The 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal have come to an end after nine days of racing across 13 categories in the mixed team relay, individual time trials, and road races, showcasing the highest level of competition and crowning the new world champions who will proudly wear the rainbow jerseys next year.
It is the third time the marquee event has come to Canada after 1974, also held in Montreal, and 2003 in Hamilton, and it went off without a hitch, with the events largely taking place around the demanding Mont-Royal city circuits, but also venturing out to the Formula 1 venue at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, visiting Old Montreal, skirting along and crossing over the St. Lawrence River, with the elite road races starting in Brossard.
As the sport now turns its attention toward the 2027 UCI Cycling World Championships ‘Super Worlds’ that will take place in the Haute-Savoie region of France from August 24 to September 5, the Cyclingnews team reflects on the biggest takeaways from Montreal.
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The junior women deserve more kilometres
Maria Okrucińska only had to race 10.7km to claim her rainbow jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
The organisers of the Montreal event made a pointed effort to offer the same distance for the elite women’s and elite men’s time trials at these World Championships, both racing at 39.2km and won by Marlen Reusser of Switzerland and Remco Evenepoel of Belgium.
It was then baffling to find out that the junior women’s time trial was a rather short 10.7km, nearly half the distance of the junior men, and the shortest distance for this category in the event’s history at the Road World Championships.
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A look back at previous distances offered to the junior women for the time trial revealed that the only other edition that offered a comparably short distance was the junior women’s time trial in Quito, Ecuador, in 1994, with the longest at 19.8km in Innsbruck in 2018, and last year’s race was held over 18.3km in Kigali.
While it’s healthy for race organisers and teams to avoid putting too much pressure on junior athletes, many of whom juggle their budding athletic careers with academic responsibilities, the junior women’s field can certainly compete over longer time trial distances.
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We need – and want – more racing in North America
Only a handful of this generation of pros will remember the vibrant top-tier racing scene across North America and races like the Tour of California, Tour de Georgia, Tour of Missouri, Tour of Alberta, Colorado Classic, Tour of Utah, Grand Prix de Montreal, the Montreal World Cup and Liberty Classic, among many other events that took place in the late 1990s and the early- to mid-2000s – events that left a lasting impression.
Today, the WorldTour scene includes the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal, but riders who competed at the World Championships made their sentiments clear: they want to see more high-level racing for WorldTour teams.
The riders loved the crowds in Montreal (Image credit: Getty Images)
Newly crowned World Champion Brandon McNulty, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, who secured the silver medal in the elite women’s road race, and Elisa Longo Borghini, who took bronze in the elite women’s road race and the world title in the mixed team relay, recalled their fond memories and racing experience in North America and would like to see more events take place there.
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“I would love to race more over here,” McNulty said. “As an American, I’m biased. Everyone loves racing at home; the Belgians love the Belgian races, the Italians love the Italian races, so I would love to. Most of the guys I know ask when California or Utah are coming back, so a lot of them like coming over here. The GPs in Montreal and Quebec are popular, and there’s always a bit of a fight to get on the team, so I think there is a lot of interest. Obviously, there is a lot more to it than riders wanting the races. I don’t know the logistics of promoting races, but I wish the pieces would come together to have a bit more of a scene here of WorldTour or Pro [Series] races.”
Niewiadoma-Phinney said she would like to see a block of racing in North America where the teams could come over to an extended amount of time. “100%, I love coming over to North America. It’s a great mental boost. You leave everything in Europe, you’re in a different time zone, and you feel like you can refresh yourself. I would love more racing blocks in the US and, like here in Montreal, Philadelphia, or back to the Tour of California or Tour of Colorado.”
Likewise, Longo Borghini said she welcomed the return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and would also like to see the return of the former Montreal World Cup, held alongside the current Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.
“I would really like to see more races in North America. I’ve been riding in the past Philadelphia Classic, and I was actually happy to see that it came back this year because it was a nice race.” Longo Borghini said. “And the cheering in North America is always cool, I have to say, because it’s different from Europe. You guys are more excited and passionate and loud. It’s actually thrilling to see so many people on the road and so much passion. And today I could feel the energy, and I would really like to see a Montreal [WorldTour] race for women.”
Yes, racing without radios makes Worlds so much better
Mathieu van der Poel said it right: racing without earpieces makes the races better. The Belgians tried to send messages in bottles, but the lack of readily available information during the road races really favoured smart racers and strong teams.
The Dutch women flawlessly executed their plan, and even winner Demi Vollering knew it was possible her long-range attack would be reeled in. She had a plan for it, and never needed the team car to tell her what to do.
It was the same in the men’s race: the US team had the numbers at the front, and as long as you have a rider in the breakaway, there’s nothing to worry about. They had a plan and it went exactly how sports director Mike Creed described to Cyclingnews.
Had there been radios, maybe the outcome would have been different. As it was, the final few laps of both elite races were some of the most chaotic, thrilling, unpredictable and exciting races on the calendar.
I agree that race radios are important for WorldTour races that are point-to-point for safety, but as a whole, road races do tend to become a bit formulaic. Their absence was a welcome change in Montreal.
Montreal roads are famously bad, even for Worlds
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Because of the brutal winters in Montreal, snow removal and ice melting chemicals really take their toll on the surface of the roads. The courses in the city were full of potholes – most patched, but some not – especially in the time trials, and that really took a toll on riders.
