UCI Road World Championships 2026

The road

At the start

No Pogačar, and twelve laps of Mont-Royal

Brossard, cold and blustery, and the two-time champion is not here: Pogačar crashed out of his season at the Vuelta. Remco Evenepoel, world time-trial champion again a week ago, is the favourite; Isaac del Toro beat Paul Seixas in the GP de Montréal rehearsal. Van der Poel and Van Aert come anyway. Twelve laps of Mont-Royal wait, and the USA, with McNulty, Simmons and Jorgenson, dare to talk of a podium.

How it was won

1. 1161 km to go

   Six minutes at Mont-Royal

   Across the St Lawrence and onto the circuit, a sixteen-man break with Leknessund and Girmay in it crosses the line for the first of twelve laps with six minutes in hand. France send Bruno Armirail to the front, and he does not leave it for sixty kilometres.

2. 287 km to go

   Van Aert goes, Van der Poel follows

   Wout van Aert bridges to a fifteen-man move and counters at once, 87 kilometres out; Mathieu van der Poel chases him down. Onley, Charmig and Roglič come across, then Quinn Simmons for the USA: six riders clear, and France and Mexico have lost the race in the space of a lap.

3. 374 km to go

   Van der Poel's violent acceleration

   On the Polytechnique, 74 kilometres from the line, Van der Poel kicks and the six come apart. Van Aert, Roglič and Charmig are gone; only Simmons and Onley get back to his wheel. Roglič claws his way across on the next Camillien-Houde. Behind, Del Toro and Seixas chase without help.

4. 432 km to go

   Twelve riders, three Americans

   The leaders are caught 35 kilometres out, and twelve men are left to fight for the jersey. Nine of them are alone; the USA have three. Matteo Jorgenson attacks first, Del Toro shuts it down, and with 32 to go Brandon McNulty slips away while Jorgenson sits on Matthews. Ten seconds becomes a minute in a lap.

5. 511 km to go

   The last Camillien-Houde

   He takes the bell with 52 seconds, and then the climb takes him apart. His legs go on the twelfth ascent of Mont-Royal as Pidcock and Ciccone come out of the group behind and the gap falls: thirty seconds, then ten at the top, the stars and stripes in plain sight. And there, with him in their hands, the chasers look at one another and nobody pulls.

6. 67 km to go

   Jorgenson on the wheel

   Van der Poel makes one last bid on the Polytechnique with under seven kilometres left, the climb where he has attacked all afternoon. Jorgenson is on his wheel, and the Dutchman eases at the top. Schmid, Pidcock, Healy and Del Toro try in turn; Jorgenson follows them all, and the gap grows again.

7. 7At the line

   Rainbow, in disbelief

   McNulty comes round the last corner on the Avenue du Parc knowing it is his and still not believing it. Thirteen seconds ahead of Michael Matthews and Van der Poel, he is the first American elite men's world champion since 1993, and Simmons is fourth.

The result