road, had crashed during reconnaissance of the Spanish National Championships time trial course in June. The memory of that crash made the bumps and holes harder to negotiate.

"Already when we were doing the recon, I think the road is not as good as we were expecting," she said. "It didn’t help at all to have these holes on the road."

The flatter stretches and smooth roads of the Formula 1 circuit offered some respite. The technical first half, however, saw her losing a lot of time.

"The road was super bumpy, and mentally I got super scared, so every corner I was losing two, three seconds," said Blasi, who finished 18th. "You cannot compete with that."

There was no disappointment for Zoe Bäckstedt this time. Last year's under-23 world champion was "over the moon" after taking silver in her elite Worlds time trial debut in Montréal, weeks after a fourth-place finish at the Tour de France Femmes had left her so disappointed.

The 21-year-old Welsh rider powered through the technical 39.2-kilometre course to finish 40 seconds behind Marlen Reusser. Germany’s Franziska Koch completed the podium 5 seconds behind Bäckstedt.

"At the Tour I was fourth, and I was really disappointed with this, and I think that was also a super good ride," Bäckstedt told Cycling Weekly at the finish. "But immediately when I crossed the line here, I was over the moon."

At 39.2 kilometres, it was the longest women’s time trial course in UCI Road World Championships history, and 73% longer than the U23 course on which she won her title last year.

Bäckstedt could have chosen to defend her under-23 time trial title in Canada. Instead, she came to Montréal to test herself against the world's best.

"I didn’t know what to expect in a result. I could’ve been anywhere from the win to top 10," she said. "And to come away with second… I felt strong on the bike, which was really a positive thing."

For a while, gold was in reach. Bäckstedt led through the first two intermediate checks, giving fans at home a lot to cheer for.

"That's what I'm here for, right?" Bäckstedt said with a laugh.

"In the first half, when I heard the first time check, I was thinking, 'Okay, maybe it’s possible'," she admitted.

Bäckstedt knew, however, what Reusser could do on the faster second half of the course, and sure enough, the Swiss powerhouse turned the tide as the finish crept closer.

"I knew that in the flat parts she would bring a lot of time back on me, and she did. So, yeah, massive respect," Bäckstedt said.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly ahead of the race, she'd said that the time trial was her "moment to show what I can do."

And that's exactly what she did.

The silver medal offered an emphatic validation for Bäckstedt’s decision to leave the under-23 competition behind, and announced her as a serious competitor in this discipline for seasons ahead.

All in all, Bäckstedt described the race as "painful" but also "quite fun."

Attention now turns to the road race, where she will be one of Great Britain’s leaders. Alongside the confidence from silver, the time trial offered useful experience of tackling the finishing climb with tired legs.

"It’s not quite simulating the feeling after 180K, but it’s giving somewhat of a feeling," she said.

In the days to follow, Bäckstedt will receive some massages, do some rides as well as some final interval work. But first: coffee.

"I'm gonna go and get a coffee, put my legs up, get some good food," she said in closing.

For the fifth time in the UCI's 125-year existence, the UCI Road World Championships will take place on the continent of North America, in Canada's city of Montreal.

In total, there will be 13 different titles awarded across the week, which stretches between 20-27 September, with rainbow jerseys to be won in time trials and road races in the junior, under-23 and elite ranks.

Today (Saturday 27 September), we have the men's road race with Remco Evenepoel, Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas among the favourites. You can stream the races free on CBC Gem (Canada) and BBC iPlayer (UK) with a starting race time of 9am (Montreal time, ET).

Below, Cycling Weekly has gathered all the key information on broadcasters and live streams so you can watch the 2026 UCI Road World Championships wherever you are.

Quick guide to watching the UCI Road World Championships

• UK: BBC (free), TNT Sports / HBO Max (£30.99/mon)
• US: Flobikes (USD$39.99/mon)
• Canada: CBC Gem (free)
• Australia: Stan (from AUD$9.99/mon + AUD$20/mon sports add-on)
• Free streams: YouTube (geo-blocking applies), BBC (UK), RTBF (Belgium), France Télévisions (France), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain), NOS (Netherlands), CBC Gem (Canada)
• Anywhere: Unlock your free stream from anywhere with NordVPN (75% off)

Can I watch the UCI Road World Championships for free?

Across the globe, fans can watch the UCI Road World Championships for free thanks to broadcasters in their regions and the UCI's YouTube channel.

The YouTube feed is geo-restricted, so will not be available to residents in countries that already have a TV broadcast deal in place.

In the UK, as outlined above, the BBC is broadcasting the elite events, with free streaming available on BBC iPlayer and linear viewing on BBC Two and BBC Three.

CBC Gem will be showing the home broadcast in Canada with every event available on the streaming platform.

Elsewhere across Europe, France Télévisions (France), RTBF (Belgium), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain) and NOS (Netherlands) are a few more of the public broadcasters who will be showing the championships. The full list is available online on page 11 of the the UCI's technical guide for the event.

Coverage is geo-restricted, so if you're away from home right now, you'll need a VPN to get your usual coverage while abroad – more on that below.

How to watch UCI Road World Championships 2026 from anywhere

Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.

A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad.

Our expert colleagues at TechRadar rate NordVPN as the best on the market for its security, compatibility, streaming credentials and, right now, its value for money...

Want to know more? We have an explainer on the benefits, costs, and considerations of using a VPN...
– Should I use a VPN to watch cycling?

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships in the UK

In the UK, this year's UCI Road World Championships will be shown live and free on the BBC, the country's public service broadcaster.

BBC Two will have linear coverage of the Women's Time Trial while BBC Three will show the Men's Time Trial and Road Race.

Those wanting to watch all 13 events can do so by subscribing to TNT Sports. TNT Sports is available via HBO Max, with the cheapest package priced at £25.99 a month across a 12-month term.

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships in the USA and Canada

In the US, Flobikes has been granted the broadcast rights for the Road World Championships. Subscriptions for US viewers cost USD$39.99 a month, or USD$155.88 for the year.

The Flobikes TV app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV, as well as on iOS and Android.

In Canada, you will need CBC Gem (English coverage) or TVA Sports (French coverage) to watch the action from Montreal. All 13 races will be available on the platform.

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships in Australia

Cycling fans in Australia can watch the Road World Championships on the Stan Sport streaming service.

The most basic plan costs AUD$9.99 a month, but viewers will need to have the Stan Sport add-on to watch the Road World Championships, which costs an additional AUD$20 per month.

What to expect at the UCI Road World Championships

The 2026 UCI Road World Championships will mark the event's 99th edition, the first taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1921.

This year, the event will be held in North America for the fifth time in history, the third time in Canada, and the second time in Montreal. The road races will look familiar to fans of pro cycling, due to the course following much the same route as the WorldTour race GP de Montréal, albeit a lot longer.

The road races are wide open, especially in the absence of defending men's champion Tadej Pogačar, who crashed out of the Vuelta a España last month. The best women in the world will all be hoping to grab the rainbow bands after last year's surprise winner in Canada's Magdeleine Vallieres.

Riders will tackle a lumpy 13.4km circuit around Mount Royal Park, which the women will tackle eight times, the men 12. Unlike the GP Montréal though, which was held last weekend, the Worlds courses have a significant lead-in before beginning the first full lap of Mount Royal. This amounts to around 60km for the women, 112km for the men and will bolster the full course distances to 180km and 273km respectively. The total ascent for both men's and women's is significant, with the women climbing 2,570m and the men, 3,808m.

Before the elite races, the 80km Junior Women's race, which loops the park six times, amasses 1,614m of climbing. There will be no respite, and whoever wins here will have earned it and then some.

The Junior Men's course is longer again at 134km, racking up 2,690m of climbing over 10 laps. That is replicated by the U23 women's race, while the U23 men go longer still, with their 13 laps meaning they will have clocked up a thigh-busting 3,497m of vertical ascent.

The Worlds begin with the time trials, with the elite races taking place over the same course and distance on Sunday 20 September. The 39.2km course will see 220m of elevation, so it is pretty much a pure rouleur's event, although there are some technical elements.

The under-23 and junior events take place mid-week, along with the mixed relay time trial, which is 40.7km with 290m of elevation.

UCI Road World Championships 2026 event schedule

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It was just days ago that Riley Sheehan was on his way back to Europe after a block of North American racing. After a fourth-place finish at the revamped Philadelphia Cycling Classic, 25th at GP Cycliste de Québec and a 14th-place finish at GP Cycliste de Montréal, the 26-year-old Coloradan left happy.

The Canadian races had been his favourite races all year, he wrote on Instagram, adding: "Really had a good time ripping it around the two cities and suffering all the way to the line. Looking forward to coming back already."

Well, he got his wish sooner than expected.

Sheehan received a last-minute call-up after Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) withdrew with illness, USA Cycling confirmed to Cycling Weekly on Friday.

"Neilson has withdrawn due to illness, so the spot goes to Riley Sheehan, the first reserve named during the selection process," USA Cycling stated.

The withdrawal is yet another setback in a difficult year for Powless, who missed most of the season’s racing due to knee surgery. He returned to racing at July’s Tour of Austria, and claimed a promising win on stage three.

Sheehan, meanwhile, has built a strong case for selection. The NSN rider won May’s Circuit de Wallonie, his first victory since his breakthrough at Paris-Tours in 2023. He then added another win in August’s Czech Tour. And his recent North American results show his carrying great form into the World Championships.

His initial omission from Team USA’s roster did not pass quietly. In a since-deleted post on X, Sheehan questioned the selectors’ decision to leave out riders who had been winning races. He then told our sister site, Cyclingnews, that he was disappointed and confused as he believed he "could have been a really vital asset" to the American team.

Now he’ll get to prove his worth after all, in joining a very strong American team in Canada.

In Montréal, Team USA will be led by Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), the 2019 junior road world champion, who’s coming off a very strong second half of the season. He claimed his third U.S. national road race title in June and was again awarded the Best Teammate award at the Tour de France, in which he finished in 18th place. During the block of North American racing, he finished 9th at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, fifth at the GP Cycliste de Québec and in fourth place at GP Cycliste de Montréal.

