Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna, and the rest – Analysing the contenders for the elite men’s time trial at the World Championships

The world’s top time triallists will face off on a 39.2km course in Montreal at the UCI Road World Championships this Sunday, with former world champions Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna heading the line-up.

The pair will once again be among the top favourites for the rainbow jersey on Sunday, with an out-and-back course, including the F1 circuit in central Montreal standing in their way.

The route begins with a short downhill run and concludes with a 400-metre, 6.1% uphill run to the line, though it is largely flat in between.

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The route for the men’s ITT (Image credit: Cycling Canada / UCI)

Evenepoel and Ganna, who have won five of the past six world time trial titles, will certainly be the ones to watch on Sunday, but who else is in with a shout of the top spots? Here are our contenders for the elite men’s time trial at the 2026 Road World Championships.

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)

Triple world champion Remco Evenepoel is the overwhelming favourite to add to his world titles from 2023, 2024, and 2025. He may well become the first elite man to win both road race and time trial titles in the same year.

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This year he has delivered time trial wins at the Volta Valenciana, the UAE Tour, and the Tour de France, and he’s the reigning world, Olympic, and European time trial champion. Honestly, there seems to be just one man who could stop him from winning again here.

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Filippo Ganna (Italy)

Once the dominant force in the time trial world, Filippo Ganna‘s title has since been taken by Remco Evenepoel.

Still, the Italian is without a doubt the second-best time triallist in the world – and on a very good day he could well beat the Belgian.

He hasn’t, however, beaten Evenepoel in a time trial since the 2023 Vuelta a España. Since then, there have been five time trial losses, including at the Olympics and Worlds in 2024, last year’s European Championships, and this year’s Tour de France.

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Ganna is in good form, having raced to seventh and the points jersey at the recent Tour of Britain. Without Evenepoel, he’d be by far and away the main favourite to win a third rainbow jersey here. With him, he may well be looking at a third straight silver medal.

Paul Seixas (France)

France’s Paul Seixas will be among those contenders; the 19-year-old is starting as the youngest rider in the race. He won the junior world title in Zurich two years ago and finished 16th on his elite debut in Kigali last year.

This year, he’s been among the world’s strongest time triallists, finishing fourth in tests against the clock at the Volta ao Algarve and the Tour de France, as well as winning the 14km time trial at Itzulia Basque Country.

On this long and largely flat route, though, he’ll likely be an outsider for the medals against bigger, more powerful riders.

Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden)

Swedish racer Jakob Söderqvist is the reigning under-23 time trial world champion and it’ll be interesting to see how the 23-year-old copes during his first test at the elite level.

He’s impressed during his first season in the pros this year, finishing third in time trials at the Volta ao Algarve and the ZLM Tour, taking second in prologues at the Tour de Romandie and Boucles de la Mayenne, and winning the Swedish national title.

How this all translates to the longer outing in Montreal remains to be seen, but the powerful Swede – who this year won the Tour of Hungary – will be in the frame for a top placing.

Bruno Armirail (France)

Stefan Küng (Switzerland)

Swiss racer Stefan Küng has six top-10 finishes to his name at the World Championships time trial. His best results to date are bronze at Imola 2020 and silver, just two seconds off the rainbow jersey, at Wollongong 2022.

Since then, he’s been some way off the top spots, racing to 12th, eighth, and 10th in Harrogate, Zurich, and Kigali. That’s not to say he’s past his best as a TT rider, though. This year, he’s won time trials at the Tour de Pologne and Vuelta a España.

Küng only has 35 race days in his legs this year, too, after breaking his femur at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He’s not heading to Worlds after a long racing season then, meaning he might still hold some freshness for a podium push.

Isaac del Toro (Mexico)

Mexican racer Isaac del Toro will have his sights set on the road race after taking seventh last year. He finished fifth in the time trial in Rwanda, too, and is a real medal contender at both races in Montreal.

Del Toro tends to perform better in hillier time trials than this one, however, including that Worlds TT last year, and the Tour de France stage 16 time trial this summer, where he finished fifth.

A battle for the podium will be made tougher by the mostly flat route, though with several of the other top time triallists not racing here (Jay Vine, Ilan Van Wilder, and Tadej Pogačar all finished in the top five in Rwanda, while Josh Tarling isn’t racing), there’s certainly a chance for a medal.

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