Date
27·09·26
Miracles
Happen
Here
No Pogačar, no radios, no script. The most unpredictable Worlds in years spent 240 kilometres refusing to pick a favourite — Van der Poel attacked at 85 to go, Del Toro at 35, everyone else in between — and then Brandon McNulty, who won the GP de Montréal on these roads last year and was third here a fortnight ago, rode off the front with 32 km left and never came back. A minute up, ten seconds up, thirteen at the line: the first American rainbow jersey since 1993. Michael Matthews, a day past his 36th birthday and two years past thinking his career was over, won the sprint for silver from Van der Poel. Grupetto was on the mountain for all twelve laps, and Montréal was the loudest place in cycling.
Race
Worlds · Men's Road Race
Winner
Brandon McNulty
Stage 0303
From the peloton,
this week
Race ReportCover · Iss. 47
Miracles Happen: McNulty Solos to the Rainbow Jersey on the Mountain He Already Owned
No Pogačar, no radios, no script. The most unpredictable Worlds in years spent 240 kilometres refusing to pick a favourite — Van der Poel attacked at 85 to go, Del Toro at 35, everyone else in between — and then Brandon McNulty, who won the GP de Montréal on these roads last year and was third here a fortnight ago, rode off the front with 32 km left and never came back. A minute up, ten seconds up, thirteen at the line: the first American rainbow jersey since 1993. Michael Matthews, a day past his 36th birthday and two years past thinking his career was over, won the sprint for silver from Van der Poel. Grupetto was on the mountain for all twelve laps, and Montréal was the loudest place in cycling.
Read the full stage
Race Report
26·09·26 · Race Report
Now It's Mine: Vollering Beats Niewiadoma-Phinney to the Rainbow Jersey in Montréal
Eight laps of Mont Royal, one Dutch lead-out and 38 kilometres of doubt. Demi Vollering attacked with three climbs of Camillien-Houde to go, rode alone for the better part of two laps, was caught, watched Elisa Longo Borghini ride away at the bell — and still had the legs to close it, drop the Italian, and beat Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney in a two-up sprint that replayed the Tour de France on the final rise. A first rainbow jersey after three Worlds medals of the wrong colour, and the Triple Crown — Giro, Tour and Worlds in one season — for only the second woman ever. Behind, a sixteen-rider crash had already ended Magdeleine Vallières Mill's home title defence in tears.
Race Report
20·09·26 · Race Report
Four in a Row: Evenepoel Crushes the Worlds Time Trial in Montréal
Nobody had ever won four straight world time trial titles. Nobody had ever really been close. On 39.2 technical kilometres through Montréal, Remco Evenepoel ended the argument at the first split and spent the rest of the afternoon widening it: fastest at every checkpoint, the only man over 52 km/h, and 57 seconds clear of Filippo Ganna at the line. Paul Seixas, 19, took bronze a week after pushing Del Toro on these same roads. Evenepoel now sits level with Cancellara and Tony Martin on four titles — except neither of them did it in a row, and neither of them looked like this doing it.
Race Report
19·09·26 · Race Report
Alone for 175 Kilometres: Van der Poel Ends Luxembourg With the Ride of the Year
There is long-range, and then there is what Mathieu van der Poel did to the final stage of the Tour de Luxembourg: attacked on the first unclassified rise with 175 km still to race, found himself alone, and simply stayed there all day — one of the longest successful solo breakaways in the sport's recorded history. Six chasers organised and failed; the peloton never saw him again; and he crossed the line 1:04 clear of Mikkel Honoré. "That was not the plan," he said afterwards, which is the most frightening sentence of the week. Davide Piganzoli quietly sealed the overall. Seven days before the Worlds road race, subtlety is officially dead.
Étape 04Race Report16·09·26
Race Report
Caught and Uncatchable Anyway: Van der Poel Opens the Tour de Luxembourg
Mathieu van der Poel's idea of World Championships preparation is to attack a five-day stage race from 11 kilometres out, get hauled back with four to go, and then win the sprint anyway. Stage 1 of the Tour de Luxembourg looped 157 km around the capital's climbs to a finish at the Fëschmaart, and the Dutchman treated it as a dress rehearsal with the volume all the way up: the long raid with Eike Behrens bridging, the catch, Bagioli's late flyer — and a 500-metre counter that nobody held. Gautherat and Van den Berg completed the podium; Van der Poel took the jersey. Montréal has been warned.
