273 km, 3,800m of Climbing, and No Pogačar: Inside the Most Open Worlds Road Race in Years

Remove the most dominant rider in modern cycling — the man who won the Tour de France for the fifth time this summer and was chasing an unprecedented Grand Tour treble before his Vuelta crash — and what do you get? You get a road race with six or seven genuine winners. That's what awaits in Montreal on Sunday, September 27, when the elite men's road race at the 2026 UCI World Championships decides who gets to wear the rainbow stripes for the next year.

The numbers alone are sobering: 273.4 kilometres with 3,803 metres of climbing, the bulk of it concentrated in 12 punishing laps of the Mount Royal circuit after a neutral-ish approach into the city. This is not a sprinter's race, and it's not a pure climber's race either. It's a race that eats specialists and rewards riders who can do everything at the exact right moment.

The Circuit: Camillien-Houde Is the Fulcrum

The Mount Royal loop is well-known to WorldTour riders — it's the same circuit used for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, won by Isaac del Toro just two weeks ago. But twelve laps changes the calculus entirely compared to a one-day race over the same roads.

The centrepiece is the Camillien-Houde climb: 2.3km at a gradient that punishes the weak and rewards the diesel. After that, the steep Côte de Polytechnique and the uphill drag to the finish on Avenue du Parc ensure every lap ends with selective pressure. By lap eight or nine of twelve, attrition will have done its work. The final selection will come from whoever can produce a sustained effort after already having done everything.

For context, the 2026 GP Montréal winner del Toro completed a shorter version of this challenge in fine style. But 12 laps versus 9 or 10 in a one-day WorldTour race is the difference between hard and genuinely brutal.

The Contenders: A Study in Contrasts

With Tadej Pogačar out — ruled out after his Vuelta a España crash earlier this month — the race opens up around a fascinating collection of riders with very different strengths.

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) arrives as the freshest favourite after his crushing 57-second TT win on Sunday. He last won the road race world championship in Wollongong in 2022 and is now chasing an unprecedented same-year ITT-road race double. Belgium's squad depth is exceptional: Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Quinten Hermans, Thibau Nys, Alec Segaert, Maxim Van Gils, and Gianni Vermeersch back Evenepoel in what is arguably the strongest squad Belgium has assembled for a worlds in recent memory.

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) returns to the worlds road race as the 2023 champion (Glasgow) and 2024 bronze medallist (Zurich). He is one of the few riders who can match Evenepoel on a punchy, rolling circuit, and Netherlands have the resources to race aggressively from distance.

Isaac del Toro (Mexico/UAE Team Emirates XRG) won this very circuit at the GP Montréal on September 13, making him arguably the form rider in the race. At 22, he has the freshness and the tactical nous — his UAE team's organisation has been impeccable all season.

Paul Seixas (France) was third in Sunday's TT and runner-up to del Toro in GP Montréal. The young Frenchman is riding the race of his life right now, and a circuit this technical could favour his punchy, aggressive style.

Tom Pidcock (Great Britain/Pinarello-Q36.5) adds another wildcard. He already won the GP Industria & Artigianato in September and is targeting a road rainbow jersey to complement his mountain bike and cyclo-cross world titles. The circuit, with its technical descents and punchy climbs, suits his skill set perfectly.

The Women's Race: Vollering vs. the World

The elite women race the day before — Saturday, September 26 — over 180.1km starting in Brossard before joining the Montreal circuit for 8 laps. Demi Vollering enters as the clear favourite after a dominant 2026 season that included two Grand Tour-equivalent victories. She'll be pressed hard by Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland), and Spanish climbing talent Paula Blasi.

Canada's own Magdeleine Vallières — the defending women's road race world champion — will race in front of a home crowd of an estimated 500,000 spectators expected to pack the Montreal streets. That's a pressure situation that could either liberate or suffocate, and it'll be one of the compelling sub-plots of Saturday's race.

Tactical Notes: How It Gets Won

The 12-lap men's race will most likely follow a predictable pattern in its early phase before things fracture. The real selection will happen on laps 7 through 10, when cumulative fatigue meets accelerating pace. A group of no more than 10-15 riders will reach the penultimate lap together, and from there it becomes a chess match.

Belgium's numerical superiority gives them the ability to control and accelerate simultaneously — a weapon that has historically proven decisive at worlds. If Evenepoel arrives at the final lap in a group, he's the favourite in any sprint from a small group. If van Aert gets away on a longer move, he's a match for almost anyone over 2-3 minutes.

The biggest danger scenario for the favourites? A del Toro acceleration on Camillien-Houde in lap 10 or 11, when he's shown this season he can ride away from even the strongest fields when the moment is right.

What This Means for Your Riding

The Montreal circuit is a masterclass in what sports scientists call accumulated fatigue racing — the idea that who wins isn't decided by who is fastest, but by who manages depletion best over extended duration. The riders who go deepest into the red early on lap 3 to impress in a breakaway often have nothing left when it matters on lap 11.

For enthusiast cyclists, this is the best possible advertisement for pacing discipline and energy management over long, hilly rides. Ride the first half as if you'll need everything you have at the end — because on a course like Mount Royal, you will. Watch Sunday's race with that lens, and it'll feel less like a spectacle and more like a masterclass in applied sports science.

Set your alarm. This one's going to be special.