There are big things ahead for Abel Balderstone, with the Spanish Caja Rural-Seguros RGA rider having signed a contract with UAE Team Emirates-XRG for the next three seasons, but that doesn't mean he is resting on his laurels in the meantime.

On Monday's stage 2 at Le Tour de Langkawi the 26-year-old laid down a task to his rivals on the lower slopes of Gunung Jerai, going early on the 10.6km climb with an average gradient approaching ten percent but with steep ramps to deliver an extra punch.

Balderstone and his teammate Jan Castellon, who will be racing for Pinarello Q36.5 from next season, were both part of the leading group that took off on the climb which meant they made a decision.

"We were two, and we decided that one would attack and another stay behind," Balderstone told Cyclingnews at the top of the climb.

It looked for quite some time like that may have been the winning plan, with Balderstone appearing unflappable as rode on alone toward the top. But then Lennart Jasch (Tudor Pro Cycling) leapt out of the group and made the junction before pushing on alone with a powerful turn of pace.

"The last one kilometer, I was very dead, and I did the most I can," said Balderstone

The Spanish rider added in a media statement from the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team that he was ; "A little disappointed to finish second after leading for much of the climb, but I have to admit the Tudor rider was stronger."

Still Balderstone held firm in second, crossing the line just 16 seconds back from Jasch, while teammate Castellon crossed the line 32 seconds back from the winning time, and also with a 32 second advantage to the fourth-placed José Manuel Diaz (Burgos Burpellet BH). With time bonuses factored in Balderstone is now 20 seconds back from Jasch on the general classification and Castellon 38 seconds in arrears, and there are no other rivals within a minute.

On top of that the rider is content with his form, having raced Vuelta a Burgos since the Tour de France and also "preparing really well" through August and September.

What's more, this was just the first volley in the ongoing match, with the finish at the top of the category one climb on Monday soon to be followed by the HC summit finishes at the Cameron and Genting Highlands on stage 4 and 5.

"I think we have a big opportunity in the two climbing stages with Jan or with me and we have to try it, and try to win a stage and win the GC," Balderstone told Cyclingnews, adding that the longer climbs should suit both of them better.

After that, regardless of the outcome, there is another big prize ahead for Balderstone as after his final races with Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, the team where he started his career, he will be preparing to pull on a new kit, the one that belongs to the world's number one team and the squad of Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

"It's a dream for me going to this big team," said Balderstone. "I'm happy and anxious to go there and start the year with them."

*Cyclingnews attended Le Tour de Langkawi on an invitation/media package from the race that included travel and accommodation. In line with our editorial standards, our coverage is independent and was not subject to review, approval or influence by the organiser or any sponsor; no favourable coverage was promised or given in return.

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Torbjørn Røed (Trek Driftless) and Lauren De Crescenzo (The Feed-Argonaut-Castelli-Maxxis) continued personal hot streaks with victories at the Life Time Rad Dirt Fest on Saturday.

Røed was now two-for-two in his new Norwegian gravel champion's jersey, following his top spot at Lauf Gravel Worlds in Nebraska with this elite men's win in Trinidad, Colorado.

The decisive move for men was made two miles from the finish of the 110-mile race, Røed going six seconds ahead of USA's Keegan Swirbul in a two-up finish. New Zealand's Caleb Bottcher came in 10 minutes later to round out the podium.

"Altitude races are always tougher and Keegan Swirbul made it a battle. Happy I was able to time it perfectly and catch you at the last km," Røed said on Instagram.

The Rad Dirt Fest began in 2021, where De Crescenzo took her first victory, and she's never lost in her four other starts, only missing the event in 2022, now dubbed 'the queen' of the Rad Dirt Fest.

The five-time winner finished solo, 20 minutes ahead of Hannah Shell in second place. New Zealand's Charlotte Clark was just a couple of minutes.

Both De Crescenzo and Røed are part of the Grand Prix this year, but no points were scored for the series. The race was last included as part of the Life Time Grand Prix two years ago and will return to the series in 2027, part of seven races from April to October.

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Results

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Because the cycling world has a short memory, most of the talk over the next few days is going to be about the men's road race at the World Championships, and about how one of the most unpredictable races in years delivered a surprising but highly deserving winner in Brandon McNulty (USA).

The women's race got its own spotlight on Saturday, which is fantastic and the way it should be, but it did mean that attention quite quickly switched to the men's race, and the conversation moved on fast. Compound that with the fact that Sunday offered a surprise winner whilst Saturday's race was won by the favourite, and we run the risk of remembering this weekend as a thrilling men's race, and an as-predicted women's race.

But that would betray the fact that actually, both races over the weekend were gripping, unpredictable and highly competitive in their own way, and neither played out in a way that anyone could have scripted.

If you didn't watch the women's race, it would be easy to look at the results and think 'Oh, yeah, that's exactly what we all predicted would happen', and paint a picture in your mind of a straightforward race and a straightforward victory for Demi Vollering. She was the favourite, and she won. The podium was the exact same podium as the Tour de France Femmes. On paper, it all went as expected.

But of course, racing does not take place on paper, and the race itself will always tell you much, much more than the results sheet. In reality, this was a race that was not decided until the final few seconds, with all of the top four in the battle for victory until the final moments and – crucially – actually all trying to win, too.

There was a moment where it looked like Demi Vollering might Tadej Pogačar the race, that is to say, go long and win by brute force, riding everyone well off her wheel to take a solo victory. She capitalised on work from her teammate Puck Pieterse – which had dropped riders like Lotte Kopecky and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney – to attack solo with 38km to go, catch lone leader Maeva Squiban, and pull out a gap because no one followed her.

Except Vollering is not Pogačar, and so something happened that so rarely happens to her Slovenian peer; she was caught. It wasn't race over, no one was conceding their chances were over and racing for the medals. Niewiadoma-Phinney and Elisa Longo Borghini regrouped and went in pursuit of the Dutchwoman, joining her with 15km to go. Not long after the catch, Longo Borghini attacked on her own, but again, there was no marking each other out behind – Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering brought her back, and then dropped her.

In the finale, Niewiadoma-Phinney, who is so often derided for her tactical decisions, did everything right. She couldn't just sit on Vollering and do no work, because then Longo Borghini would almost certainly come back. But she also had to save enough energy to be able to try one of the only two things that would help her win: a late solo attack, or the sprint of her life at the line.