Team USA has a potential second leader in Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates XRG), who’s historically done well at the GP de Montréal races, taking the win last year and finishing third just last week.

Completing the eight-man roster are Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Artem Shmidt (Netcompany INEOS) and Larry Warbasse (Tudor Pro Cycling).

The elite men’s road race takes place on Sunday, September 27, covering approximately 273 kilometres. Starting in Brossard, the route heads towards Montréal before tackling 12 laps of the 13.4-kilometre Mount Royal circuit, with more than 3,700 metres of climbing across the day.

In Canada, Zoe Bäckstedt could have returned to the UCI World Championships to defend her under-23 time trial title. Instead, the 21-year-old Welshwoman has come to Montréal to find out how far she can go against the elites.

Speaking after a training ride in Montréal, Bäckstedt was clear about the decision, acknowledging both the freedom of approaching her first elite road Worlds without the expectation of another U23 title and the challenge ahead.

"Honestly, I think it was time for it," she said. "I think the results I've had this season prove that I'm good enough to do the elites. I think it's the right decision for me to take myself to the elites [and] to make that decision myself."

She had experienced something similar at this winter’s cyclo-cross Worlds, where stepping up after a season disrupted by a broken wrist relieved the pressure to defend her U23 crown. She now carries some of that freedom into Montréal, with a season’s worth of results to back up her ambition.

Her results against the clock this season include victory in the opening time trial at the Vuelta a Extremadura, a successful defence of her British elite title, and wins in both the prologue and time trial on her way to another overall victory at the Baloise Ladies Tour.

With her Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift debut came the opportunity to test herself against top-tier competition. In Dijon, Bäckstedt finished fourth, behind winner Marlen Reusser (Switzerland / Movistar), surprise runner-up Lieke Nooijen (The Netherlands / Visma - Lease a Bike) and Demi Vollering (The Netherlands / FDJ-Suez). She proved she could hold her own against the world’s best, even if missing the podium initially made that difficult to appreciate.

"I would say the Tour was a good bit of confidence for me," she said. "Don't get me wrong, in the first hour after the race, I was quite disappointed to miss out on the podium."

That frustration has since become motivation, giving her "a little bit of a drive to try and do some good training in the last few weeks and come here with the best shape that I could."

The preparation itself has remained familiar, however. Bäckstedt has added a few longer efforts to account for the duration of the Elite time trial, while keeping faith with the routine that brought her to the Tour in competitive shape.

Despite making her debut in the elite category, it’s no stretch to count her among Sunday’s favourites, though referencing her commanding U23 victory in Kigali would be misleading.

Bäckstedt was quick to remark that her winning margin of almost two minutes came against a different level of competition and on a different circuit from the elite race.

Asked what separates her from other favourites such as Reusser and Vollering, she points to the years they have spent learning their craft.

"I think honestly the main thing is just experience," she said. "I’ve not had so many years in the pro peloton doing time trials, doing all of these different races, racing quite a big calendar. I've not had that really until this season."

Their advantage, she explained, also lies in having encountered more of the variations a time trial can offer: climbs, flat roads and different wind conditions. Bäckstedt is still accumulating those experiences, even as her results place her in contention.

A win or podium would be welcome, but she has not made either a condition of a successful elite debut.

"I would love to come here to win or even to podium. I think that would also be a really good result," she said. "But I'm still under 23. I could still race the under-23 race, so I'm coming in with no pressure to do anything. It's just: take it as your first elite Worlds, see what you can do, and build on it for next year."

Her performances this season have also earned her a prominent role on Great Britain’s road race squad.

"I believe I'm one of the leaders for the road race after my performance at nationals and at the Tour. They've given me a lot of support in that," she said. "And I think it can be a good road race for me as well."

The question is how she will fare over the repeated climbs on the Montréal circuit, and how aggressively the race is ridden. A steadier opening could allow her to conserve enough energy to remain in contention late on, she argued. But if the attacks begin as soon as the peloton reaches the circuit, she expects a much harder task.

Her approach will involve saving what energy she can and adapting as the race develops. The support around her will matter also, particularly with no race radios to relay information or instructions.

Bäckstedt will be joined on the road by Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek), Flora Perkins (Fenix-Premier Tech), Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez), Pfeiffer Georgi (Team Picnic PostNL).

Her priority, however, remains the race against the clock.

"I think the time trial will always be my main goal," she said. "It’s my moment to show what I can do."

When Tadej Pogačar crashed out of the Vuelta a España, the news spread around the cycling world in seconds.

The Slovenian left the Spanish Grand Tour with injuries severe enough that means he will miss the rest of the 2026 season. Not only did that open the door for Enric Mas (Movistar) to win the Vuelta, but it also meant that Pogačar would be unable to defend his rainbow jersey in Montréal.

Before Pogačar crashed out, most riders were likely just aiming for the podium at the UCI Road World Championships. His absence changes everything.

Team USA has its best chance of winning in decades, with Brandon McNulty among the race favourites. Here’s why.

Pogačar has been unstoppable on hilly courses, winning everything from Milan-San Remo and Liège-Bastogne-Liège to Strade Bianche and Il Lombardia in the past few seasons. The race that most closely mimics the upcoming Worlds is the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. While Pogačar has won that twice before, last year he finished second behind his teammate, McNulty.

In 2025, the American launched the race-winning move with 36km to go, joined by compatriot Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Louis Barré (then Intermarché-Wanty) and Pogačar. The latter split the group again with less than 20km to go. Eventually, McNulty attacked off Simmons’ wheel to bridge across to Pogačar (who, it should be said, may have been waiting for his teammate), and the pair rode arm-in-arm across the finish line.

It’s easy to say that McNulty’s victory was a gift, but the American was certainly the first or second-strongest rider that day, having shown the strength to drop everyone in the race bar Pogačar.

The Americans had quite the day in 2025, with Simmons finishing third and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) breaking away from the peloton to finish fourth. All three will be on the same team come September 27, joined by Matteo Jorgenson, Kevin Vermaerke, Larry Warbasse, Artem Schmidt and Sean Quinn.

Team USA is, without a doubt, one of the strongest teams in the race, especially after McNulty and Simmons just finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 2026 GP Montréal. But can team tactics make a difference on the Montréal road race course?

The World Championship road race uses the same city circuit as GP Montréal, with the defining feature of a 1.6-kilometre climb called the Voie Camillien-Houde. The climb snakes its way up through Mount Royal Park before descending into the city streets. There is a 500-metre difference between the Worlds loop and the GP Montréal circuit, but the essential climbs and descents are identical.

If there is only one thing to know about the Montréal city circuits, it’s that there is hardly a flat metre of road. Every twist, turn and pitch makes it difficult to organise a chase. That means breakaways are more likely to succeed.

In the post-pandemic era, the winning group at GP Montréal has never been larger than five riders. Pogačar won in 2022 and 2024, Adam Yates outsprinted Pavel Sivakov in 2023, McNulty won in 2025, and Isaac del Toro outsprinted Paul Seixas to win this year’s edition. It has always been a race of attrition, with the peloton growing thinner and thinner each lap around Montréal.

The rider who wins will need a combination of high fatigue resistance and VO2 max power. There are plenty of riders who can push 8w/kg for five minutes, but how many can do the same numbers after five hours of racing?

McNulty is one of those few, as he displayed in the last two editions of GP Montréal. Not only did he finish alongside Pogačar in 2025, but he arguably did more work, sitting in the wind, launching the winning move and then bridging solo to Pogačar in the finale.

While it’s easy to draw comparisons between GP Montréal and the World Championships, there are a few key differences. Let’s start with the route.

GP Montréal is 209 kilometres long, while the 2026 Road Worlds is 273 kilometres. Instead of the 17 repeats of the Voie Camillien-Houde that we see in GP Montréal, the Worlds course features only 12 laps of the city circuit, preceded by a 100-kilometre flatter section.

That means the early break at Worlds will form on the flats, whereas at GP Montréal it forms on the Voie Camillien-Houde, which is featured at kilometre zero. Break formation is crucial on a route like this because the breakaway riders have a legitimate chance of making it to the finish. Of course, chances favour the peloton, but chasing on a hilly city circuit is easier said than done.

When looking at the list of pre-race favourites, it might seem crazy to mention McNulty among them. The list includes Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert, Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas, Mathieu van der Poel and more. McNulty’s résumé isn’t as impressive as those of the biggest names, but you have to remember that he has spent the majority of his career riding in service of Pogačar. The American has been instrumental in many of Pogačar’s Tour triumphs and has had little opportunity to ride for himself since joining UAE Team Emirates in 2020.

Perhaps the biggest factor playing in McNulty’s favour is the timing of his peak. Late September is notorious for mental and physical burnout, lost motivation and a longing for the off-season. While Van Aert was flying at the Vuelta, it’s difficult to say if he’ll be able to maintain that form for two more weeks. Evenepoel, Del Toro and Seixas have enjoyed a long break after the Tour, but we’ve already seen how difficult it is to peak for a specific one-day race. While Del Toro won this year’s GP Montréal, he was dropped from the lead group only two days before at GP Québec.

In 2025, McNulty was in the form of his life in August and September. He won the Tour de Pologne, GP Montréal, Tour de Luxembourg and CRO Race, with those final two races finishing on September 21 and October 5. The Worlds road race is on September 27 this year, and McNulty has already shown he is in top shape with his podium finish at GP Montréal.

Instead of fighting each other for the podium, Simmons and McNulty will team up at the World Championships. With the help of Jorgenson, Vermaerke and more, the American team has a legitimate chance of winning the rainbow jersey.

Remco Evenepoel has predicted that this year's elite men's World Championships around Montreal will be one for those riders with a climber's build, rather than power riders like Mathieu van der Poel.

The Belgian was speaking after the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal at the weekend, won by Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Evenepoel pointed out the average build of the top-10 finishers – who included Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM, second), Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's Evenepoel in fifth and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) in sixth, was very much that of a climber.

“With the way the longer climb is ridden, it is really difficult for the heavier guys,” he was reported as saying on the Dutch outlet Wielerflits.

