‘Racing without earpieces always makes for the best races’ – Mathieu van der Poel nabs bronze in chaotic Worlds road race in Montreal

Mathieu van der Poel might have said before that the 2026 UCI Road World Championships course in Montreal was not well-suited to him, but the Dutchman made the most of a positively bonkers elite men’s road race on Sunday, taking the bronze medal behind solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA) and just missing out on silver to Michael Matthews (Australia).

It seemed like a suicide move when Van der Poel went up the road with 11 other riders, including Belgium’s Wout van Aert, with 87km to go. It seemed even more risky when he continued attacking, going clear with Van Aert, Quinn Simmons (USA), Primož Roglič (Slovenia), Oscar Onley (Great Britain) and Athon Charmig (Denmark), and when he attacked that group again with 52km to go.

When the move was finally brought back with 35km to go, and soon after McNulty launched his solo move, Van der Poel never gave up believing in his second rainbow jersey.

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“It was still quite a long way, but I saw immediately that McNulty’s attack was a good attempt,” Van der Poel said. “He has ridden well on this course before and it was a name I had in the back of my mind, but I don’t think it was up to me to react.”

Van der Poel bided his time as others tried to nail back the American, knowing he still had a chance to win from the group if McNulty was caught.

“I think it was not up to me to close gaps anymore. I knew I had to gamble a little bit to try and become World Champion. So yeah, I just made my decision there and stuck with it.

“Of course, it’s a World Championship, so I really wanted to go for the medal. I managed to recover also a little bit when the group caught me. The first time on the climb I was struggling, but then afterwards I could recover a little bit and then I was a bit less on the limit.

“I’m happy with the medal, and I think considering it was such a hard race, I did a really good performance to be on the podium, actually. I can be happy.”

Van der Poel let on that he is expecting his first child with partner Roxanne Bertels, and so has not yet made any plans to defend his world title in cyclocross in January.

“I haven’t thought about that yet. Becoming a father for the first time is very special. We’ll see.”

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