So that's what she did, she managed her efforts with Vollering, she put in one big attack on the penultimate climb, and then when that didn't work, she sat on to save herself for the sprint. She timed her sprint really well, too, going late on one of the steeper points, giving herself the best possible chance of winning. And no, it wasn't enough, because Vollering's acceleration was simply better, but Niewiadoma-Phinney gave herself every possible chance to win, racing for the victory and believing she could until the very last moment, which isn't something we can always say in cycling.

Elisa Longo Borghini, too, pushed all the way until the line, very nearly catching the leading pair on the finishing straight, and in contention to win herself until the last few metres.

The same is true for Marlen Reusser, who came from nowhere to appear round the final corner only a few seconds behind the leaders as they started the climb to the finish line, seeing rainbow within reach and going for it until the very end.

So yes, it was a race where the favourite won, but at no point did it feel like that was the only option, or a foregone conclusion, and Vollering's rivals made sure that nothing was over until it was over.

Racing for second?

Cycling, be it men's or women's, can often fall victim to what many have playfully dubbed 'group two syndrome'. It's a catch-all for those occasions when the chase group seems close enough to catch whoever is in the lead, but they look at each other and hesitate to chase, unwilling to bring each other to the front, and instead they all lose. It's frustrating to watch, and must be even more frustrating to be a part of.

It's what happened last year when Magdeleine Vallieres surprised the world with her win in Kigali. Not to take anything away from Vallieres' bold and strong ride – certainly no one 'let' her win – but behind her, the pre-race favourites just looked at each other, marked each other out, and ultimately all missed out on even a consolation medal.

It's not an unusual occurrence, and one that can really put a dampener on the race. On Sunday, whilst the top three were beaming on the podium with their medals, no one overly disappointed because they all seemed to finish the race with no regrets, fourth-placed Reusser made some striking comments.

"I had the feeling that I'm the only one racing for first place," she told Eurosport after finding herself in the chasing group behind the top three, having missed the decisive attack as she desperately needed to take a feed.

"I thought 'let's go for first' but I had the feeling that there were a lot of teammates around, everybody racing for second. It's short after the race, this is just what's in me now and I still need to watch it back, but my feeling is that we raced for second.

"If somebody like Demi is out, you cannot just pull a bit. You [either] pull, or the race is over. I think I showed full commitment to pull, and most of them didn't. If people are just sitting in and not really pulling then nothing is going, so then Demi just wins."

Except, I'm not sure that's really what happened. Reusser often has a really sharp, no-holds-barred take on racing, but this time, I don't think she got it quite right. It's hard to know exactly what was going on in the chasing group that Reusser found herself in, because we didn't see much of that in the finale, and equally it's hard for her to know what was happening up front.

Perhaps the group Reusser was in in the finale – which included Juliette Berthet, riding for France but Vollering's teammate usually – did not give it their all, but even if that's the case, they were riding for fourth at that point, not second. Maybe what she said was in the heat of the moment of frustration and disappointment, and once she has watched the race back she may think differently.

Reusser may have rued missing the key move, but up the road, no one was there settling or racing for silver – the three leaders were all there for the win, and Vollering certainly did not 'just win' as if she were unchallenged.

We absolutely do see days where riders race for second or third with a frustrating lack of ambition or risk-taking, but Saturday was not one of those days.

And in truth, the fact that every top rider was racing for the win until the very end is what made this race so special, so memorable, and far from a predestined Vollering win.

Because she's the Tour de France Femmes champion, and the winner of so many big Classics already this year, her win won't go down in the history books as a big surprise or underdog triumph like Brandon McNulty's will. But don't let that trick you into thinking Saturday wasn't also a very special race, with the best riders in the world all giving everything they had to go for the rainbow jersey.

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Isaac del Toro has expressed his deep disappointment at not taking home a better result from the 2026 Road World Championships after the Mexican kept himself in the fight all the way through to the finish, only to find that the medals remained tantalisingly out of reach.

In a year where Del Toro has already claimed third overall and a stage win in his Tour de France debut, two months later in the Canada World Championships, the 22-year-old went two spots better than his seventh place last year in Kigali, finishing fifth in Montreal on Sunday.

However, that was as good as it got for Del Toro and this was despite his playing a major role in chasing down the dangerous Mathieu van der Poel-inspired breakaway that was only reeled in in the closing 40 kilometres. The problem was that, try as he might, the recent GP Montréal winner subsequently could not break away in the crunch finale, and after Brandon McNulty (USA) took off alone, Del Toro found himself limited to fighting for the remaining medals on offer.

Furthermore, Del Toro rode the Worlds with five Mexican teammates, but his compatriots' experience at racing at the highest level of cycling ranged from very limited at best to non-existent. Two of them race for US Continental outfits, one is a member of a club back in Mexico and two are independent, unsponsored riders.

However, while he had nothing but praise for his compatriots and how they had ridden in such forbidding terrain, Del Toro said that he could not be happy with the final result he achieved.

"We've received an incredible amount of support, they didn't deserve anything less than a gold medal," Del Toro told ESPN MX after going on a walkabout at the finish to greet the huge crowd of Mexican fans chanting his nickname, Torito, Torito.

"That's what we came for, and that's what we tried to get."

"But the moment where I wanted to ease back a bit to then get into full-on racing mode was just when I found myself in a very complicated situation."

Del Toro's one mistake, he said, came very late on, when trade teammate Brandon McNulty had taken gold and the chasers were fighting for the last spots on the podium.

"I think it was clear that we came to win, I left it all out there, we tried everything, maybe I should have positioned myself better for that final sprint," Del Toro said to ESPN MX.

"So I'm satisfied with the effort, but I'm not happy at all. I'm not settling for this at all. We knew we could win and it's a pity I didn't do it."

Punching above their weight

Del Toro argued that the Mexican team, despite their limitations, had consistently punched above their collective weight. At the same time, whenever he tried to wrest the momentum more towards his favour, he found that other squads were able to make the most of his relative lack of top support - although that only motivated him and Mexico to come back stronger at the Worlds in the future.

"We were very decisive and I'm happy with the race we did, we raced very well as a nation. We didn't win but we took a good step forward in terms of our group mentality and our ambitions for these kinds of races," he said.

"And if all the peloton raced a little against us or used the fact we didn't have the best team, I think we're going to battle all the more next year."

As for the 2026 Worlds, Del Toro recognised that when it came to chasing down a move powered by riders as strong and in form as Quinn Simmons (USA), Van der Poel and Primoz Roglič (Slovenia), it was only feasible by going all in. As he told ESPN MX "I didn't want the gold medal to get away from me."