“If you look at the average weight of the [Montreal] top 10, we are perhaps at 63 or 65 kilograms,” said Evenepoel. “Those aren't heavy men, but riders like Wout [van Aert] and Mathieu [van der Poel] can survive this on super days,” he added.

Van Aert and Van der Poel clock in at 75 and 78kg respectively – some way above 72kg Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), the heaviest finisher in the top-10 at the GP Montreal, in a creditable fourth place.

The World Championships course and the GP Montreal use the same Mount Royal loop in the centre of the Quebeçois city, featuring a significant climb – the Voie Camillien Houde – and multiple smaller rises, each lap. However, the races are not the same. While the GP Montreal is held exclusively on the Mount Royal loop, which it completes 16 times, the Worlds course features 100 mostly flat kilometres, before diving into the Park for 12 laps of the loop. The Worlds places less onus on outright climbing ability.

“It is also a difference that we will first ride 100 kilometres on flat terrain,” Evenepoel said. “We can ease into it a bit then; here it was full throttle right from the start. And the race is much longer, so it will be less explosive towards the end and come down more to endurance.

“It was a good dress rehearsal," he told Wielerflits. "Most of the men designated as favourites were all at the front. I always feel a bit, when coming down from altitude, that I lack that extra punch. But we still have two weeks, so it will be fine.”

Dates: 20 - 27 September 2026
Location: Montreal, Canada
No. of events: 13
TV Coverage: TNT/Discovery+, BBC (UK), FloBikes (US and Canada), Stan Sport (Aus)
Official website: www.montreal2026.org

There aren't many bike races with enough cachet to keep the very best riders on the planet fully focused all the way to the very end of a season that kicks off in January and tests them all year. The UCI Road World Championships, however, is one of those races. The lure of the rainbow jersey, beautiful and iconic that it is, is far too strong for anyone who thinks they have the remotest chance of victory to pass up. And besides, in a day job full of transient trade teams, representing your country remains the pinnacle for many.

This year the event returns to North America for the first time since 2015, when it was held in Richmond, USA. The French-Canadian city of Montreal is the host this time, with all of the road races using a well tested city-centre course, the heart of which many of the riders, as well as the fans, will be familiar with from the annual Grand Prix de la Montréal. There are eight days of racing to look forward to, with a range of riders from junior, through under-23 and elite WorldTour stars all competing, first in the time trial events and then the road races, which culminate in what should be a brace of epic elite contests on the second weekend.

2026 UCI Road World Championships race schedule

Medal table

2026 UCI Road World Championships: Road race riders to watch

Tom Pidcock
Great Britain
27
Previous best: 6th, 2021

Just weeks after sealing a second career Worlds mountain bike title, Tom Pidcock is back on the road and on a mission to make history – to follow in the footsteps of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and become the first man to be crowned World Champion at mountain biking, cyclo-cross, and on the road. For many years we’ve known Pidcock to be one of the great multidisciplinarians in cycling’s history, but he’s yet to quite scale the great heights he has at the other two on the road, and that’s the title he needs to complete the set.

He’s due a big win on the road, having not won at World Tour level for almost 18 months, and there’s reason to believe that this year’s road Worlds might be the one. The form is promising, with a victory in his first race (GP Industria & Artigianato) back on the road since the Tour de France, and two top tens at the GP Québec and Montréal. The latter using a very similar course to the world champs.

Pidcock will be supported by Adam Yates, Fred Wright, Oscar Onley, James Shaw, Mark Donovan and Finlay Pickering

Isaac del Toro
Mexico, 22
Previous best: 7th, 2025

The only man to have won more races than Isaac del Toro since the start of last season is his trade teammate Tadej Pogačar, and the 22-year-old Mexican has rapidly established himself as one of the peloton’s elite. He has everything it takes to excel on a course like Montréal - proven by his win at the GP last weekend. With an explosive turn of speed and excellent climbing ability, the only question mark is whether his Mexican team of inexperienced, non-World Tour riders is strong enough to support him. If they can get him deep into the race with minimal energy expended, he has a great chance of becoming the first ever Latin American rider to win a World road race medal.

Paul Seixas
France, 20
Previous best: 13th, 2025

Set to compete a mere three days after his 20th birthday, if Paul Seixas wins in Montreal, he would become the youngest ever road world champion. The Frenchman has already made a mockery of conventional wisdom concerning what’s possible for so young a man to achieve, this season finishing second at both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche behind Tadej Pogačar, and placing fourth on a Tour a France debut many believed he wasn’t ready for. The French have already masterminded two golds and a silver since the 2020 Worlds, plus an Olympic silver and bronze, and have a genuine shot at gold with Seixas.

Wout van Aert
Belgium, 32
Previous best: 2nd, 2020, 2023

Belgium will be the strongest team at the Worlds, and once again led by the deadly duo of Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel. The pair haven’t always got on swimmingly, but have developed their relationship over the years to combine with devastating effect, Van Aert playing a key role in Evenepoel’s golds at the 2022 Worlds and 2024 Olympics. Is this the turn of two-time silver-medallist Van Aert? Given the parcours, his recent fitness and winning form at the Vuelta, the absence of Tadej Pogačar, and the fact he’s now 32 years old, you sense this might be the best chance he gets.

Demi Vollering
Netherlands, 29
Previous best: 2nd 2023

When Demi Vollering lines up in Montreal, she has the chance to elevate what has already been an exceptional season to one of the all-time greats in cycling history. Having cleaned up in the Spring Classics, where she won, among others, the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vollering went on to claim both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France titles, meaning she now has a shot at becoming only the fifth person and second woman (following Annemiek Van Vleuten four years ago) to win the Triple Crown.

The Worlds have never been the happiest of hunting grounds for Vollering, whose only medal in the road race came in 2023 when she was second behind Lotte Kopecky. Her frustrations have been part of a lack of cohesion in the whole Dutch squad, which, despite invariably boasting the most talented line-up, are now in danger of going four editions without a gold medal, which would be their longest streak since 2010. They’ve frequently let themselves down by failing to work as a team and playing too many games, but this year, given the parcours and the season she’s had, the tactics should be simple: all rally behind delivering Vollering gold.

Elisa Longo Borgini
Italy, 34
Previous best: 3rd, 2012, 2020, 2024

A rainbow jersey is threatening to become the white whale in the otherwise illustrious career of Elisa Longo Borghini. Though the 34-year-old has won the Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche, Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia, and come home with a bronze medal three times, a Worlds gold medal remains elusive, and she’ll line up in Montreal for a 15th attempt. Backing her will be a strong Italian team, and the punchy terrain is in her favour, while she seemed to put the fitness problems that have plagued her for much of the season behind her at the Tour de France to make the podium.

Kim Le Court
Mauritius, 30
Previous best: 8th, 2025

Few if any riders competing in Montreal can claim to be in the running for an achievement that would not be the biggest for their nation in cycling, but of any sport. However, victory for Mauritian Kim Le Court would arguably be that. She’s already put the Indian Ocean archipelago on the map by wearing the yellow jersey at the Tour and winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and should excel on this route, where her punchy accelerations and quick finish will be lethal weapons. She’ll lack support from her team, but brings great form to the race having won the Tour of Britain.

2026 UCI Road World Championships: Road race routes

If you're a fan of the annual GP Montréal men's WorldTour race, much of the elite Worlds races are going to look very familiar. That's because they will use the same Mount Royal course in the Quebecois city centre as the annual Canadian one-dayer.

It's a lumpy 13.4km circuit around Mount Royal Park, which the women will tackle eight times, the men 12. Unlike the GP Montréal though, which was held last weekend, the Worlds courses have a significant lead-in before beginning the first full lap of Mount Royal. This amounts to around 60km for the women, 112km for the men and will bolster the full course distances to 180km and 273km respectively.

That is the longest ever women's Worlds by some margin, following a UCI rule change last year allowing longer races for women.

The lead-in starts just across the city's St Lawrence river in Brossard and loops north and back before crossing the water and meeting the finishing circuit. It's almost pan-flat, with all of the considerable climbing metres to be done in the confines of Mount Royal Park. The only exception to this is the small climb of Mont Saint Hilaire, tackled by the men halfway through their lead-in.

The total ascent for both men's and women's is significant, with the women climbing 2,570m and the men, 3,808m – both comparable to a day in the mountains on a Grand Tour. But this is a different proposition, with the constant rising and falling meaning a constant on/off pressure that will slowly sap even the strongest of legs.

There are four of those 'rises and falls' in Mount Royal Park, the biggest being the Voie Camillien Houde, at the foot of which the race will finish. This will do much of the damage, but the smaller rises of the Chemin de Polytechnique, Avenue Pagnuelo and Avenue du Parc, rising to the finish, will undoubtedly sap the legs like only a major one-day race can.

It's a course where climbers and big engines meet in the middle, meaning there is a wide spread of riders who will feel they have a chance to medal.

2026 UCI Road World Championships: Time trial riders to watch

Marlen Reusser
Switzerland, 34
Previous best: 1st, 2025

It’s serendipitous, really, that Marlen Reusser’s 35th birthday falls on the day of the time trial, but what better way to celebrate than defending her 2025 crown?

The Swiss rider is undoubtedly the time trial favourite in Montreal. She’s won six of the last seven individual time trials she has competed in, and came second in the other, and only because it was all uphill. Victory in Canada would cap a fine season for Reusser, who had stitches in her knee after crashing in February, but went on to wear yellow for three days at the Tour de France Femmes, after she won the TT in Dijon on stage four. It wasn’t quite a crushing margin, just four seconds over Lieke Nooijen, but it didn’t need to be, she wins time trials. For such a dominant time trialist, it is odd, then, that the Swiss has only ever won one world title, after four European crowns; that has partly been down to misfortune and illness, with Reusser missing out on her home Worlds in 2024 due to a long-term virus.

Zoe Bäckstedt
Great Britain, 21
Previous best: n/a

She won the junior time trial world title in 2022, the under-23 one in 2025, and now Zoe Bäckstedt is looking to complete the set with her first elite rainbow jersey.