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Étape 05Race Report16·09·26
Race Report
Twenty Years Old on the Citadelle: Sparfel Stuns Namur
The Grand Prix de Wallonie always ends the same way — everyone together at the foot of the Citadelle de Namur, and three cobbled kilometres to sort the brave from the strong. This year the strong included Tim Wellens, Romain Grégoire and Paul Lapeira, and the winner was none of them: Aubin Sparfel, 20 years old, surged past Grégoire's sprint in the final metres to take the biggest win of his young career for Decathlon CMA CGM. For Grégoire, second on the wall a week after leading out the wrong man in Pescara, the autumn is being cruel with its margins. For French cycling, the production line just shipped another one.
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Étape 06Race Diary15·09·26
Race Diary
Grupetto Visits Montréal: A Day on the Mountain at the Grand Prix
You can watch sixteen laps of Mont Royal on television, or you can stand on it and let the race come to you sixteen times. Last Sunday Grupetto did the second thing: up at dawn, coffee on Avenue du Parc, a spot on the fences of Camillien-Houde, and an afternoon spent walking the new Worlds circuit while Del Toro and Seixas took the race apart somewhere over our heads. This is what a WorldTour classic looks like from the grass — the sound before the helicopter, the grupetto's faces on lap twelve, and the strange privilege of standing on tarmac that will decide a rainbow jersey two weeks later. Camera in hand, notebook in pocket. Come along.
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Étape 07Race Report14·09·26
Race Report
The Dress Rehearsal Has a Star: Del Toro Beats Seixas on the Worlds Circuit
Two weeks before the World Championships race the very same roads, the GP de Montréal told everyone what to fear. Sixteen laps of the new 13.4 km Mont Royal circuit — 4,300 metres of Camillien-Houde, Polytechnique and Pagnuelo — came down to a final-lap duel between two of cycling's youngest heavyweights: Paul Seixas attacked, Isaac del Toro bridged, and the pair put thirty seconds into everyone with a Worlds jersey on their minds. Seixas dug again at four to go; Del Toro sat, waited, and won the 800-metre uphill sprint with something close to ease. McNulty was third at half a minute, and Evenepoel — dropped, then heroic in the chase — fifth. See you back here on the 27th.
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Étape 08Race Report13·09·26
Race Report
Twelve Years, Ended Under the Alhambra: Mas Wins the Vuelta as Johannessen Takes Granada
No processional this year. The Vuelta's finale threw four ascents of the cobbled climb below the Alhambra at a race that refused to coast, and it produced both endings at once: Tobias Halland Johannessen outkicking Alessandro Romele for the stage after Ramses Debruyne split the front group inside 2 km — and Enric Mas, three times a runner-up, crossing the line as the first Spanish winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014. He inherited red the day Pogačar crashed out and defended it on every summit the race could find. By 2:15 over Roglič, after 21 stages and one very long twelve years: campeón.
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Étape 09Race Report13·09·26
Race Report
Norway's First Matteotti: Løland Surprises Them All in Pescara
While one Uno-X rider was winning under the Alhambra, another was making different history in Abruzzo. The 78th Trofeo Matteotti spent its afternoon shredding attack after attack — Cosnefroy's group, Ponomar's solo, Grégoire's late trio — and when everything came back together on Pescara's seafront, it was Sakarias Koller Løland who proved fastest, beating home hope Ludovico Crescioli and Benoît Cosnefroy in the sprint. The second win of the Norwegian's career, both of them on Italian roads, and the first Norwegian name on the Matteotti's 78-edition roll of honour. Somewhere in Oslo, a very good Sunday.
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On the wire
Stage 05 05
By the numbers
Stories filed
Since we started this thing in a Montréal café, late 2024.
Kilometres ridden
Reporting on the road — not from a press tent.
Coffees consumed
Mostly espresso. Some doppios. One regrettable Americano.
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