2026 Men's World Championship RR Results & Recap
2026 Men's World Championship RR is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Brandon McNulty (USA) became the first American rider to win the elite men's World Road Race Championship since 1993 after attacking 33km from the finish. Almost caught on the final climb, McNulty held on to win by 13 seconds ahead of Michael Matthews (AUS) and Mathieu van der Poel (NED).
Quinn Simmons (USA) just missed out on a medal as he finished a close fourth behind Van der Poel. The American was followed across the line by Isaac Del Toro (MEX) and Mads Pedersen (DEN).
A break of 16 riders formed early on the initial loop out of the east of Montreal, building up a lead of 8'30" as it returned to the city for the first of 12 laps of the downtown circuit. That advantage was whittled away over the next four laps, largely due to a long stint of powerful pace-making by Bruno Armirail (FRA).
Once the break had been caught, Anthon Charmig (DEN) was the first attacker from the bunch. After a lap on his own, the Dane was joined by 14 riders, including Van der Poel, Simmons, Primož RogliÄ (SLO), Oscar Onley (GBR) and Ben Healy (IRL).
With six laps to go, Van der Poel attacked, with Onley and Simmons the only riders who could follow his acceleration. RogliÄ joined them with five laps to go. With four left, Van der Poel pressed hard again, dropping Onley and RogliÄ, although the Slovenian soon got back up to the Dutchman and Simmons.
Although the trio collaborated well, their lead never reached much more than 30 seconds on the chasers, led initially by Onley and Ben Healy (IRL). With three laps to go, Healy bridged across to the front group. Soon after, another eight riders joined the leading quartet, including Simmons' USA teammates McNulty and Matteo Jorgenson (USA).
No sooner had that group of 12 formed than Jorgenson attacked. Tom Pidcock (GBR) and Giulio Ciccone (ITA) were quick to respond, followed soon after by the rest of the group. As the pace lulled at the front, McNulty countered and this time no one tried to track the lone attacker.
Crossing the finish line to start the penultimate lap, the American's lead was 1'08". That advantage was halved on the climb that followed, where Pidcock and Healy tried to go clear, although every move was quickly marked by Jorgenson.
Pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel (BEL) found his way into the chase group on that lap and attacked towards the end of it. Up ahead, McNulty began the final lap with a lead of 52 seconds as the Belgian was chased down by his rivals.
On the final long climb, Ciccone and Pidcock were the next attackers and the pair almost bridged across to McNulty at the top of it. They cut the gap to just 10 seconds at the crest, but were caught soon after. Once again, the impetus went out of the chase and McNulty's lead increased. Going into the final kilometre, his gap had reached 23 seconds, enough for the American to hold on for victory even though he admitted he was "dying" in those final moments.
The evergreen Matthews led in the pursuit for his fourth medal at the Worlds, the Australian just beating out Van der Poel for silver as the Dutchman took the bronze medal.
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