The 21-year-old proved her pedigree against the world’s best when she finished fourth in August’s Tour de France Femmes time trial, won by Marlen Reusser. That result came after four victories against the clock this season, including the national title at home in Wales. Realistically, a podium place would be impressive for Bäckstedt. Against a rider as dominant as Reusser, second might feel like a victory.

Remco Evenepoel
Belgium, 26
Previous best: 1st, 2023,24,25

Perhaps the greatest time triallist of all time, Remco Evenepoel is going for his fourth world title in a row, and only a fool would bet against him. He's a major contender for the road race too.

The Belgian comes into this year’s championships at the end of what has been one of the strongest seasons so far in his career. He has picked up major results all the way through; after winning the Amstel Gold Race in April, he went on to place second at the Tour de France, taking back to back stage victories along the way, including in the stage 16 time trial to Thonon les Bains, where he dished out a solid beating of Tadej Pogačar, putting 28 seconds into the Slovenian over 26.1 rolling kilometres. Evenepoel, who is still just 26, then went on to win the San Sebastian Classic in Spain, for the fourth time.

In a men's cycling landscape so heavily dominated by the brilliance of Pogačar, Evenepoel is a rare beast in that, when it comes to time trials at least, the Belgian can be expected to prevail when the pair go head to head. He has made the discipline his own and can be expected to win on anything from hilly to flat courses. The Montreal course falls into the latter category – except perhaps, for the small rise up Avenue de Parc in the final two kilometres.

Filippo Ganna
Italy, 30
Previous best: 1st, 2020,21

Say the name Filippo Ganna, and immediately time trialling springs to mind. There is very little that the affable Italian has yet to win in the discipline. A former double world champion, he is also a perennial winner of Grand Tour TTs, and even holds the World Hour record – one of the most prestigious accolades a rider can pick up against the watch. However, unlike his rival – nemesis, even – Remco Evenepoel, he has yet to win an Olympic gold, something the Belgian beat him to last time out in Paris.

There will be those who point out that it has been five years since Ganna last won a time trial rainbow jersey, with Evenepoel since forcing him down the pecking order. He has come close to reclaiming the title more than once, but the Belgian has always been standing in his way, pipping him into second place at the Worlds in 2023 and 2024. However, this year’s route offers a chance for Ganna to get his own back; there are no significant climbs, and the long stretches on highways are ideal for his strong, rangey build. It's almost as tailor-made for Ganna as a designer suit out of Milan.

The Italian has won five times this season, four of which came against the clock. At the Giro d’Italia, he set a new speed record for a Grand Tour time trial over 40km, barrelling at an average of almost 55kph. This course may be a few hundred metres shorter, but it suits him nonetheless.

2026 UCI Road World Championships: Time trial routes

For the first time in four years, both the elite women and men will race the same distance in the individual time trials at the UCI World Championships. Now, though, the organisers have decided to go longer, nudging the number of kilometres from 34.2 in Wollongong, Australia in 2022 to 39.2 in Montreal – it’s the longest course the women have ever faced since time trialling was introduced to the championships in 1994.

The elite women’s race against the clock once again acts as the curtain raiser, and will give us a first look at the route. Starting outside the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, home to the Montreal Alouettes football team (that’s Canadian football, not soccer), the course tips downhill through the city’s old town and into the port. The riders will then head south on Highway 10 along the bank of the St. Lawrence River, before crossing over the narrow ‘Ice Control Structure’, a bridge built in 1965 to control the flow of ice blocks – temperatures may be in their mid-teens in Montreal in September, but they can drop to around -25°C in the depth of winter.

From kilometre 13, the next 3km north along the river come on a canal path that, unless its been relaid with tarmac, will give the riders an unwelcome gravel stint. This cramped road leads into the most technical part of the course: a twisting 8km loop around the Gilles Villeneuve motor racing circuit, with kinks and U-turns that will slow the most powerful riders down to a grind.

After tracing back up through the port, the course reaches its finale with its only significant climb. Unfortunately for the riders, this comes at the very end, when their energy reserves will be at their lowest. The 2km drag isn’t the steepest, barely eking over 7%, but as it creeps up to the line beyond the football stadium, it will feel like an eternity.

It’s the same finish for all the time trials, including the junior, under-23 and mixed relay events. The latter sees three men and three women take on a 40.6km course, each trio completing 20.3km.

Tom Pidcock, Lauren Dickson and Zoe Bäckstedt will lead the British charge for rainbow glory at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Montréal, it was announced on Tuesday.

British Cycling revealed a 36-rider squad for the elite, under-23 and junior time trials and road races in Canada, with the Worlds beginning this Sunday, with the elite individual time trials.

There will be genuine hope for medals, with Pidcock in form, with two top 10 finishes at the GPs de Québec and Montréal last weekend, after he won the MTB Worlds earlier this month. He is aiming to win the elite men's road race, which takes place 27 September, with able support from Oscar Onley, recently best young rider at the Vuelta a España, and Adam Yates, a previous winner of the GP de Montréal.

Bäckstedt is currently one of the best time triallists in the world, winning four this season; the former under-23 and junior TT world champion will be aiming to at least podium. She will be joined in the road race by Dickson, who won her first pro race last weekend, stage four of the Faun Tour Femmes. The 26-year-old has impressed in her first full season at Women's WorldTour level, finishing third overall at Itzulia, and coming close to the top 10 at the Giro d'Italia Women.

The squad for the under-23 women's race, an individual event for a second year, includes Cat Ferguson, who hasn't raced since breaking her ankle at the Giro; the former junior world champion is part of a team which also includes Imogen Wolff.

Meanwhile, the elite men's time trial will be raced by two riders who podiumed in TTs at the recent Vuelta a España: Callum Thornley and Ethan Hayter.

"The road world championships are always one of the standout events in the cycling calendar, and we are excited to return with a highly competitive Great Britain Cycling Team squad," Stephen Park, GBCT performance director, said.

"This squad showcases the very best of British road racing, at a time when more British riders are making their mark across Europe and on the wider international stage than ever before. That progress is testament to the programmes and pathways we have in place, as well as the fierce domestic competition that continues to drive our pipeline of talent.

"We’re proud of the balance in this squad, from established world-class performers to riders taking the next step in their development, and we’re looking forward to seeing them test themselves against the very best in Montreal."

Full GB lineup for UCI Road World Championships 2026

Elite Men
Oscar Onley
Tom Pidcock
Finlay Pickering
Adam Yates
Fred Wright
Mark Donovan
James Shaw
Callum Thornley (TT)
Ethan Hayter (TT)

Elite Women
Anna Henderson
Anna Morris (TT)
Flora Perkins
Lauren Dickson
Pfeiffer Georgi
Zoe Bäckstedt (TT)

U23 Men
Ben Wiggins
Mattie Dodd
Elliot Rowe
Will Smith
Jacob Bush

U23 Women
Awen Roberts
Abi Miller
Cat Ferguson
Imogen Wolff
Morven Yeoman

Junior Men
Finlay Storrie
Evander Wishart
Leon Atkins
Dexter Townsend
Gus Dutton

Junior Women
Aalia Clay
Gabriella McHugh
Peggy Knox
Melanie Rowe
Zoe Roche

Tom Pidcock crossed the finish line of the GP de Montréal and puffed out his cheeks as he rolled to a stop next to the crowd’s clanging cowbells.

The WorldTour race provided a “super hard” dress rehearsal for the Pinarello Q36.5 leader. Using the same circuit as the World Championships road race, last Sunday’s 214km event allowed him to see the lap for the first time and gave an indication of the favourites.

Pidcock is one of them after carrying on his late summer momentum. He finished fourth in last Friday’s GP de Québec, won by Remco Evenepoel, and sixth in Montréal. “I was up there, I was racing. It was definitely worth coming [to Canada],” he told Cycling Weekly post-race.

Given his form, the saw-blade puncheur’s profile and the absence of Tadej Pogačar, next Sunday’s race could be Pidcock’s best opportunity yet of an elite road race rainbow jersey.

“Probably, but I don’t think it’s the biggest chance in the world,” he said. “We’ll see: you don’t need to be the strongest to win the Worlds. Well, in the past [you did], maybe now it’s different.”

No “Pogi” means a more open race. “Tadej is the hardest rider to beat and he’s not here. Then the next best rider is less hard to beat,” Pidcock said earlier in the week.

The 26-year-old was a protagonist in Montréal, making a couple of attacks, but he could not follow a decisive acceleration by Paul Seixas and Isaac del Toro. The UAE Team Emirates XRG star won, out-sprinting the French prodigy.

“I attacked quite early a few times, probably earlier than other guys,” Pidcock said. ‘You really need legs the last two laps on this course. But it didn’t make much difference: Seixas and Del Toro showed they were the strongest. I think they’re the favourites for the Worlds.”

“It is going to be incredibly attritional,” he added. “It could be a bit of a group behind, especially if the race is longer [273 kilometres in distance] – people won’t be able to make the difference with being explosive.”

Cohesion and strength-in-depth will be important assets. Although Great Britain’s line-up was yet to be announced on Sunday, Pidcock told CW that Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) would be competing with him.

“It’s a good course for me, I’ve done well in the WorldTour race before,” 2023 GP de Montréal winner Yates told CW ahead of finishing 13th in this year’s edition. “I put my hand up [for it], we’ll have a good team and give it a crack.”

Asked whether he would be sole leader or co-leader, the veteran said: “We’re never going to be there as number one favourite so the more bodies you have in front in the final, the better your chance.”

Remco Evenepoel has emerged as the clear favourite to reclaim the world road race title he won four years ago after an electrifying performance at the GP Québec.

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe man escaped the group of favourites in the closing laps alongside Lidl-Trek’s Giulio Ciccone and Uno-X Mobility’s Anton Charmig, before dispatching his companions on the final climb to the line.

Evenepoel rode with boldness on a route that is usually suited to the puncheurs of the peloton, although a new final for 2026 helped to swing the pendulum back towards the climbers. He will now attempt to claim victory at the GP Montréal on Sunday, before aiming to win the world championships time-trial for the fourth time in succession and take his second road title the week after.

"I need to stay calm and take it day by day because Sunday is another day,” he said after the race. “Then it's next Sunday, and the Sunday after. It's a big two weeks ahead for me."