"Finally, though, it was very difficult for me to keep going and I think I ran fifth, unfortunately, so it's a bittersweet taste. We have to go on fighting."

Regarding his trade teammate and his breakaway victory, Del Toro said that as a rider who devoted a lot of time working very hard for others, McNulty was a deserving winner. But that didn't mean his own personal ambitions to claim the jersey were any less strong for that.

"I could be arrogant and say I want the rainbow for me," Del Toro told ESPN MX. "But even if I'm happy for him because I know him a bit, I also know that Mexico came here to win."

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Tom Pidcock threw everything at the Elite Men's World Road Race on Sunday, where he eventually finished 7th, and that included a special wheel upgrade to try and maximise his chances of winning.

For the big day, the Briton switched out his Pinarello-Q36.5 team's sponsored Zipp wheels for some R-Series wheels from Australian brand, Partington.

In years gone by, riders often switched wheels for a World Championship, and for a time Lightweight (the brand's name) wheels were a popular choice, with various riders rumoured to have purchased their world wheels themselves.

Riders are technically allowed to use different kit at a World Championship due to the fact that they are representing their nation, not their regular trade team.

But in recent years, most riders seem to use their stock trade team equipment, so as to avoid any awkward conversations on their return, but Pidcock seems to have gone searching for an extra technical advantage.

Here's what we know about Pidcock's wheels and tyres, and how they might differ from the wheels he usually rides.

Pidcock appears to have used the Partington R-Series Performance wheelset, which retails for a healthy AUD $5,500 - or US $3,856.46 - based on today's conversion rate.

Partington offers two wheelsets in its R-Series lineup, and we reviewed the previous iteration a couple of years ago. It seems Partington has created a cheaper wheelset in this latest R-Series iteration; the previous wheelset cost AU$ 9,898 or US $6,400.

The silver anodised aluminium hubs, which have 68 engagement points, on the wheels Pidcock used show the model, which is $1,000 cheaper than the Performance Ti wheelset the brand offers, which has black hubs and ceramic bearings. That is, of course, unless Pidcock was riding a custom-built wheelset with differing specs from stock.

Partington employs something called 'floating bearing architecture,' a design that, in short, attempts to provide the best possible bearing performance and lifespan. This feature was present on the previous generation wheelset we tested and resulted in a very impressive spin test.

Pidcock used the 50mm version of the wheelset setup with Vittoria Corsa Pro Speed tubeless time trial tyres, which are now widely used in the pro peloton.

The wheels feature a foam core and have a 23mm hooked rinner rim with a 34mm external width.

Partington says they are designed around a 30mm tyre, which aligns with the 30mm Vittoria Corsa Pro Speed tyres Pidcock used.

Pidcock's Pinarello-Q36.5 trade team races on Zipp wheels, and Pidcock tends to use the American brand's 454 NSW wheels.

According to the SRAM website, that wheelset comes in at 1,400 grams for the pair, so based on Partington's listed weights, Pidcock would have saved himself a healthy 200 grams with his upgrade.

Alongside the weight saving, Pidcock likely gained the advantage of a stiffer wheelset, not least due to Partington's carbon fibre spokes, compared to the steel-spoked Zipps. The R-Series wheels use 'Flexon' Toray carbon fibre spokes, which it says results in 'world-class lateral stiffness.'

Pidcock's wheels weren't the only interesting tech we spotted during Worlds week; a new Canyon Speedmax CFR time trial bike was ridden to gold by Marlen Reusser, who interestingly used a deeper front wheel and shallower rear for the women's road race.

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Few gravel bikes have caused quite as much of a stir in recent years as the new Factor Elara, with its massive forks, racy geometry, and impressive aero figures according to Factor and backed up by our own independent wind tunnel testing.

Senior Tech Writer and Cyclingnews Tech YouTube presenter, Will, has been putting it through its paces since launch and describes it as "an unapologetically race-oriented machine, with no concessions to non-race utility", though he does concede that unlike Factor's road-going hyper bike, the ONE, it is a lot more useable for the non-professional rider.

Want to see how it fared in a full video review? Well, as a Cyclingnews subscriber, you don't have to wait until the latest video goes live on YouTube; you can just scroll down a bit to watch how the fastest gravel bike in our wind tunnel testing performs in the real world.

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Mathieu van der Poel has confirmed that the World Championships in Canada was the final road racing event on his 2026 calendar, with only one sponsorship obligation left before he returns home to Europe and a break from competition.

Van der Poel captured a bronze medal at the hard-fought elite men World Championships road race, where he was on the attack with nearly 90 kilometres left to go. The Van der Poel-inspired move was eventually caught, but the rider from the Netherlands then returned to the thick of the action in the sprint behind solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA).

Van der Poel told Wielerflits after the Worlds that the rainbow jersey battle was where his road program ended for 2026.

His 2026 road season has seen multiple successes come his way throughout the year, starting with a solo breakaway to victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Other highlights included a dramatic win at the E3 SaxoClassic and a stage of the Tour de France.

Despite showing excellent current form with a daylong 176-kilometre solo breakaway in a stage of the Tour de Luxembourg prior to being a key protagonist throughout the Worlds, Van der Poel has now opted to end his road season.

He also said that his participation in the upcoming cyclo-cross season, a speciality he has dominated for years, remains uncertain. One possible reason for missing out is that his partner Roxanne Bertels is due to give birth to their first child in January, just when racing in the speciality is at its height.

"This [The Worlds] was my last race. Now there is a visit to our sponsor Premier Tech, and then I’m going back home," he told Wielerflits on Sunday evening in Canada.

"The cyclo-cross season? I haven’t thought about that yet."

"Becoming a father for the first time is very special. We’ll see."

Last year Van der Poel's first cyclo-cross race was in Namur on December 14, after which he took an unbroken run of 13 victories, culminating in the World Championships on home soil in Hulst on February 1 this spring.

Van der Poel had already mentioned in the past that skipping his usual program of cyclo-cross, a sport where he is currently a record-breaking eight-time reigning World Champion, was a possibility on his racing program that he'd not ruled out. The reason he gave when discussing this was he'd miss out in order to concentrate his energy more fully on the Classics season that follows.

Over the years, Van der Poel has taken a string of victories in all the Spring Monuments barring Liège-Bastogne-Liège - considered by some to be too hilly for his skillset, although he once took third place in La Doyenne, back in 2024.

