{"id":905519,"date":"2026-09-22T16:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/905519\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T16:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:16:09","slug":"italy-strikes-gold-in-dramatic-mixed-relay-finish-at-2026-road-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/905519\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy strikes gold in dramatic mixed relay finish at 2026 road worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy claimed its first-ever mixed relay world title<\/a> Tuesday in Montreal after a wild 40.4-km team time trial that saw the lead change hands and Switzerland suffer a costly mechanical. The mixed relay is unique in that it\u2019s the only race where you can win a rainbow jersey\u2026and never get to wear it again. (Unless you use it as pajamas?)
The mixed relay sends three men onto the course before three women take over, with each group racing 20.2 km. Canada was among 10 nations on the start list, while the Netherlands and Belgium skipped the event to focus on the individual races. The same went for the U.K. who didn\u2019t enter.<\/p>\n

Early times<\/p>\n

Spain posted the first serious time to beat at 52:43, but the major contenders quickly started chopping away at it. Germany went one second quicker at the first checkpoint, with Switzerland another two seconds up. Then disaster struck for the Swiss when Stefan K\u00fcng punctured and was unable to continue. K\u00fcng is one of the best time triallists in the world, so that stung for the Swiss team.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s squad had Olivia Baril, Nadia Gontova and Alison Jackson, with Nickolas Zukowsky, Pier-Andr\u00e9 C\u00f4t\u00e9 and Michael Leonard joining the men\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Leonard was an absolute powerhouse early on, with Zukowsky dropping off at one point, leaving two men before the transition.<\/p>\n

All photos: Nick Iwanyshyn<\/p>\n

Italy was next to really shake things up. Filippo Ganna, Mattia Cattaneo and Matteo Sobrero produced the quickest men\u2019s ride, giving Vittoria Guazzini, Monica Trinca Colonel and Elisa Longo Borghini a 11-second advantage over Australia and 12 seconds over France heading into the women\u2019s half.<\/p>\n

France motored in the last kilometres, but it wasn\u2019t enough. Italy still held them on to win in 51:32. The Azzurri finished eight seconds ahead of the French. Switzerland recovered for bronze, 19 seconds back, while defending champions Australia finished fourth.<\/p>\n

Canada crossed the line in ninth. The Canucks were just over two minutes behind the winners. There are more races coming on Tuesday\u2013both the junior men and women\u2019s TT are up next. Be sure to check back here and our Instagram page\u2013there\u2019s a ton of photos, interviews and behind the scenes stuff. (Like the juniors playing hockey in the halls of the hotel with mini sticks, for example.)<\/p>\n

All the races are also available on CBC Gem<\/a>. It\u2019s free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy claimed its first-ever mixed relay world title Tuesday in Montreal after a wild 40.4-km team time trial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[220587,49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-905519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-road-worlds","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}