The 26-year-old last won the road race rainbow jersey in 2022 in Wollongong, Australia. With Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) concluding his season early following a crash at the Vuelta a España, Evenepoel's stock has risen considerably.

"This weekend was the goal to do as good as possible twice, and it's a pretty good start, I must say," he added during his winner’s press conference.

"I think I still have a bit of work to do. This weekend, I really wanted to use it to find the best sensations. It’s clear I wasn’t on a bad day, otherwise you don’t win here, but personally, I didn’t feel like it was really my best day on the bike. So I think it’s clear there’s still a bit of room for improvement," he said.

"There are still two weeks before the road race, so I’m really going to use this weekend to take a step forward, then follow it up with the time trial, and then another week to do specific training. But clearly it was good, because otherwise you don’t win."

While Evenepoel is clearly in the ascendancy, several of his would-be rivals for the road race struggled in Québec.

Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) will be tending to his wounds after crashing in the final sprint from the chasing group. He appeared to overlap wheels with Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM); the young Frenchman unable to make an impact on the race, although the course in Montréal will suit him better.

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was another who found the going tough, languishing at the back of the group during the final circuits. The Mexican has spent time training at altitude in Colorado ahead of the Worlds, but faltered in his first Canadian race, finishing more than five minutes down on Evenepoel.

Briton Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), fresh from his XCO World Championship victory in Val di Sile, looked in better form. Pidcock finished in fourth place having attacked the Ayuso-Seixas group on the final rise to the line.

Although victory at GP Québec will be a confidence boost for the Olympic champion, his dominance over the next two weeks is far from assured. All the top favourites have been away on various training camps which can deaden the legs on return to racing. It could be that the likes of Del Toro, Seixas and others feel the benefit of the work they have put in in a fortnight’s time.

The 2026 UCI road world championships begin in Montréal on the 20th of September with the elite time-trials. The road races for women and men will take place on the 26th and 27th of September respectively.

While success in modern pro cycling requires an immense amount of work and planning, acting on the spur of the moment goes a long way too.

Powered by such spontaneity, Tom Pidcock stunned himself last Sunday.

After winning the MTB XCO World Championships in come-from-behind fashion at Val di Sole, the GP Industria & Artigianato one-day road race was hastily added to his schedule impromptu while he was barely off his flat-bar steed.

He went there to find his road legs, two months after his last hit-out on the tarmac, and left with another trophy in his carry-on luggage.

“That was kind of a surprise win. The momentum is nice, but I’ll take what comes. I’m just relaxed,” he told Cycling Weekly and other media in Québec on Wednesday night.

His back-to-back successes came despite a “hard road” from the Tour de France to his latest rainbow jersey.

“After the Tour, it was a bit weird feelings in general. I didn’t rush, I didn’t push myself, I trained hard the last few weeks before the MTB Worlds,” the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider said. “It took me a long time to feel good again. Longer than any other grand tour [has before]. It was three weeks really, we were just trying to build up some hours at a lower intensity.”

Making his debut in the brace of Canadian WorldTour events, Friday’s GP de Québec on Friday and GP de Montréal on Sunday provide opportunities to “carry on the momentum”. They are a puncheur’s paradise, defined by steep climbs that do not exceed two kilometres.

Pidcock will also have a valuable chance to race the lap on which the World Championships road race (27 September) will be decided by 12 circuits over Mont Royal, 1.6 kilometres at 7.7% gradient.

“It’s more of a goal,” Pidcock said of the World Championships. “Last year’s course didn’t suit me that well, this one suits me quite well. The Worlds is always going to be about [who has] the legs.”

The eight-strong Great Britain elite men’s line-up is yet to be announced, but Pidcock offered a sneak peek of the leading compatriots alongside him.

“We’ve been hit quite hard with people getting injured so I don’t know what the final team will be,” Pidcock said. “But I think we’ll have me, Adam [Yates] and Oscar [Onley], we have some pretty nice depth there, people who can play offensive roles.”

Relaxed and riding a wave of confidence; spearheading a strong team on a course that plays to his strengths; racing in a Tadej Pogačar-free peloton – this might just be Pidcock’s best chance of winning an elite road rainbow jersey.

“It opens the race up a lot,” he said of Pogačar’s absence. “I think everyone knows when Tadej is here, he and his team will dictate the race. Now I think it will be more, dare I say it, interesting, exciting.”

Although Pidcock has won five races on the road in 2026, despite missing several weeks of competition after a crash into a ravine at the Volta a Catalunya, he is not satisfied with his season.

“It would be nice to win a WorldTour race,” he said. “This season started well, then it was a bit crap in the middle. The Tour was good considering everything, but still I didn’t do that much. I want to try to finish the year off [well].”

Racing on the front foot in France at times, Pidcock came close to a stage win at the sport’s most prestigious race, his chances dented on stage nine by mechanical problems, and finished ninth overall.

His attacking, opportunistic nature can seem at odds with a GC contender’s need to weigh efforts carefully and race conservatively over three weeks. Grand tours do not strike as his most natural domain.

“It’s not the thing I enjoy the most, but it’s something I accept I need to do and try and do my best in,” Pidcock said. “I really enjoyed the Vuelta last year [where he finished third], that was good fun. The Tour was obviously a different beast, but this year was better, more enjoyable.”

The Briton’s road programme goes full bore to the end of the year, with the Giro dell’Emilia, Tre Valli Varesine and Il Lombardia before a planned Tour of Guangxi debut.

“We have team camp the week after Il Lombardia, so otherwise I’m going to have a week that I can’t do anything so might as well race that week!”

Whatever happens in Canada, another world title seems certain for a British champion who gives himself options because of his aplomb in road, MTB, gravel and cyclo-cross.

While there will be no trip to Australia next month for the Gravel World Championships, Pidcock mentioned wanting to go for that race when it suits him better.

Although he does not think he’ll compete in cyclo-cross this winter, Pidcock added he “thinks he would” come back to the discipline if it got a place in the Winter Olympics.

Given the IOC’s May announcement that it will not be in the 2030 Games, he and CX fans will likely be in for a minimum eight-year wait.

“Project Canada”, as he dubbed it on Strava during training, is go for Remco Evenepoel.

In the absence of Tadej Pogačar, the Belgian superstar is the man to beat. He could make history later this month in Montréal by becoming the first elite male rider to win the World Championships time trial and road race in the same year.

First, he wants to add Friday’s Grand Prix de Québec and Sunday’s Grand Prix de Montréal to his packed palmarès. He has crossed the Atlantic looking lean and keen, adapting himself more for the short, sharp hills which characterise the one-day races.

“I think it’s clear you need to have a bit more explosiveness for them, so we wanted that. We’ve trained a bit more on the sprint,” he said, speaking to the media on Wednesday night in Québec, a light blue cap worn backwards on his head.

Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s leader has not raced since winning the Clásica de San Sebastián on 1 August, spending three and a half weeks at altitude in the Italian town of Livigno. Only coming down from his lofty preparation perch a few days ago, Evenepoel is unsure how his body will react.

“He [coach Tim Heemskerk] told me I shouldn’t panic if one of these races doesn’t go so good,” he said.

“It’s always a bit different, harder to manage the fatigue and sessions [after altitude], but in general, everything went well. There’s still a bit of time, more than two weeks, to be in the best possible form for the World Championships.”

The absence of Tadej Pogačar, recovering from the broken collarbone sustained at the Vuelta a España, will give the Canadian events a different flavour.

“I’ve been there too; in 2020, I was in good form, I won everything and then I missed the start of the Worlds [after a serious crash in Il Lombardia], and then someone else takes it,” he said.

“It changes the race a lot, but that’s how it is now. You have to take your chance and push for victory. When Tadej is there, everyone wants to defend or just follow him. It’s not easy. You need to come up with new tactics.”

Competing in the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal double-header for the first time since 2019, he is keen to find his “best legs and best sensations” in a return to competition.

Evenepoel stressed that the WorldTour one-day races are more than mere amuse-bouches for the rainbow jersey main courses. “I’m coming in with a lot of ambition: these are races I’ve never won and I’d like to add them to my palmarès,” he said, adding later: “Why not win them both?”

You can hardly blame Evenepoel for feeling confident. As well as quietening a few naysayers, second place to Pogačar at the Tour de France reinforced his ambitions to add the sport’s blue riband race and the Giro d’Italia to his stuffed palmarès.

“I think I proved to myself and also to everyone else – I’ve won the Vuelta, been on the Tour podium twice. The results are there – I’ve got a future in the grand tours.

“I always believed that, I think there were some who didn’t. That gave me a lot of motivation for the Tour with a very specific, very precise preparation without a lot of racing … the dream to win the three grand tours is still there.”

Evenepoel is the original 2020s prodigy, a young force of nature who has lived up to the hype created when he swept through junior races like the second coming of Eddy Merckx.

Given he went straight from competing against 17-year-olds to beating adult pros for Quick Step as a teenager, he could see the irony of being asked about Michael Matthews’ assertion that riders turn pro in the WorldTour too young.

“It’s not down to me to say because I was one of the first to go straight from the junior ranks,” he said, smiling. “There are a lot who turn pro with zero junior wins, or one or two races. Me, I won 37 or 38 out of 45 … it’s true that young riders turn pro a lot quicker than before. But they already live like pros with their nutrition, training, the power meter – they’re a lot more prepared than I was back in the day. I didn’t have a power meter or nutritionist, it was really done by feel.”

“I think that’s a bit problematic now because when they get to the pro ranks, that’s when the sacrifices really need to be made. And after some years, we see some young riders cracking mentally because they don’t know how to make those sacrifices anymore.”

There will be plenty of sacrifices made in the World Championships road race in Montréal, with Belgian teammates burying themselves for their captain.

Visma-Lease a Bike rider Wout van Aert has also been selected, offering a potential Plan B. The squad will need to be united and well-drilled as other nations may will look to expose any weaknesses.

“He’s found good form at the right moment, it’s also a while until the road race so he has to keep it,” Evenepoel said of his compatriot, who has two Vuelta stage wins. “But I think he has the experience to handle that period between the Vuelta and the World Championships road race. It’s nice to see he’s ready.”