More importantly and regarding his main spring focus of the cobbled Classics, in the last couple of seasons Van der Poel has not been able to maintain a consistent upper hand against arch-rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and his last win in Flanders, for example, dates from 2024, when Pogačar was not present. Skipping cyclo-cross season potentially could allow him to raise his game against the Slovenian star.

Whilst it remains to be seen what Van der Poel will do in the winter, then, one thing is already clear; rather than continue into the autumn Classics, his road season for 2026 is now at an end.

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Lennart Jasch (Tudor Pro Cycling) climbed his way to victory at Gunung Jerai on stage 2 of Le Tour de Langkawi, jumping right to the top of the GC pecking order after the first of three summit finishes and firing a warning shot to his rivals in Malaysia and beyond.

The German, who transitioned from speed skating after an injury, is in only his first season in the professional ranks, but charged up the testing climb like an old hand as he chased down and caught Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Serguros RGA) and then kept the pressure onto carve out a gap of 16 seconds by the end of the second stage of the 30th edition of the Malaysian Pro Tour race.

Balderstone, who will next year move over to UAE Team Emirates-XRG, held onto his second place while his teammate Jan Castellon was next at 32 seconds back on the stage.

"With the heat and humidity its super hard and also the climb is super hard so you can't really hide," Jasch told the media after heading up to stand on the top step of the podium after his stage win and also to claim the orange leader's jersey.

"In the end, it's not so much about tactics and, maybe it sounds stupid when I say this now," he said with a laugh, "but in the end the strongest mostly wins on this climb. So yeah, it's not so much about tactics but it's a really, really honest climb."

There was never any doubt that this would be an important day for the overall standings as while much of the 145.6km stage from Taiping to Gunung Jerai was flat, that all changed through the final when the race hit the final category 1 climb at 10.6km to go.

At that point there was no easing in, the sharp left onto the ascent going straight into a narrow and steep ramp before continuing to pile on the pain with its twists up through the hairpin bends that seem to just keep coming. The Kedah climb, which through the breaks in the forest opened up to vistas of Straits of Malacca, carved out substantial gaps in the overall beyond the top three spots, with no other riders within a minute of Jasch. With the win bonuses taken into account, Balderstone sits 20 seconds back and Castellon at 38 seconds.

"There are six more stages to come so the GC is still super super open," said Jasch. "It will be a super hard fight and also really hard to keep this jersey."

How it unfolded

Seven riders went out on a day when the attacks once again started early, with Hakimi Nazuan (Malaysia National Team), Javier Ibanez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) Ade Meisa (Nusantara), Iqbal Nawawi (Malaysia Pro Cycling), Jihwan Park (KSPO) plus Aiman Zariff and Aiman Rosli of Terengganu. Meisa took the first intermediate sprint at 41km into the day of racing but by the time riders hit the category 4 climb at Selama 53.6km into the day of racing the lead group was splitting and it was Zariff who took top points.

By the second intermediate sprint at Padang Serai it was just Meisa and Nawawi left out front from the break, and Harold Martin López (XDS Astana) snuck out front to grab the final bonus which came with a one second time advantage. After taking the runner-up spot in the second sprint, Nawawi took top points in the third, by that stage, 114km in, being the lone survivor of the break.

XDS Astana were once again prominent in controlling the front of the race as the race headed toward its first summit and the peloton entered the climb all together but that didn't last long, The sprinters kicked in the clutch after what had, to that point, been a largely flat day all of a sudden took a different turn.

There had been plenty of conjecture through the lead in as to just who would come out on top after this first climbing test, with the travel, heat, humidity and unfamiliar environment all adding op the challenge for the European-based professionals.

Though Jasch proved he was up to it, taking his third victory of the year and carving out a 20 second advantage on the overall standings in his first big test in a tour as team leader. The next two will come on stage 4 and 5, with the longer climbs of the Cameron and Genting Highlands to tackle and the Caja Rural-Serguros RGA duo sitting poised behind.

Cyclingnews attended Le Tour de Langkawi on an invitation/media package from the race that included travel and accommodation. In line with our editorial standards, our coverage is independent and was not subject to review, approval or influence by the organiser or any sponsor; no favourable coverage was promised or given in return.

Results

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European gravel champion Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) and Magnus Bak Klaris (PAS Racing) earned the victories on Saturday at Gravel Grit'n Grind in Halmstad, Sweden, which was the final UCI Gravel World Series qualifying event for the Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Australia.

It was a solo victory for both, with Markus taking out the win with a time of 4:44:28, carving out a gap of nearly one minute to her nearest rival Caroline Bome in second while Elisa Serne (Foodmaker X GravelKing) was third more than two minutes back.

"Pretty cool to win in this jersey," said Markus in an Instagram post. "Always love to race in Halmstad, the gravel roads here are so beautiful! Tried to make a hard race today and happy I could finish it off."

Bak Klaris had carved out a 51 second margin to Sondre Mokke bt the time he crossed the line in 3:58:52 while Gustav Frederik Dahl was third, a further minute behind.

Lukas Malezsewski (GVA Gold Gravel), a six-time Belgian mountain bike champion, secured the overall Gravelking UCI Gravel World Series title. Oceania gravel champion Nicole Frain (Factor Racing-Factor) entered the weekend as the women's leader in the series, competing at Pyrénées Catalanes Gravel Tour in France.

Gravel Grit'n Grind returned for a fifth time in the Gravelking UCI Gravel World Series, one of the few events that has been part of the global series since the first year in 2022. Elite men and elite women faced a 154km route across the gravel roads and forest tracks of Halland.

Results

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Giulio Ciccone expressed disappointment at not delivering a medal for Italy in the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal on Sunday.

Representing the squadra azzurra, Ciccone could only manage ninth place after a hard-fought race on the challenging Mount Royal circuits, where Brandon McNulty (USA) rode away with a solo victory to claim the rainbow jersey.

"I feel sorry for the result. I think we deserved more, sincerely," he said.

The Italian was part of a selection that formed after relentless attacks from Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), and while the front group reshuffled several times in the following laps, Ciccone stayed in the mix for the world title, even when several smaller groups reconnected up front.

McNulty attacked the group and went solo with 32km remaining, and while the gap fluctuated between a minute and 15 seconds, with little collaboration and many tired legs in the chase behind, they couldn't bring him back.

