As it happened: Defending champion makes history at Road World Championships 2026 elite men’s individual time trial

2026-09-20T19:28:12.087Z

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Top 10 of UCI World Road Championships 2026 Men’s Elite ITT

Position

Rider (Country) Team

Time Gap

1

Remco Evenepoel (Bel)

00:44:53

2

Filippo Ganna (Ita)

00:00:57

3

Paul Seixas (Fra)

00:01:13

4

Brandon McNulty (USA)

00:01:25

5

Jakob Söderqvist (Swe)

00:01:26

6

Isaac Del Toro (Mex)

00:01:38

7

Stefan Küng (Swi)

00:01:44

8

Kasper Asgreen (Den)

00:01:48

9

Daan Hoole (Ned)

00:02:02

10

Callum Thornley

00:02:02

2026-09-20T19:26:01.337Z

Evenepoel led from start to finish, setting the fastest time at all three intermediate time checks. The Belgian was the only rider to average more than 52 km/hr on the 39.2 course.

Ganna had a different pacing strategy, moving from 10th at the first split to fourth at the second and then second at the third.

Seixas, meanwhile, went from fourth at the first split to third at the second before slipping back to fourth at the third time check.

Bronze – Paul Seixas (France)

2026-09-20T19:20:18.374Z

Brandon McNulty is fourth and Jakob Söderqvist is fifth. What could have been if not for the crash for the Swedith rider.

2026-09-20T19:14:59.029Z

Evenepoel keeps looking down at his bike. Does he have gear problems?

2026-09-20T19:12:59.361Z

Stefan Küng crosses the line with a time of 46:37.57, 31 seconds from Seixas. The Swiss rider is outside of the medals.

2026-09-20T19:09:49.841Z

Evenepoel looked down at his bike. Not sure if he thought he had a mechanical, a gear change issue, or was he talking to himself? Hopefully we find out after the race.

2026-09-20T19:07:57.942Z

After his crash, Jakob Söderqvist lost time and finishes third with 46:19.31, 13 seconds slower than Seixas, and one second off McNulty.

2026-09-20T19:06:07.251Z

Evenepoel sets fastest time at third check with 33:49.87, as Ganna slots into second, 48 seconds slower, and one second ahead of Söderqvist

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) (Image credit: Getty Images)

2026-09-20T19:03:17.193Z

Fastest so far, Jakob Söderqvist went in too hot on a corner and hit the deck. He got back on his bike but lost time.

2026-09-20T19:00:05.106Z

Meanwhile, Ganna and Küng are off the pace. The Italian is 40 seconds off the pace of Evenepoel, and Küng is 56 seconds down from the Belgian at the second time check.

Italy’s Filippo Ganna (Image credit: Getty Images)

2026-09-20T18:55:42.919Z

Söderqvist sets a new fast time at third check, besting Seixas by 5 seconds.

Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) (Image credit: Getty Images)

2026-09-20T18:49:57.794Z

McNulty has upped his pace, slotting into 2nd at the third split, 11 seconds off of Seixas’ time.

McNulty seems to be wearing a different kit (shorts) than his compatriots.

2026-09-20T18:47:40.385Z

Thornley is speeding up, going from 8th to 5th, so far at the third split, 37 seconds off the pace of Seixas.

2026-09-20T18:44:50.917Z

At the first split, Evenepoel sets the fastest time of 12:17.63, besting Soderqvist by 9 seconds.

Del Toro, Küng and Ganna were 22 seconds slower.

2026-09-20T18:42:36.195Z

Whoa, Seixas went almost too fast on a corner. He’s definitely pushing the speed as much as he can

2026-09-20T18:40:30.999Z

Stefan Küng is in 6th place at first time check, 12 seconds slower than Jakob Soderqvist who clocked 12:27.03.

Michael Leonard finishes with a time of 47:02.78, 21 seconds slower than Asgreen, and slots into second for now. He lost five seconds in the third section of the course.

2026-09-20T18:37:53.849Z

Paul Seixas sets new fast time at second split,. three seconds faster than Asgreen.

Meanwhile, Evenepoel is speeding around the cracks on the road,

2026-09-20T18:10:50.546Z

French superstar Paul Seixas is off. He still has a compatriot, Bruno Amirail, left to start.

2026-09-20T18:09:42.701Z

Germany’s Jasha Sutterlin takes the lead at the first time check with 26:01.02 with Oliveira 3 seconds back, and 9 seconds faster than Munton

2026-09-20T18:07:00.271Z

Byron Munton goes to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 47:37.44, averaging 49.4km/hr over the 39.2k course.

The South African is a three-time national TT champion, winning the under-23 category in 2019 and 2020 and the elite in 2022.

2026-09-20T18:04:24.334Z

A few notable riders on course include USA’s Artem Shmidt, the 2025 national TT champion and Norway’s Tobias Foss, who caused a major surprise when he won the TT title in 2022.

18 riders left to start.

