Winning a coveted maple leaf national championship jersey is an honour, no matter what discipline or category. And for the past few years, you can get one on your trainer. But that’s no chirp—racing indoors, a la esports, is hard.
The 2026 edition has been formally announced by Cycling Canada. Feb. 21 is the day it all goes down.
At last year’s (which was this year) championships, Cycling Canada crowned 13 national champions. Masters races kicked off the weekend, with elite and youth categories wrapping up the second day.
Thomas Thrall and Tiffanny Penner won the elite men’s and women’s titles, with Thrall claiming his third straight national championship. Other winners included Ryan Nickerson (junior men), Kyle Spang (under-17 men), and Julia Lehmann (under-17 women). Thrall also competed at the esports worlds recently.
In February of this year, several defending champions held onto their titles, including Dan Zeggelaar (Masters Men 35–44), Josée Rossignol (Masters Women 45–54), and Anna Tykoliz, who won the Masters Women 65+ for the fourth year in a row.
If you’re keen to compete, this year the nationals return to Zwift. To compete, not only do you have to register, but there are a bunch of other little things to confirm—your weight, trainer, and so on—to prevent cheating. (You’d be surprised—well, maybe not—how much that happens.) Cycling Canada will have that info soon once registration opens. And if you win, you get a nifty national champs jersey. Although it’s not quite the one in the Insta post, they have changed it. But that’s a whole other story.
And as the graphic suggests, no need to worry about helmet hair. You can sport a fabulous coif as you go for glory in your pain cave. Ride on!