"In the finale, the cards got reshuffled, and we had riders like Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, and Quinn Simmons, who weren't interested in closing the gap and did not collaborate to close it down," Ciccone said, noting that McNulty's two teammates, Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson, were in the group too but certainly not obliged to help in the chase.

"On the climb, I tried with [Tom] Pidcock, but the energy was done. For a moment, I believed that because we could see McNulty was 20 seconds [ahead]; we had a gap, and with Pidcock we had the interest to go full gas."

Pidcock and Ciccone were brought back, as McNulty powered to his nation's first elite men's rainbow jersey since 1993 and the biggest win of his career.

"I said last week that the World Championships are an open and tactical race. We reshuffled so many times. It was a very difficult race tactically, and you cannot follow everyone," added Ciccone.

"I'm disappointed about the results. It's such a hard race. We were present, and we had a good performance; I just feel sorry for the results."

The World Championships were not all for nought for Italy, with the nation winning the mixed relay, Filippo Ganna taking silver in the elite men's time trial, Nicolas Milesi taking silver in the under-23 men's time trial, Matilde Rossignoli taking the silver medal in the junior women's road race, and Elisa Longo Borghini taking bronze in the elite women's road race.

Ciccone said he would spend some time recovering from the Worlds before deciding whether to compete at the European Road Championships and Il Lombardia in the coming weeks.

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Mathieu van der Poel might have said before that the 2026 UCI Road World Championships course in Montreal was not well-suited to him, but the Dutchman made the most of a positively bonkers elite men's road race on Sunday, taking the bronze medal behind solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA) and just missing out on silver to Michael Matthews (Australia).

It seemed like a suicide move when Van der Poel went up the road with 11 other riders, including Belgium's Wout van Aert, with 87km to go. It seemed even more risky when he continued attacking, going clear with Van Aert, Quinn Simmons (USA), Primož Roglič (Slovenia), Oscar Onley (Great Britain) and Athon Charmig (Denmark), and when he attacked that group again with 52km to go.

"It was, as expected, a very hard race, especially with the pace the French team was putting immediately from when we entered the local lap, and then it never stopped," Van der Poel said, explaining that he chose to attack from so far out because the Voie Camillien-Houde each lap was so hard.

Unlike Glasgow, when Van der Poel claimed his only rainbow jersey on the road in 2023 on a course with steep but short climbs, the 13.3km circuit in Montreal featured the Voie Camillien-Houde ascent, which is 1.8km long and averages 7.5%. The men tackled it on each of the 12 laps, and the route was expected to favour pure climbers like Isaac del Toro (Mexico) or Paul Seixas (France).

In the end, it was the climbers who suffered under the constant attacks rather than taking the race on from the front, in part because of Van der Poel and his fellow attackers.

"I just wanted to make sure I was already in front before the real climbers attacked, because if you see the riders that come across, it's almost all climbers," Van der Poel said. "I don't know if I could manage to go with them on the climb. You never know if they stop cooperating a little bit behind. It's also possible if we got one more minute in front, and then the race is maybe also over.

"I think it was a bit what I wanted to do today, just go in the offensive mode."

It was just the style of racing that the Dutchman enjoys most, and he highlighted that it was largely because at Worlds riders compete without radio communication to the team cars.

"This is the best thing there is, racing without earpieces. That always makes for the best races," Van der Poel said to NOS.nl. "I'm quite a fan of it. Then you really have to race on instinct, and that's what I prefer to do."

When the move was finally brought back with 35km to go, and soon after McNulty launched his solo move, Van der Poel never gave up believing in his second rainbow jersey.

"It was still quite a long way, but I saw immediately that McNulty's attack was a good attempt," Van der Poel said. "He has ridden well on this course before and it was a name I had in the back of my mind, but I don't think it was up to me to react."

Van der Poel bided his time as others tried to nail back the American, knowing he still had a chance to win from the group if McNulty was caught.

"I think it was not up to me to close gaps anymore. I knew I had to gamble a little bit to try and become World Champion. So yeah, I just made my decision there and stuck with it.

"Of course, it's a World Championship, so I really wanted to go for the medal. I managed to recover also a little bit when the group caught me. The first time on the climb I was struggling, but then afterwards I could recover a little bit and then I was a bit less on the limit.

"I'm happy with the medal, and I think considering it was such a hard race, I did a really good performance to be on the podium, actually. I can be happy."

Van der Poel let on that he is expecting his first child with partner Roxanne Bertels, and so has not yet made any plans to defend his world title in cyclocross in January.

"I haven't thought about that yet. Becoming a father for the first time is very special. We'll see."

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Brandon McNulty allowed himself one last look behind with 50 metres to go on the climb of l'avenue du Parc in Montreal, only then allowing himself to acknowledge he had just won the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships.

The 28-year-old then found his wife Summer and a US flag in the massive crowd, embracing both and trying to grasp what he had just done, for himself and his country.

Teammate Matteo Jorgenson quickly landed a bear hug and yelled, "You just won the Worlds!" Then McNulty seemed to allow a smile to illuminate his face as the feat he had just accomplished almost sank in. His solo sortie of 33km landed the first US road race victory at Road Worlds since Lance Armstrong in 1993.

"It's been an hour now and I still don't believe it," McNulty began in his comments and answers at the post-race press conference.

"Today, I didn't really think the [rainbow] jersey was something that would genuinely happen. Of course, we dreamed and we had hopes, but some days everything comes together.

"I mean, I knew they [chasers] were coming close, and then the gap would grow. And then I know how hard the last 500 meters are from the last corner. I was completely empty. I mean, I was on the verge of cramping; I was on the verge of bonking," he admitted with a wry smile.

"I would sit down and started to cramp. I would stand up and fall because my legs were like noodles. So I really didn't believe it until I could see 50 metres to go and look back and there was no one there. And then I could accept that it had happened.

"I was just completely empty, though. I've never been so empty."

The Arizona native thrives in Montreal. He won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal last year in a breakaway with UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Tadej Pogačar. This year he returned to the GP Montréal and completed the podium behind the aggressive duo of his teammate and winner Isaac del Toro and runner-up Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM). And on Sunday, he won a world title.

One week ago, he finished fourth in the elite time trial, a bit dejected to finish just 12 seconds off the podium. He used that time trial ability on the final Sunday of this Road Worlds to launch his winning attack, a bombshell to his rivals with just under 33km to go. The front of the race had just reshaped into a 12-rider pack, and McNulty took off, using no plan but "instinct".