If you want to win a bike race, you'll need a few things. Good legs, most importantly, but among the rest, good luck also ranks high up the list. Some riders seem to have no end of it, and until a week ago you would probably have counted Tadej Pogačar among them. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was not exactly immune to crashing (remember his broken wrist at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023?), but his Grand Tours have generally been untroubled by major upsets.

That run ended last month on stage eight of the Vuelta a España when Pogačar crashed heavily, taken out by a stone while drinking from a bidon on an otherwise innocuous piece of road. The toll was heavy: broken collarbone, concussion, multiple abrasions and a cervical fracture – all of which saw him leave the race, and, at the weekend, announce that his season was over.

“Of course, this isn’t the way I wanted my season to finish," said Pogačar in the team announcement. "Right now, the most important thing is to recover properly and give my body the time it needs. It has been a season with many special moments and I’m proud of what we achieved together. Now I’ll focus on getting healthy, supporting the guys from home, and coming back next year ready for what’s ahead.”

It's an announcement that puts to bed any thoughts of the Slovenian expediting his recovery to line up at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, Canada later this month.

Let's be clear – a great champion having to miss a race through injury never increases its value, it only detracts. There isn't a rider on the Worlds start list (or currently riding the Vuelta), who would wish a bad crash upon Pogačar in order to help their own chances of winning. When Movistar's Enric Mas took over the lead of the Spanish tour after Pogačar's exit, he did so very reluctantly. He would of course have preferred to have earned it fair and square.

But bike racing is messy at times, and crashing is part of it. Pogačar's absence has, without a doubt, opened up the Vuelta, and it's opened up the Worlds. There is now a sizeable list of riders feeling as though their chance of securing gold in the men's road race on September 27 has bettered – even if it's not a situation they would have chosen beforehand.

It's a classic Worlds course. Long (273km long) and attritional, featuring 12 laps of a hilly 13.4km city-centre loop, and a final tally of 3,803m of vertical ascent. Brutal – and just the sort of parcours that Tour of Flanders, Il Lombardia, Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Pogačar would have revelled in.

But without the big favourite there, we have a phalanx of hopefuls for whom the dream just became a bit more real.

At the top of the tree is surely 2023 champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) who, on a course like this, could have been considered right behind Pogačar on the favourites list. There's also Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), second in the Tour de France this year and another former winner. Then there are wunderkinds Paul Seixas (France) and Isaac Del Toro (Mexico) – the latter of whom will be contending for his nation's first ever win in the race. Double Vuelta stage winner Wout van Aert (Belgium) will also be lining up next to his compatriot Evenepoel, while new mountain bike cross-country world champion Tom Pidcock will be hoping to add a second concurrent title to his palmarès.

Who will win? Who knows. At least not now. Van der Poel and Evenepoel might readily carry the 'favourites' tag with Pogačar out of the picture, but a distance of 270-plus kilometres, plus all that climbing, tends to lead to an all-bets-off kind of scenario. It may even be none of the above, and that is perhaps what is exciting about this year's Worlds – there's no clear favourite.

As arguably the best rider in the history of bike racing, Pogačar will undoubtedly have his day again next season, and we wish him the best with that. For now though, as he sits this one out, a level of unpredictability has been injected into the race that wasn't there before. Let's enjoy it.

USA Cycling today announced the team that’ll vie for the rainbow stripes in Montreal, Canada, later this month.

U.S. road race champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) will lead the elite squads, with former mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney (FDJ United-Suez) making her UCI Road World Championships debut.

Taking place 20-27 September, 39 U.S. riders will compete across the elite, under-23 and junior road races and time trials.

Simmons, the 2019 junior road world champion, will be joined by fellow WorldTour riders Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Sean Quinn (EF Education - EasyPost), Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Artem Shmidt (Netcompany INEOS). Shmidt earned places in both the road race and individual time trial after winning the 2026 elite national time trial title. Larry Warbasse of Tudor Pro Cycling Team rounds out the men's elite roster.

While Simmons will lead the team, McNulty is another rider to watch. Last season, the Arizona native won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal ahead of teammate Tadej Pogačar, completing a historic one-two on roads that will also feature in the Worlds course.

Faulkner will race both the elite women’s road race and time trial. She won two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics – one in the road race and another with the U.S. team-pursuit squad – and will be a threat in a breakaway as well as in the race against the clock. The course, however, may be better suited to Kate Courtney.

Courtney will make her Road World Championships debut after winning the 2026 U.S. road title, though she's best-known for her mountain bike career. She won the elite cross-country world championship in 2018, the UCI World Cup overall title in 2019 and the marathon world championship in 2025. She made a switch to the road in 2026 and, in July, made a surprise announcement about joining top-tier road team FDJ United-Suez, bringing longtime sponsor Red Bull along for the move.

Taylor Knibb, a two-time Olympic triathlete and U.S. national time trial champion, will also make her road worlds debut in Montreal, albeit in the time trial. Knibb won an Olympic silver medal in the triathlon mixed relay in Tokyo and competed in both the time trial and triathlon at the Paris Games.

The women’s roster also includes Alexis Magner (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), Natalie Quinn (Mayenne Pro Cycling), national gravel champion Lauren Stephens (Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) and Grace Arlandson (Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment).

USA Cycling’s development selections are led by eight 2026 national champions, including Ashlin Barry (Visma - Lease a Bike Development), Kade Kreikemeier (Meridian Racing), Katherine Sarkisov (CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling), Kylee Hanel (Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) and Enzo Hincapie (grenke - Auto Eder).

Team USA at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal

Elite Men:

• Matteo Jorgenson (Boise, Idaho; Visma | Lease A Bike) – Road Race
• Brandon McNulty (Phoenix, Ariz.; UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Neilson Powless (Roseville, Calif.; EF Education-EasyPost) – Road Race
• Sean Quinn (Los Angeles, Calif.; EF Education-EasyPost) – Road Race
• Artem Shmidt (Cumming, Ga.; Netcompany INEOS) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Quinn Simmons (Durango, Colo.; Lidl-Trek) – Road Race
• Kevin Vermaerke (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – Road Race
• Larry Warbasse (Traverse City, Mich.; Tudor Pro Cycling Team) – Road Race

Elite Women:

• Grace Arlandson (Boulder, Colo.; Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) – Road Race
• Kate Courtney (Kenfield, Calif.; FDJ United-Suez) – Road Race
• Kristen Faulkner (Homer, Alaska; EF-Oatly-Cannondale) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Taylor Knibb (Boulder, Colo.) – Time Trial
• Alexis Magner (Athens, Ga.; EF-Oatly-Cannondale) – Road Race
• Natalie Quinn (Harrisville, Utah; Mayenne Pro Cycling) – Road Race
• Lauren Stephens (Dallas; Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) – Road Race

U23 Men:

• Ashlin Barry (Toronto, Ont.; Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Nathan Cusack (Chevy Chase, Md.; EF Education-Aevolo) – Road Race
• Kade Kreikemeier (Fort Collins, Colo.; Meridian Racing) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Marcis Shelton (Mill Valley, Calif.; Comp Edge Rading) – Road Race
• Gavin Sherry (West Hartford, Conn.; EF Education-Aevolo) – Road Race

U23 Women

• Mia Aseltine (Littleton, Colo.; Comp Edge Racing) – Road Race
• Lidia Cusack (Chevy Chase, Md.; Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Kylee Hanel (Portland, Ore.; Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Alyssa Sarkisov (North Potomic, Md.; CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) – Road Race
• Katherine Sarkisov (North Potomic, Md.; CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) – Road Race

Junior Men:

• Kashus Adamski (Bloomfield, Mich.; Hot Tubes Cycling) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Sylvan Garrelts (Brooklyn, N.Y.; Hot Tubes Cycling) – Road Race
• Enzo Hincapie (Greenville, S.C.; grenke - Auto Eder) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Cormac Nagle (Bolton, Mass.; Hot Tubes Cycling) – Road Race
• Rowan Nistal (Boise, Idaho; Bear National Team) – Road Race

Junior Women:

• Liliana Edwards (Washington, D.C.; CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Emma Jimenez Palos (Miami, Fla.; City Bikes) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Sofia Tripcevich (Berkeley, Calif.; Team California Academy) – Road Race
• Sophia Wellmeier (Corta Madera, Calif.; Team California Academy) – Road Race

Eighty two minutes. That’s how long Muriel Furrer lay undiscovered off the side of the road after she crashed during the junior women’s road race at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zürich. By the time the 18-year-old was found and given medical assistance, it was too late. She died of a traumatic head injury. We’ll never know if earlier intervention would have prevented the tragic death, but we do know that for almost an hour and a half, the Swiss rider was missing and alone.

Eighteen months on, the investigation into her death has been closed, according to the public prosecutor's office in Zürich. No third-party involvement or "criminally relevant breach of duty" was found. Furrer crashed alone on a descent, unseen, “out of sight of support vehicles, race officials, spectators, and marshals,” the report read. With no tracking equipment employed, and no race radios, there was no immediate sense that anything had gone wrong, until it became clear that it really had.

I was in Zürich that day, covering the World Championships. There was no immediate evidence that anything was wrong. Cat Ferguson won the race on the Thursday, and I interviewed her in the mixed zone afterwards, unaware that on the course, Furrer was fighting for her life. Given the timeframe, it is likely she had not been found at this point. We were informed hours later by the UCI that she was in a critical condition, with little known about the incident. The next day, we were first told that the Worlds would continue as planned, then that she had died.

The rest of the week was strange, as if we were just going through the motions. Nothing mattered once someone had died, but the show went on. Lotte Kopecky and Tadej Pogačar won the blue riband events, on the same course where Furrer crashed days before. What was supposed to be a festival of cycling felt empty; watching fans cheer left me cold.

At a press conference the day after she died, UCI president David Lappartient sidestepped questions on what could have been done differently, and downplayed the idea of race radios in Worlds events. It felt defensive, rather than understanding and sad. A race radio might not have saved Furrer, but who’s to say? Surely everything should be done to give riders support. Last week, Tom Pidcock said his race radio saved him after he crashed off the road at the Volta a Catalunya, something he was lucky to escape from without more serious injuries.