After the mixed relay team time trial, ITT gold medalist Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) came through the mixed zone with her right arm heavily bandaged and explained she had suffered a deep bone bruise by going over the bumps with her arms in her TT arm rests. Fortunately it didn’t seem to slow her down in the road race.
Filippo Ganna (Italy), second in the individual time trial and part of his country’s gold medal effort in the mixed relay, commented on the poor conditions, too. “I think a World Championship should have the best tarmac. It’s the same for everyone, but maybe new tarmac could be nice for everyone.”
Hosting the world championships and the Grand Prix WorldTour race is a big ask for one city, but if the city or provincial officials could have laid down some fresh asphalt on the course, it would have provided some good will for the citizens who have had their lives disrupted by all of the road closures.
Super tough Worlds courses risk leaving out the top names in pro cycling
(Image credit: Getty Images)
For the past decade, the Worlds road races have had climbs so tough that they’ve all but excluded sprinters from even starting. It hasn’t been since Doha in 2016 that there was a completely flat course. Next year, there won’t even be a much as a flat run-in to the circuits for any of the fields, and the elite men will have to race over a 2.5km climb a full 20 times.
Pro cycling in general has been moving toward tougher and tougher parcours and, as we’ve seen with the dominance of Tadej Pogačar, it’s turned into a game of watts over wits. These hilly Worlds courses only add to that trend, and it’s excluded so many talented riders. Thankfully, after 2027, that will change.
UCI President David Lappartient told Cyclingnews that it’s not the edict for Worlds organisers to have hard courses, only that the road races be of a certain length, and take place on circuits to make it more fan-friendly.
“We want to have different types of circuits, 2028 will be in Abu Dhabi, [so it] will be flat, flat, flat. Copenhagen [2029] will be flat, but potentially windy, and Brussels [2030] is not flat, but it’s not as difficult as we have here [in Montreal] so it’s a little bit in the middle. So we try to have different types of circuits.
“It’s good sometimes to have a very hard one because then the top GC riders or climbers can be World Champion. That could be the case for next year. It’s also good when you have a pure sprinter as champion. When Mark Cavendish won in Copenhagen, I think it was great for cycling.”
It’s a shame not to have stand-out riders like Lorena Wiebes, Matthew Brennan, and Paul Magnier at Worlds, and fortunately in two years, they will get their shot.
The Dutch women showed full team commitment and were rewarded for it
When you have the world’s number one rider on your squad, it would be foolish not to throw the team’s collective weight behind them, and the women in orange did just that for Demi Vollering with a flawless team performance for the Netherlands in the elite women’s road race.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
From start to finish, the team patrolled the front of the peloton, never letting any dangerous move get too much time and keeping Vollering safe from the mass-crashes that took defending champion Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada) and Paula Blasi (Spain) out of the picture.
As the kilometres clicked down, the Dutch team slowly twisted the throttle, burning dangerous riders like two-time world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (USA) out the back.
Then, in what seemed to be quite a premature move, Puck Pieterse lifted the pace on the Camilien-Houde climb just past the start of three laps to go and brought back solo leader Maeva Squiban (France) and shattered the peloton so that Vollering could make her winning move.
Seeing quality riders like 2024 Tour de France winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) appear helpless as Vollering disappeared up the road only proved that the Dutch had done their job. Pieterse was able to foil the chase a little bit, but time trial world champion Marlen Reusser proved to be the wildcard, though she couldn’t hold on in the climbs after helping to nail back Vollering.
In the end, Vollering still had to deal with her Polish rival, but managed to prevail and could thank her teammates in orange.
North American fans know how to turn out for a bike race
What did the athletes think about the environment and the crowds around Montréal across a full week of competitions? Were the senses overwhelmed by the dominant Québécois cuisine, sights and sounds to make the atmosphere feel European? Did the host city meet expectations?
The short answer is ‘yes’, from ‘loud’ cheering in French and English, and from one winner’s recognition of his dog in the crowd.
“In a race like the World Champs, the behavior of the bunch is more or less the same, it’s high-level racing. We face the same guys all season. But in terms of environment, yeah, Montreal feels different and special,” summed up Victor Langoletti of Monaco, who made his eighth appearance at a Road World Championships across four continents.
“The people from Montreal, they are just amazing. I mean, the atmosphere is just crazy on every climb, all around the circuit.”
The fans came out in full force (Image credit: Jackie Tyson)
Montreal Worlds marked the 15th appearance at a Road World Championships for Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy, now covering five continents.She earned her first Road World Championships gold medal last Wednesday in the Team Time Trial and added a third bronze medal in her career in a spell-binding elite women’s road race.
“The cheering in North America is always cool, I have to say, because it’s different from Europe. You guys are more excited and passionate and loud. Said from an Italian, sounds crazy, but you guys are very loud. And it’s actually thrilling to see so many people on the road and so much passion.”
The riders from Canada and the United States agreed it felt like a home race, and maybe no one was a better case study than dual citizen Ashlin Barry. The Toronto resident competes for Team USA, and he gave both sides of the border something to cheer about on Friday, winning the under-23 men’s road race.
“It was just unreal being out there, seeing so many friends, seeing my family. I could hear my dog barking on the side of the course,” Barry said.
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