Canadian riders ranging from juniors to elites have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this September. They will race for rainbow stripes with fans, fellow Canadians, cheering for them at the sides of the roads in Montreal. The scenario will resemble the home-ice advantage that hockey players experience. But public roads are quite different from a closed arena. The energy with the Bell Centre is different than that on the climb up Camillien-Houde. Can Canuck riders—from those quoted below to defending world champ Magdeleine Vallières Mill and Tour de l’Abitibi Femmes winner Élodie Malois—truly get a performance boost even when they look down at their head units and see the power numbers that show they are at their limits?
In a sense, writer Matt Fitzgerald wrote about home-ice advantage in is book How Bad Do you Want It? Actually, he wrote about how the Tour de France’s yellow jersey seems to confer wings onto its wearer. Fitzgerald looks at Thomas Voeckler’s stunning ride during Stage 13 of 2004 Tour de France where, against all odds, he retained his yellow jersey. “The yellow jersey puts its wear under a spotlight that intensifies both the sting of failure and the glory of success and thereby ‘raises the bar’ that the Tour leader aims for on his bike. Psychologists have a name for this phenomenon: the audience effect,” Fitzgerald writes. “In essence, the audience effect coaxes people into holding themselves to higher standards.”
In the latest episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, I asked four riders—Derek Gee-West, Pier-André Côté, Nickolas Zukowsky and Michael Leonard—about the audience effect. Of course, I phrased it as home-ice advantage. Below, after the jump, are their condensed replies. For the full interviews, conducted just before the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, download the episode or watch the YouTube video.
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Derek Gee-West on a home-roads advantage in Montreal
“I’m gonna be honest, if you’re going up Mont-Royal and you’re doing 8 W/kg and you have lactate up to your eyeballs, I don’t know that [a home-roads advantage] is going to be such a psychological difference. But that being said, I’ve never experienced anything like home worlds. I’ve been at the biggest bike races in the world. I’ve done the Tour. I’ve seen the crowds by the side of the road. But for all those fans to be Canadian, that’s something that is going to be pretty special. And maybe it will give us a little boost.”
Derek Gee-West. Image: Nick Iwanyshyn
Pier-André Côté on riding in his home province
“I think you can’t outperform your legs. You have a physiological limit, but you can certainly battle them a little bit more if you’ve got that fight in you. I think you definitely make sure you will have that fight. For me, for example, Montreal’s going to feel like home, especially for worlds, but this race here in Quebec, [the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec,] there’s a 110 per cent chance that I’ll be going to my absolute limit because I’ve got the crowd on my side. I mean, maybe you can’t tell because I’m suffering and I’m focused on the job that I have to do, but I do hear everyone on the course and I really do feel like I have some home-crowd advantage.”
Four races and a wedding—and then Pier-André Côté’s season continues
Pier-André Côté, 2026. Image: Nick Iwanyshyn
Nickolas Zukowsky experienced a boost in the breakaway at the 2019 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
“The few races I’ve done at home have always gone quite well. I think for sure there is something in it. A big part of sports in general is like the mental aspect behind it. We’re all physically fit, we all do our homework and train well, but the mental aspect is huge. That mental boost that you get from being at home, having family and friends who never get to see what you do year round, cheering—I really do think it gives you something extra. I’m hoping that come race time that it makes us all a bit stronger, and then we can pull out a big performance.”
Nickolas Zukowsky, 2026. Image: Nick Iwanyshyn
Michael Leonard: You don’t get wings, but…
“It does and it doesn’t. I think it lets you access more of your potential, but equally it doesn’t defy the laws of physics. I think it makes it more likely that on a day you’re going to give your best performance. You’re going to have a bit more confidence, a bit more desire to put yourself in certain situations, to race more aggressively, to make more things happen in the race, but equally it’s not going to give you wings and so you have to be realistic about what’s possible. I think the fans [at the Montreal GPs] are quite spectacular. I think for the worlds, it might be even bigger. In general, it’s super motivating and inspirational.”
Michael Leonard, 2026. Image: Nick Iwanyshyn