Cycling is a dangerous sport, one in which serious accidents happen. It takes place in the real world, not on closed circuits, and everything from weather to road defects can have an impact. Furrer’s death was more shocking than others, not just because she was so young, but because it took place at the UCI’s biggest event, on a circuit course, with the eyes of the world on it. If this race can’t be safe, what can be?

The investigation essentially concludes that this was a freak accident, which it was, but Furrer is not the only cyclist to die. In the last few years alone, there have been other high-profile incidents, like Gino Mäder’s at the Tour de Suisse, and Andre Dregé’s at the Tour of Austria. Both riders died after crashing on descents.

Some things have changed. The UCI has introduced GPS rider tracking for everyone at the Worlds, but this is yet to expand to all elite races. There has been a lot of fiddling around the edges, with new rules either in practice or floated on things like handlebars, helmets and gear ratios, but nothing revolutionary. Rider airbags have been suggested, but not implemented yet.

Accidents will continue in cycling, serious ones, it is part of the sport, sadly. However, I hope that no rider has to go through something like Furrer did ever again, missing, undiscovered. It might have been a freak accident, but it’s something we can’t let happen again. I hope lessons continue to be learned.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

The investigation into the death of Muriel Furrer at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zürich has been closed by Swiss authorities, it was announced on Monday.

The Swiss junior rider, 18, suffered a serious head injury after crashing in the women's junior road race on 26 September 2024, and died after being airlifted to hospital. She lay undiscovered for approximately 82 minutes after the accident took place, according to authorities.

Eighteen months on, the case has been closed, acccording to the public prosector's office in Zürich. No third-party involvement or "criminally relevant breach of duty" was found.

A press release, published on Monday, reads: "Based on the police investigation, the cyclist's crash is considered a racing accident with no evidence of criminal conduct or contributory negligence on the part of the organiser, other race participants, or third parties. The accident occurred at approximately 11:04am., out of sight of support vehicles, race officials, spectators, and marshals.

"The injured cyclist lay hidden in the undergrowth and was not visible from the road. As was customary at previous editions of this World Cycling Championship, live tracking of all athletes was not used at the event. Therefore, the sudden disappearance of an athlete was not automatically reported. Due to these circumstances, the injured cyclist was not discovered until 12:26pm."

It continues: "According to the investigation, the first emergency responders arrived at the scene of the accident just minutes after the cyclist was found and immediately began providing initial medical care. This was followed by the rescue of the seriously injured cyclist from the undergrowth and preparations for her transport to the hospital.

"No evidence of any criminally relevant breaches of duty was found, either in connection with the time-consuming rescue operation or with the subsequent medical care at the University Hospital Zurich."

The 2024 Road World Championships continued as planned, at Furrer's family's request. In 2025, the UCI retired her dossard number 84 from the starting roster in future junior women's road Worlds. All riders at last year's Worlds raced with GPS trackers.

Furrer finished second in both the junior road race and time trial at Switzerland's national championships in 2024, and finished 44th in the junior time trial at the Worlds that year. It was her second and final year at junior level.

She rode for BIXS Performance Race Team, a Swiss mountain bike squad, and also competed in cyclo-cross, in which she also finished second in the Swiss nationals in 2023/4. Furrer was from Egg, just to the south of Zürich.

"Safety is not so easy, and this is why teams, organisers, and the UCI work together on this, and not to throw potatoes from one side to the other," UCI president David Lappartient said in a press conference after the incident in 2024. "Our common goal is to ensure safer cycling, because otherwise parents will be afraid to send their kids to practise cycling."

We could have all hazarded a guess, but now it has been confirmed that the 2028 Abu Dhabi World Championship will be one for the sprinters.

The construction of an artificial cycling climb at Al Wathba had thrown some off the scent, including Belgian fastman Tim Merlier, who expressed concern that the current generation of sprinters would never get their chance at a rainbow jersey.

But Belgian UCI director Peter van den Abeele this weekend told Belgian outlet Sporza that the sprinters would have their day.

"The flat World Championships are coming," he said. "It will definitely be a sprinters' Worlds."

In fact it will be by decree from the very top: "It was President David Lappartient's request to make it a sprinters' festival. It's been a while since there's been a World Championship for sprinters," Van den Abeele said.

The artificial hill being constructed nearby was for cycle touring purposes, he said, and nothing for riders like Merlier, Jonathan Milan, Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay to worry about.

Merlier had said: “Every generation of sprinters should get at least one real chance at a world title. I fear that chance will never come for me.” And he expressed concern too about the artificial climb which he said could be seen growing bigger every year at the UAE Tour.

It has been nine years since the men's World Championships was won in a big bunch sprint, when Peter Sagan took a third consecutive title on a Bergen course that was far from flat. And it was 10 years ago, in Doha, that the women's Worlds were last decided in the same fashion, when Denmark's Amalie Dideriksen prevailed on a billiard-table-flat Doha course.

Go back 15 years ago or more and flat, sprinters' courses are much more popular. Mark Cavendish took GB's first Worlds win since Tom Simpson in 1965 in Copenhagen, and Giorgia Bronzini won the women's race, also in a bunch sprint. Then there was 2002 on the Zolder motor racing circuit, won by Mario Cipollini, and Spaniard Oscar Freire's sprint victory in Lisbon the year before that – though neither of these events ended in a bunch sprint for the women.

There were 63 men's and Women's WorldTour events in 2025, a whole range of races for exciting things to happen in. The truth is, I'm sure just like me, you don't remember most of them. If I concentrate hard enough, I can remember the Tours de France, and the ones I was at, but there are whole stage races which are a bit of a blur.

Do not worry then, for we're going to talk you through our favourite races of year, from the spectacular to the unexpected – hopefully some of these should jog your memory.

This is the penultimate piece in a series of pieces where we have compiled thoughts from across the CW staff about 2025, after our riders of the year, moments of the year, our alternative riders of the year, our bike rides of the year and our favourite places to ride full stop. Please let us know your thoughts!

Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer

Will they, won’t they? My jaw hit the floor a number of times while watching cycling this year, but none harder than when I realised Lotte Claes and Aurela Nero were going to stay away at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Neither rider had won a professional race before that March afternoon. Suddenly, each of them had a one-in-two chance of a WorldTour victory, and a key Classic at that.

Yes, the peloton probably miscalculated the chase; yes, there were some frustrated riders at the finish; but let that take nothing away from Arkéa B&B Hotels’ Claes, who wrote her name into legend at the line in Ninove. It would take another three and a half minutes until the group of favourites rolled in. It doesn’t happen often, but I love it when a doomed move pays off.

That race reminded me that, just when you think cycling might be getting predictable, the most dramatic, incredible things can happen.

Men's Dwars door Vlaanderen – Adam Becket, news editor

From a final group of four at Dwars door Vlaanderen in April, three in the yellow of Visma-Lease a Bike, Neilson Powless in pink somehow won. The slumped heads of Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert said it all as they crossed the line.

No-one could blame them, really, for not understanding what had happened. After 184.2km of hard racing, in which the race-winning move had been set up around 80km from finish by Visma-Lease a Bike, who would have bet against the men in yellow? Van Aert was there, a man who has won bunch sprints of almost every kind, as well as Classics before. However, something weird happened when the Belgian opened up his sprint in Waregem. He just couldn't get up to speed. Powless, sprinting for his life, could, coming around Van Aert and into cycling immortality.

It was a reminder of how mad cycling is sometimes. It's not always predictable.

Men's junior road race at the World Championships – Hannah Bussey, tech writer

The men's junior road race at the World Championships was the biggest standout race for me. Harry Hudson made such an audacious move— got away and then just kept going. The only way that stuck is due to his 100 percent commitment to self-belief.

There is no way you can watch the last two and a half kilometers of that race without getting chills, with tears welling up, and the thought that he might actually do it and become the first British Men's Junior World Champion.

To see the rest of the GB lads still in the mix at the end also feels like a real showcase for the future generation of cyclists coming through the ranks right now.

Despite all the turmoil in the sport and cycling industry, this race was just pure joy to watch, even if it was a little tear-jerking towards the end. It's the happily-ever-after result most cyclists dream of, and it's so amazing to see someone's fairy tale come true.

Paris-Roubaix – Jamie Williams, video manager

Few races can get the heart going like a monument and this year Paris-Roubaix had everything a classic should: early attacks, crosswinds, crashes and a nail biting finale.

I was also extremely pleased to see Mathieu van der Poel come out on top, not because I don’t like Pogacar but rather because it now means he’s going to have to return next year to do it all over again, no one should win Roubaix on their debut!

Strade Bianche – Aaron Borrill, tech writer

It’s lived in the shadows of the older monuments for nearly two decades, but Strade Bianche has become one of the most beautiful races to watch, both for the physical challenge it presents and the sheer scenes it offers viewers. It’s my favourite race on the calendar.

From the glorious Tuscan hills, the sterrato or white gravel roads and epic dust left behind by the peloton or those brave enough to float off the front, there’s never a dull moment. And then you add Tadej Pogačar. It’s pure theatre.

Tour de France – James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer

This season saw me out working at Opening Weekend and at the Tour de France. As any race fan who has stood at the roadside cheering the riders on, or mingled with them around the start and finish areas knows, there's little substitute for that first person experience when it comes to connecting with a race.

Ergo, it will come as no surprise that for me the Tour was easily the most memorable race of the year for me. I wasn't in France for the entire race – only the third week, but from Mont Ventoux to Paris that week was a gift that kept on giving.

Memorable performances from double-winner Thymen Arensman, sprinter Jonathan Milan and Wout van Aert were of course underlined by a history-making GC victory from Tadej Pogacar. Once again, La Grande Boucle had delivered.

The Lloyds Tour of Britain Men – Meg Elliot, news and features writer

This was the first race I went to as a Cycling Weekly employee! It was, I was reliably informed, one of the most well attended the Tour had ever seen. Everyone was out in Geraint Thomas masks to welcome him home on his last professional race.

