It’s almost here! The pros are on their way to Canada for Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal.
The races are already a proper fixture WorldTour calendar. Both of the one-day races have been around for 16 years, although this is the fifteenth edition since the 2020 edition was cancelled.
The importance the races with the worlds looming
But there’s more to them this year. Not only will there be a whole slew of the best riders in the world coming this year, the two Canadian classics also come with an added significance: they will serve as the final major races for many riders before the 2026 UCI Road World Championships get underway in Montreal. And there, not only will we see all our favourite male pros, but the pro women, the under-23 men and women, and the junior men and women. Time trials, road races, rainbow jerseys, oh my!
The 2026 Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal
The 15th edition of the GPCQM will bring 22 teams and 154 riders to Québec City on Sept. 11 and Montréal on Sept. 13, just one week before the world championships begin. All 18 WorldTeams will be on the start list, along with three ProTeams and the Canadian national selection.
Among the biggest names is Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian ace will return to Quebec seven years after making his one appearance at the race. The time trial star arrives with two Olympic titles from Paris, a former (road) world championship title, a Vuelta a España victory and a runner-up finish at this year’s Tour de France.
He won’t be the only major contender making his GPCQM debut.
At 22, Mexico’s Isaac del Toro has already established himself as one of the sport’s leading stage-race talents. He became the first Mexican rider to finish on the Tour de France podium and has won the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Tour of Germany this season.
Stacked field with Tour de France stars
Del Toro will have plenty of firepower around him at UAE Team Emirates XRG, including Brandon McNulty, Adam Yates and Tim Wellens. McNulty won last year’s Montréal race, while Yates and Wellens have also previously won the Canadian classic.
The Canadian races will also mark the first GPCQM appearance for 19-year-old French rider Paul Seixas. If you’ve just landed from a year abroad in outer space, the Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider has quickly become one of the most closely watched young riders in the sport. The dude has already won the Tour du Pays Basque and Flèche Wallonne in 2026. He also finished fourth at this year’s Tour de France.
Speaking to Canadian Cycling Magazine, Seixas said he had already studied both courses (well, he’d watched some of them on TV.) “Quebec seemed more open for a lot of riders. Montreal was really hard from what I saw,” he said. But he also said beforehand that it was clutch to be able to race the world’s course at the Grand Prix. Knowing the course will be clutch to figure out strategy and just know the feel of it all. BTW, this is Seixas’ first (hopefully not last!) trip here.
Tom Pidcock is another “rookie.” The British rider’s job résumé includes, among many two Olympic mountain bike titles, a Strade Bianche dub and more recently, another rainbow jersey in XCO. The hilly circuits in Québec and Montréal should absolutely work for his style. A cagey ride could see him take Québec, methinks. But if not, bring it on Camille-Houde. Speaking of mountains, the dude just took another rainbow jersey on Sunday at the world mountain bike champs.
His Canadian teammate, Nickolas Zukowsky, will almost certainly be there too, he’s on the road worlds so the two Grand Prixs would be a logical choice.
Then there’s Michael Matthews. He’s definitely spent some time racing in Canada.
The Australian has won the GPCQM four times, including three dubs in Québec and one in Montréal.
His four wins are already a record, and he will have a shot to add a fifth title to his résumé this September.
Matteo Jorgenson will lead the charge for Visma-Lease a Bike. The American has won Paris-Nice twice and finished second at Tirreno-Adriatico this year, adding another rider who could absolutely light up either Quebec or Montreal.
Oh, there’s more.
Quinn Simmons, Giulio Ciccone, Arnaud De Lie, Michal Kwiatkowski and Ben Healy are also among the confirmed starters.
Simmons comes to Canada as U.S. national champion. Ciccone is doing pretty solid too, with wins at the 2025 Clásica San Sebastián and the KOM jersey at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. De Lie won the
Quebec race in 2023. Kwiatkowski is a former world champion, and Healy has a Tour de France stage win and a third-place finish at the 2025 world championships on his résumé. Some mega-talent.
Gee-West leads Canadian contingent
The home riders will have their own reason to believe they can make an impact.
Derek Gee-West will lead the Canadian contingent in both races. The Lidl–Trek rider is the reigning Canadian time trial champion and finished fourth overall at the 2025 Giro d’Italia. With the world championships coming to Montréal a week later, a strong performance on home roads would be particularly significant. The Canadian national TT champ raced the GP back in 2024, so it will be nice to see him here. The Québec course isn’t perfect for him—but he can definitely fly up Mont Royal.
He’ll be joined by Guillaume Boivin, a three-time Canadian road champion; Pier-André Côté, the 2023 Pan American road race champion; 2026 Canadian road champion Jérôme Gauthier; and Michael Woods, who has won stages at both the Tour de France and Vuelta a España and took bronze at the 2018 world championships. (He’s back!)
The timing of this year’s GPCQM adds another layer to an already strong start list. Riders will get their final chance to race the Québec and Montréal roads before returning to the same part of the country for the world championships.
For some, the two races will be about winning one of the most prestigious one-day races in North America. For others, they will be the last serious test before the biggest week of the season.
You can watch both races on FloBikes.com.
Canadian Cycling Magazine will be on the ground at both the Grand Prixs and the road worlds. If you can, you should try and make it too! The road worlds haven’t been here since 2003, so it’s hardly a regular thing to have the biggest race of the calendar in our country. But if you can’t, donchu worry, we got you covered with all kinds of reports and interviews and content. Our Instagram channel will be busy, as will all our other social channels, like Facebook, X and BlueSky.
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