"It was purely instinct. I knew that from so many years racing here that once the group is small and there's fatigue, they'll tend to hesitate and look at each other. So once it came together, I planned to try to go on one of the flat sections. I think when you go into climbs, everyone expects [attacks], so if you can do a little bit of a surprise, it'll maybe work out. And, yeah, today it worked perfectly," he said.

"I think the gap went pretty quickly. I imagine that they were looking at each other and also that Matteo [Jorgenson] and Quinn [Simmons] were able to neutralise any move. It wasn't pre-planned at all. That was just where it felt right. And today it was right."

McNulty was one of three protected riders on the eight-rider US squad, along with Simmons and Jorgenson. Not only did his teammates cover moves, but they also finished top 10, Simmons fourth and Jorgenson eighth. It was a monumental statement by a team that had only cracked the top 10 six times by five individual riders since Armstrong's title.

This victory at Worlds was not just a milestone for the US, but it now keeps the rainbow jersey in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG family for a third consecutive year, with former winner Pogačar cheering from home as he recovers from a crash in the Vuelta a España. In Montreal, McNulty was congratulated by Mauro Gianetti, the UAE team general manager after the finish.

"Obviously I'm very sad that what happened [crash at Vuelta] is why he's not here; I hate to see anyone crash. This was important to him. I can at least hope I made him proud. I hope he enjoyed watching."

Apparently Pogačar did watch and was proud: "The King of Montreal. Proud of you Brandon McNulty," Pogačar posted to Instagram about the time his teammate accepted the rainbow jersey and gold medal at the awards ceremony.

The 273.4km endurance test opened up with 85km to go once the leaders were on the Montreal finish circuit of 13.4km, completed a dozen times. As Pogačar said, McNulty is the king on this city circuit, who first raced the GP in 2018 as a 20-year-old with Rally Cycling, finishing 16th.

"Every year it's become a more special place. It was always my favourite circuit and then I came years later and we won with Adam [Yates], and then the next time [Pogačar], then I won and last week also with Isaac [del Toro]. I really enjoy racing on the circuit. I enjoy the town and, then today, the crowd was crazy."

He said he was scheduled to start Giro dell'Emilia with UAE Team Emirates-XRG next weekend, and a block of Italian races. Now in rainbows, will Pogačar now work for him?

"I don't know, maybe he will have to ride for me a few days," he laughed. "But I mean, at the end of the day, he's still the best rider. So now it'll be fun riding the front of races and me in the jersey for him.

"We'll probably celebrate a bit [now], but I'm meant to do Emilia and then almost the entire Italian block through Lombardia. So I'm looking forward to it and now to start with the jersey will be special. Hopefully, I can show with decent legs."

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Ben Healy may not have walked away with a medal in the elite men's road race, but his sheer determination and unwillingness to give up made it one of the most notable performances at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal on Sunday.

The Irish rider is well-known for his tenacity, and staying true to his racing style, he gave his maximum effort while racing in the front group behind eventual solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA).

"I just wanted to give it a really good go today and try to get ahead of the big guns. That's what I aimed for, and I left it all out on the road," Healy said.

Healy was part of a decisive selection that formed early after relentless attacks from Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), starting with roughly 85km to go in the elite men's 273.4km race.

He eventually made his way across to the four-rider breakaway that included Van der Poel, Oscar Onley (Great Britain), Primož Roglič (Slovenia) and Quinn Simmons (USA), and as the front group came back together and then reshuffled multiple times over the subsequent laps, it was Healy who remained a constant, launching multiple attacks.

In the end, McNulty cleared the group and held off the chase group by just 13 seconds, the silver medal going to Michael Matthews (Australia) and bronze to Van der Poel.

Healy acknowledged that Team USA's numbers in the group, which also included Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson, worked in their favour, and that McNulty is a deserving champion.

"I really feel like having numbers in the final today was a massive help for Team USA today, and Brandon was super strong as well and so chapeau to him," Healy said.

Overall, Healy said he thought the race played out as he expected, "I think we all knew it was pretty open and a race that anyone could play for. Brandon is so strong, and he has won here before, so it was a race we expected."

Last year, Healy won a stage of the Tour de France and spent a stint in the yellow jersey before securing the bronze medal at the Worlds in Kigali after a similarly tenacious performance.

This year, however, he crashed at Itzulia Basque Country and had to miss the Ardennes Classics with an injured sacrum, and he wasn't at the level to take a stage win at the Tour.

"I'm satisfied," Healy said of his race at the Montreal Worlds. "It hasn't been the best season for me, so to find my legs today was super nice."

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Michael Matthews (Australia) is a veteran of the Canadian WorldTour races, having won the GP Quebec three times and the GP Montreal once. This time, the Montreal circuit hosted the UCI World Championships, and the 36-year-old Australian defied expectations by staying with the best throughout the race and winning the sprint for the silver medal behind solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA).

"Canada has been great to me over the years. And I think the experience I have riding around here definitely helped me today, to know where I could save energy, where I could use my energy," said Matthews at the press conference after the race.

"I’m just speechless that it all came together today after what I’ve been through the last two years. It’s been a roller coaster. I thought my career was done two times in the last two years. And now to be here with a silver medal around my neck at the World Championships is a dream come true."

In May 2025, Matthews was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, putting him on blood-thinning medication and out of racing for almost three months. He then suffered a crash in training in early 2026, just before Paris-Nice, fracturing both his arms.

"Thinking my career was done, my life was almost over, to bounce back, have another setback and then build up to where we are now … honestly, just credit to my wife, my family, the team who continued supporting me and believing in me that I can get back to this level," he said.

"This just shows that if you don’t give up, you can bounce back to the top level where you belong. Everything is possible when you believe. When I crossed the finish line today, my head just went in my hands and just in massive disbelief what I was just able to achieve. I was speaking to my wife before the race today and she just said, 'Go out there, enjoy and just leave it all out there. Make sure you finish the race knowing that you gave it everything you had.'

"And I think that’s what I was able to achieve today. I’m super proud of the ride I did today, and I’m pretty speechless still to be sitting here right now with a silver medal around my neck."

The Australian made clear he felt very much like he won the silver medal, not giving too much thought to what could have been if his chase group had caught solo attacker McNulty.

"When McNulty went away, they still had two US riders in our bunch. Anything that started to go, they were covering it really well for Brandon. It was difficult to get a second move to try to go across to him or get a chase going because as soon as guys would start rolling through, the US guys would mess up the chase again," said Matthews, sitting next to the new World Champion.