We watched the peloton form a guard of honour for the Welshman in rainy Newport before the race began, then hot footed it over to Cardiff to chat to people waiting to cheer Thomas across the line. One man I spoke to bought him dinner once after spotting him in a restaurant in Grangetown.

“To come from Maindy as a young lad and then win the Tour de France as well is incredible,” another guy told me, kids in tow.

Milan-San Remo - Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer

Despite its usual ‘predictable’ finish and pointless first 250-plus kilometres, Milan-San Remo had one of the most iconic finishes the race has ever seen. Thanks yet again to one Tadej Pogačar. His fifth swing at trying to add the monument to his ever-growing list of palmarès, however, again ended in a podium but no cigar.

There is one moment that will live with me forever in this ‘Tadej’ era, though, in which Pogačar himself, Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna were clear at the top of the Cipressa and racing for the win. It gives me shivers to think about it now.

Let us not forget what Van der Poel did on this day, either, for he will now be forever known in history as the one who denied Tadej again.

As surprise World Championships winners go, there can be few more eyebrow-raising than Canada's new elite champion, Magdeleine Vallieres. The 24-year-old won in Kigali on Saturday after attacking on the final climb and holding off Niamh Fisher-Black and Mavi García to win by 23 seconds.

The longest pre-race odds on Vallieres stretched to 400-1, giving some indication of the strength of her outsider status. Not since part-time racer Anna Kiesenhofer won the road race at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 has a rider so unknown won such a famous event.

And that was relatively recently. In reality, major upsets like this at big events are relatively few and far between.

We looked back through the World Championships record books to spot some of the minnows that won in this particular big pond.

Mads Pedersen (Den)

Harrogate, UK | 2022

These days we know Mads Pedersen well as a sprinter-rouleur who can win everything from early-season Classics to Tour de France bunch sprints. But back in 2019, a 23-year-old Pedersen was a rider very much on the periphery of the WorldTour elite.

His palmarès was far from empty – he had already notched up 11 victories, many of them using what we now understand is his seriously big engine to break away and win solo, or in time trials.

But few had him pinned as the winner on that wet day in Yorkshire at the end of the 2019 season.

After what was described by Cycling Weekly as a "shock victory", the 23-year-old said: "I'm finished with being the underdog."

He wasn't wrong.

Amalie Dideriksen (Den)

Doha, Qatar | 2016

As she lined up for the World Championships at Doha 2016, the then-20-year-old Amalie Dideriksen already knew what it was to be a champion. She had won the Danish national road champs twice already – the first time just a month after turning 18.

The nationals is one thing – but the step up to World Championships level from there is huge. Nobody expected her to run out the victor, seeing off former and future world champions Marianne Vos and Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak and outgunning race favourite Kirsten Wild in the sprint.

Contrary to her compatriot Pedersen though, Dideriksen's victory did not launch a world-beating career, and although she has won a number of races since including the WorldTour Ronde van Drenthe, her results generally continued a similar low-key vein to those pre-rainbow jersey.

Tatiana Guderzo (Ita)

Mendrisio, Switzerland | 2009

Another Marianne Vos-beating outsider was Tatiana Guderzo in 2009. Her outsider status was tempered by the fact she'd won a bronze medal at the previous year's Olympic road race in Beijing, but in 2009 she had only finished higher than fifth in a pro race on one occasion pre-Worlds – a stage win in the Giro della Toscane. The year before, she had scored a single victory, in her national time trial championships.

But Guderzo put her racing nous and climbing ability into action against the world's best, including Vos who, incredibly, had already been world champ once – back in 2006.

Guderzo attacked on the second last climb of the 124km course, and despite Vos's best efforts, hung on for a 19-sec win.

The Italian did not trouble the Worlds podium again for nearly 10 years and it remains the biggest win of her career by some distance. However, in an impressive resurgence she managed two further Worlds bronze medals in 2018 and 2020. She retired at the end of 2022.

Romāns Vainšteins (Lat)

Plouay, France | 2000

If you were looking for a textbook example of the notorious 'curse of the rainbow jersey', you need look no further than Latvia's Romāns Vainšteins. He won the World Championships road race back in 2000, at Plouay, France.

At the end of a 269km course that featured an eye-watering 38 classified climbs, Vainsteins outsprinted the rest of the field, including third-placed defending champion Oscar Freire of Spain, who would go on to win again the following year.

So far so good for Vainsteins. But the bare facts were that the majority of his career wins were already behind him.

The following year he came close in both Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, but his only victories came on stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta Catalunya. His next win was two years later – a stage in the Giro della Provincia di Lucca. It was the final one of his career.

Mandy Jones (GBR)

Goodwood, UK | 1982

Britain's Mandy Bishop (née Jones) is often referred to as the 'accidental' world champion. Which is entirely unfair of course, as there was absolutely nothing accidental about her victory at Goodwood in 1982.

She might have been up against a handful of world-class favourites for the win, but Jones herself was no stranger to crossing the line first. She had won the British National Championships road race the year before and only days after her World Championships win at Goodwood went on to win the National Championships time trial.

But with Coors Classic champion – also a four-time US road champ – and future Tour de France Féminin winner Maria Canins of Italy both in tow, Jones was not at the top of most people's contenders lists.

Which is perhaps in part how she managed to escape the front runners with a relatively soft attack as the race crested the final climb and began descending.

However, as her rivals found out, Jones was a handy time triallist as well as a fine climber. Once she was away nobody could catch her.

Lance Armstrong (USA)

Oslo, Norway | 1993

Perhaps there is something in the Belgian water, because of the top 10 youngest riders ever to have won the men's World Championships road race, seven of them have come from this small cycling heartland in northern Europe. Two of them, though, happen to be a pair of rather well known American bike riders.

Greg Lemond is one of them – a surprise enough himself when he won in 1983, although he was already building a useful palmarès.

The other is Lance Armstrong who, at 21 years at 345 days, was the youngest rider in 23 years and the third youngest ever to win the World Championships when he triumphed in a wringing-wet Oslo, Norway in 1993.

His win, in what was his first full season at pro level, was also a bolt from the blue. It's also worth stating that it is one of the few major victories that he has not been stripped of for doping offences.

On the hilly 257km course, Armstrong outgunned a host of well-established stars of the Grand Tours and Classics, including then-triple Tour de France winner Miguel Induráin, soon-to-be Classics legend Johan Museeuw and former world champion Maurizio Fondriest (who incidentally is the final rider in that top-10 youngest winners list).

Armstrong escaped in the driving rain to win solo by 19 seconds. Back then it was just the start of a career that is now very much history.

I don’t love golf. In my experience, it’s largely a stuffy sport for men I don’t really hang out with – aside from some notable exceptions. It’s also a great way of spoiling nature, and in the UK, takes up a lot of private land. However, over the weekend I found myself captivated by the Ryder Cup, which seems to be like golf, except with all the boring bits ejected. Rather than playing as individuals, they play as Europe vs the USA, they wear different kits than usual, and they play in a format they don’t normally use. It’s not normal golf, and that’s what makes it fun, even if it is a bit confusing.

I hope this is how outsiders see cycling’s UCI Road World Championships. It’s every year as opposed to the Ryder Cup’s biennial occurrence, but it is always a welcome difference. Unlike almost every race a year, there are no trade teams, riders use different kits, teams are national mashups, no race radios, and a brand new unique course is used. It isn’t normal cycling, it’s chaos, and that’s why I love it so much.

It throws up unexpected scenarios, like Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres’ victory in the elite women’s road race, while the best riders in the world just watched each other, and also creates the stage for incredible performances, like those of Tadej Pogačar and Harry Hudson in the elite and junior men’s road races, respectively.

There’s a lot of cycling that always happens in a similar way or looks the same, from the Tour of Flanders to sprint stages at the Tour de France, so to throw in a completely different kind of event once a year is good. I know I spend a lot of time saying cycling should make more sense for the casual or new fan, but to have something this wild once a year is not a complete juxtaposition; it’s an exception, not a rule.

A change the World Championships brings, as does the Ryder Cup, is a bit of tribalism that is often lacking in cycling – I really do want GB to succeed most of the time, as I was cheering on Europe in the golf. This is not something I usually feel when watching pro cycling, but it’s nice to cheer for your country, as is common in other sports.

The courses are a big part of what make the Worlds. They are fresh every year, in a different country, in Kigali’s case on a new continent, and test riders in a similar but distinct way. Sure, they ordinarily favour the best puncheur in the world as opposed to the best overall cyclist, but that’s no bad thing. Puncheurs are the most exciting kind of cyclist, and attacking is good. A fun thought experiment is to imagine where the Worlds would go if it came to your city – in Bristol, England, I’m sending the peloton up some nasty hills. It would be good.

The tradition and repetition that make moments in other races so good – the left turn at the top of the Oude Kwaremont in the Tour of Flanders, the Via Santa Caterina in Strade Bianche – are absent in the Worlds, and once a year, that’s novel and positive. You quickly have to get used to new notable parts of the course, as the Cote de Kimihurura provided in Kigali this year.

All that said, I did feel that the course at this year’s Worlds could have been a bit more exciting; the elite women did 11 laps of the same 15km-long circuit, making it feel like a big crit race rather than a road race. The elite men were the only road race to leave the circuit, and that was the best bit, providing the key moment on Mont Kigali, when Pogačar attacked with 104km to go. Only the men did the Mur de Kigali. Could the women not have done this extra loop too?

Photographer Zac Williams, there on the ground for SWpix, wrote on Instagram: “The Mur de Kigali was truly remarkable. The fans, thicker even than those on a Sunday afternoon in springtime Belgium made for a spectacle that had to be experienced to be believed. Only doing that climb once in the entire championships, to me, seems like a huge shame.”

There were surely contextual reasons for this, but in terms of showing off Kigali, it felt like there were opportunities missed. The men’s route also seemed like a course designed for Pogačar to attack from that far out; perhaps it is time to think about Tadej-proofing routes as golf courses were Tiger-proofed during Tiger Woods’s years of domination. It was also probably too hard – 30 riders finishing the men’s race feels like evidence of this.

I’m excited for Montréal 2026 already, just like I'm excited for Adare Manor 2027. Once a year, taking the cycling we know and changing a lot of it creates special moments.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.