2026-09-20T18:01:38.475Z

Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen sets the fast time for the first timecheck with 12:37.62, two seconds faster than Jan Tratnik, pushing Munton to third for now.

2026-09-20T17:54:55.633Z

Oliveira slots into third at the first time check, less than three seconds behind Munton, who continues to set the fast time across all splits.

2026-09-20T17:52:31.624Z

Canadian TT champion Michael Leonard is off. The 22-year-old was 12th last year in Kigali.

2026-09-20T17:51:57.971Z

Munten is flying, setting the fast time at the second split with 26:10.70. He still holds the best time at the first timecheck. Zukowsky slots into second place, 23 seconds down.

South Africa’s Byron Munton set the fastest time – so far – at the first and second time checks (Image credit: Getty Images)

2026-09-20T17:44:42.419Z

Belgium national road race champion Rune Herregodts takes the start, and is followed 1:30 later by former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland.

2026-09-20T17:42:33.604Z

Nelson Oliveira is the next rider to start. The Portuguese rider has raced to six top-10 finishes in 13 World Championships. He finished 4th in Bergen (2017), 6th in Glasgow (2023) and 8th at Yorkshire (2019) and Wollongong (2022).

He also excelled as a U23 rider, finishing 2nd in 2009.

2026-09-20T17:40:20.058Z

The first riders to start are now crossing the second intermediate time check, with Batmunkh the fastest so far with 28:21.72.

2026-09-20T17:36:15.440Z

South Africa’s Byron sets new fast time of 12:47.49 at the first intermediate check, averaging 50.9 km/hr for the first section. Zukowsky slots into second place, 14 seconds back.

2026-09-20T17:31:02.835Z

Brazil’s Henrique Avancini is off. It will be interesting to see how the former mountain bike world champion does in this TT.

2026-09-20T17:29:15.913Z

Bermuda’s Narraway clocks new fast time at first intermediate time check with 13:47.54, 4 seconds faster than Batmunkh

2026-09-20T17:23:58.196Z

Batmunkh sets the best time of 13:51.58 at the first intermediate timecheck, 14 seconds faster than Marukhin

2026-09-20T17:19:47.651Z

The first rider for the host nation, Canada’s Nickolas Zukowsky is off as the crowd cheers him on.

2026-09-20T17:19:20.152Z

More riders take on the course: Nicholas Narraway (BER), Daniel Yon Hin (MRI), Fredd Matute (HON), Byron Munton (RSA) and Amir Ansari (REF).

2026-09-20T17:18:34.306Z

More riders take on the course: Nicholas Narraway (BER), Daniel Yon Hin (MRI), Fredd Matute (HON), Byron Munton (RSA) and Amir Ansari (REF).

2026-09-20T17:14:00.710Z

Wais is catching the riders that started before him.

2026-09-20T17:12:28.528Z

More riders have started on the 39.2km course: China’s Chenglu Liu, Daniil Marukhin of Kazakhstan, and Maral-Erdene Batmunkh (MGL) and Derrick Chavarria (MGL).

Iran’s Arvin Moazami Godarzi did not take the start, though he was on the startlist.

2026-09-20T17:08:04.561Z

It is around 16 °C in Montréal, under cloudy skies.

2026-09-20T17:04:58.309Z

The next two riders: Gomes’ compatriot Apolinario Ca and Ahmad Badreddin Wais representing the Refugee Olympic Team are the next two riders to tackle the course.

2026-09-20T17:02:15.797Z

The sun is out for the first of 61 riders to take on the race against the clock: Gil Gomes, third in the Guinea-Bissau national championship.

2026-09-20T16:46:37.205Z

The technical but mostly flat route 39.2km will take riders through the streets of Old Montreal and along the banks of the St. Lawrence River before reaching Île-des-Sœurs and crossing the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge.

From there, the course follows the Greater Montreal River Walk before looping around Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, the iconic motor-racing circuit that hosts the annual Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. Riders then cross the St. Lawrence once more, this time via the Concorde Bridge, before returning to the finish line in Parc Jeanne-Mance.

2026-09-20T16:37:31.408Z

As shown in the nail-biting elite women’s time trial, pacing is key for the 39.2km route, which begins with a short downhill run and concludes with a 400-metre, 6.1% uphill run to the line, though it is largely flat in between.

Three intermediate time checks will show us which rider is doing well, and who is not.

2026-09-20T16:28:09.766Z

Cycling fans were spoiled with a compelling women’s elite individual time trial at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships this morning.

2026-09-20T16:23:55.473Z

The first rider who will ride down the ramp to kick things off for the 2026 World Road Championships will be Gil Gomes, from Guinea-Bissau at 13:00 local time.

2026-09-20T16:12:04.787Z

Hi. Bonjour. Welcome to our live report on Cyclingnews for the elite men’s individual time trial of the 2026 UCI World Road Championships in Montréal, Canada.

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel and Italy’s Filippo Ganna have won five of the past six time trial world titles – can anyone beat them in Montreal?