"It was a little bit frustrating, but obviously, if you got numbers there, that’s what you do for your teammate. This course suits him really well, he won here last year, he was third here two weeks ago. And I think he was the strongest rider today, so he deserves it."

Other than his wealth of experience in the Canadian races, the common language and similar culture also put Matthews at ease, as being in North America always felt like home to him.

"Being able to speak my own language always makes it a little bit less stressful for me. I don’t know why, but racing in Canada and America just feels somewhat like Australia," he added.

"I honestly feel like home when I’m here. Everything is in English, obviously, but you guys are also similar to Australians, very relaxed, very open people and easy to talk to, super happy. The Canadian and American vibe just feels very similar to Australia."

When asked about the roadside crowds in Montreal, Matthews just shook his head in disbelief before answering, putting his appreciation for each and every spectator out along the course front and centre.

"I actually felt like I was in Australia there for a while. I heard my name pretty much every second of the race, that’s incredible. I wasn’t in Australia, obviously, but the support for me personally here in Canada was truly something special," he said.

"I’ve been able to ride two World Championships in Australia, and I think the support here in Montreal was very similar to what I had back there. I’m just so thankful to the Canadian fans and all the fans that were on the side of the road today. It was pretty much ten deep all around the circuit, and it felt like a European race, the fans were going so crazy for all of us today. I think the support we got is why we were able to put on the show that we did today.

"I didn’t have any energy left in my body crossing that finish line, and the support that you guys gave us meant that I could get that extra little bit out of myself to finish the race with nothing left and somehow got a silver medal around my neck. I’m honestly so thankful to the Canadian crowd today and all the supporters on the side of the road."

With the experience of two health complications that threatened not only his cycling career but his life, Matthews’ advice to young cyclists was to enjoy every moment of a career that goes by in a flash.

"It only feels like yesterday that we were in Richmond and I had the silver medal around my neck, and that’s 11 years ago now. So if you really love the sport, give it everything you have and enjoy the journey, every second of it," he said.

"It’ll happen really quick and it’ll also finish really fast. Enjoy every pedal stroke you have. Get up every morning and give it everything you have. Every time you pin on a number, enjoy every moment you have because it goes past so quick. My career is almost done and it feels like it was yesterday that it just started. So I can just say to the young guys, enjoy every moment."

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Belgium entered the elite men's road race at the UCI World Championships as the favourites, with Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert representing two of the top five contenders for Sunday's main event in Montreal.

But as the 270km epic began to unfold, it quickly became clear that neither of them were at the level they were hoping to be, as an early attack from van Aert with 88km remaining saw him go up the road in the break, only to be dropped by an acceleration from his eternal rival Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) 14km later.

Unable to live with the pace, he rode in between the lead group and the chasing bunch of other favourites before, with 60km, trouble started to set in for Evenepoel. His teammates Thibau Nys and Gianni Vermeersch had signalled to the media that he wasn't feeling at his best after they abandoned, and that materialised into him being dropped as the likes of Isaac del Toro (Mexico) started to apply the pressure.

However, it was much earlier than Evenepoel, and Van Aert both knew it wasn't going to be their day. By the time eventual winner Brandon McNulty (USA) went away solo with 32km to go from a lead break of 12, they had already been dropped.

"It was tough actually from the first lap on; I felt I was not on a great day, so it's pretty shit that it happened today," said Evenepoel to Eurosport after the finish. "But I think there are no excuses; the strongest always wins on World, so that's life

"I hoped to break through in the final stretch, but the course didn't allow for that. Especially not if you weren't at your best. It was a matter of suffering and gritting my teeth," he added, speaking to Flemish broadcaster Sporza.

"Kind of disappointed; came here for more as a team, personally as well, but on the other hand theres not much regret that I can have," concurred Van Aert at the finish.

"The legs hurt really bad really early on, and I still tried to do an early move so I could get ahead of the race, which was good. But especially Mathieu [Van der Poel] was already super strong at that time, and once I was dropped there, we still kind of kept close, so I still believe there was something possible. But at some point there was not much more to do for me than helping Remco a bit, and in the last laps I was just crawling to the finish.

"It was super tough and too tough for me. I rode a good race, but the lights went out 4 or 5 laps from the end. I'm bummed about it, but there wasn't any more in it."

As Van Aert said, he eventually realised his own dreams of a maiden rainbow jersey were not going to come true on this occasion, so he was seen working to try and return Evenepoel to the front group, with riders coming back to the lead on several occasions as an incredibly attritional and tactical finale played out.

In the end, Evenepoel did mount two counter moves as he came back, but he clearly lacked the power of a full-strength version of himself, eventually taking 12th place at the finish, 25 seconds down on McNulty and 12 seconds behind Michael Matthews (Australia) in second.

"Wout told me he wanted to ride for a bit. I knew already at that moment that I was not feeling great, so I think it's just because Wout really wanted to do something, so I'm grateful to him for doing that. But I knew pretty quickly that today was not going to be my day to win," said Evenepoel.

"Gosh... That was more like trying something in the hope that the others wouldn't react to it. I had a feeling that that move in the penultimate lap was the right one," he added of the late attacks. "Then Del Toro closed the gap. That is a shame. If I could pick the right days, it would be easy. The strongest won, that was clear."

For Evenepoel, he stayed positive despite the obvious disappointment of failing to leave Worlds with the historic double he was hoping for, but he will have two more chances for major glory before the season is up, at the European Championships next weekend, and Il Lombardia in October.

"There is still a lot to come," he said. "Hopefully, things will run a bit better starting next week."

For Van Aert, though, this was the last chapter of what's been an incredible 2026 season for him, winning Paris-Roubaix and dominating the Vuelta a España by taking green, two stages, and helping Matt Brennan to five stage wins. He confirmed that "No, it's my last race; it's holiday from now on."

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If anything, the 2026 UCI Road World Championships demonstrated how hard it is to translate results on paper into a result on a day as long, chaotic, and difficult as the elite men's road race on Sunday. For Paul Seixas, 15th place behind solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA) was a massive disappointment after the 20-year-old Frenchman came into the race as one of the top favourites to win.

"It was a tough race; for me it was perfect. It's a huge disappointment," Seixas told Eurosport and other media, including Cyclingnews, in the mixed zone. "My teammates gave everything to help me get the best result, and it was a failure."

Leading up to the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, all eyes were on Seixas for the elite men's road race. The breakthrough rider of the year with victories in the Itzulia Basque Country, La Flèche Wallonne, and fourth overall in the Tour de France, Seixas was perhaps most importantly a close second to Isaac del Toro in the Grand Prix de Montreal two weeks before Worlds.

The French team believed in his chances at Worlds and set out to make the race as tough as possible. His teammates lined out the peloton as they reached the demanding 12 circuits around Mont Royal, with Bruno Armirail single-handedly ending the race for rider after rider with a 60km turn on the front.

Valentin Paret-Peintre, Jordan Jegat and Alex Baudin took turns attacking, dropping riders of the quality of Vuelta a España winner Enric Mas (Spain), but their plan began to come unglued after a dangerous attack containing Wout van Aert (Belgium), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), and Primož Roglič (Slovenia), among others.

Seixas held on as his group caught the breakaway, but when eventual winner Brandon McNulty (USA) attacked, he did not react and found himself in the unenviable position of being in a chasing group that just could not cooperate.

On the final lap, when McNulty was only a shade more than ten seconds ahead, Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) and Giulio Ciccone (Italy) attacked on the course's main climb to try to bridge the gap, and Seixas not only couldn't follow them, he eventually lost contact with the chasing group altogether because of cramps.

"Everything was going so well, my legs felt incredible, and honestly, I don't want to talk about it. It's a shame what I did today, cramping up like that," Seixas said.

"It was a childish mistake; I've never cramped up on a bike in my life. I'm disappointed in myself, but it's what I deserve. My teammates did an incredible job. They don't deserve a leader like me. It must be hydration, I don't know, I don't really want to talk about it."

When France's team director Thomas Voeckler arrived at the mixed zone later and was told what Seixas had said, he was quite surprised.

"'It was my fault'? I'm searching for why he said that. But it was in the heat of the moment," Voeckler said. "Last year in the time trial in Kigali, it was the same thing; he was beating himself up."

Seixas is clearly a very ambitious rider, but 273.4 kilometres is the farthest he's ever had to race. Having just turned 20 three days ago, it's also a massive ask for a rider so young.

"He aims so high, and he declared that anything other than a gold medal would be a failure," Voeckler said. "So there you have it. Of course, it's the world championships. We are here, there are a lot of us, and we believed in it, and he did at first, too.

"So we did everything we could to try and be good, but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll win in the end. But if you don't give it your all, you're sure not to succeed," Voeckler said. "We did what we had to do. Especially with Bruno (Armirail) - it wasn't overdoing it. We wanted to make the race harder, and then, it's true that it got out of our control a bit because everything was incredibly intense. It's just not our day today, that's all.

"There was a breakaway with a great rider. [Seixas] was isolated, to my taste, from his teammates a little early. But it is what it is; it can happen. We made the race tougher when we wanted.

"I maintain that it was in Paul's interest, given his profile relative to the course and the likes of Mathieu van der Poel. If you don't make the race hard at that point, someone is always just waiting.

"Brandon McNulty took magnificent advantage of the Belgian and French strategy. When you see Michael Matthews [who finished second] or Mathieu Van der Poel [third] who are there at the finish...

"If we hadn't pushed the pace and there had been four more laps of waiting, other puncheurs would have been there. It's obviously a huge disappointment, but my job is also to mitigate that. This is also what allows us to savour the times when things are better, the times when things have been good, and the times when things will get even better."

Fortunately for Seixas, at an age when most of his peers are still racing the Under-23 category, he has many more chances to make up for his 'childish mistake' in the future. And will be desperate to right the wrongs of Sunday's race as soon as Il Lombardia arrive in the coming weeks, his final big goal for 2026.

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Tom Pidcock represented the best chance for Great Britain to score their first UCI Road World Championships elite men's road race title since Mark Cavendish in 2011, but the 2026 event in Montreal ended with a stunning victory for the USA's Brandon McNulty, who attacked with 32km to go and held off an elite but stop-and-go chasing group.

Tucked in the chasing group together with eventual podium finishers Michael Matthews (Australia), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and pre-race favourite Isaac del Toro (Mexico), Pidcock made numerous attempts to shut down the gap to McNulty, but they were continually frustrated by McNulty's teammates Matteo Jorgenson and Quinn Simmons.

Pidcock was a bitter seventh in the end, fighting back from an earlier crash and chase, but still, when asked what needed to happen to catch McNulty, he said it was very close to happening. "But yeah, Del Toro was obviously working for [UAE Team Emirates-XRG trade teammate] McNulty in the end there," Pidcock said to Cyclingnews.

"Likewise, obviously Matteo [Jorgenson] - the Americans are a super strong team, so yeah, they were not letting anyone go."

At the start of the final lap, the last ascent of the Camillien Houde climb was realistically the final chance to bring McNulty back, who was just under a minute up the road. Pidcock and Giulio Ciccone (Italy) got to within 12 seconds of the American as they accelerated, but when the group came back to them, it was race over.

"I think if me and Cicco, if we had a little bit more of a gap and we managed to stay away, I think we would have caught McNulty. But yeah, it's how the race goes."

McNulty was an outside favourite heading into the race, but a lot of attention was on Del Toro and Paul Seixas (France) after they finished first and second in the Grand Prix de Montreal. France, with the far stronger team, pushed the pace on each of the early laps of the circuit to make the race hard enough for Seixas to attack, but in the end, the 20-year-old cramped in the last lap and faded to 15th.

"I think that was their plan. But yeah, it also cooked Paul's legs," Pidcock said. "It happens when you race for six and a half hours.

"We started the race super hard, and I think everyone at the end was pretty fucked. It was very windy as well, so it made a little bit negative racing in the end. Yeah, just generally everyone was a bit tired, a bit cooked, so you know, we could kind of attack, but not really make the difference."

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How do you make sense of the race that never ends? 273.4km and six and a quarter hours of complete carnage, and it was the USA's Brandon McNulty who emerged victorious in Montreal in the elite men's road race at the UCI World Championships, arriving alone at the line after a breathless edition. He surprised the favourites with an opportunistic, powerful 32km solo move to claim his nation's first elite men's rainbow jersey since 1993 and the biggest win of his career, celebrating in complete disbelief as he crossed the line.

In what felt like the race of 1000 attacks, the race delivered on its promise of being one of the most open editions in history, with McNulty's trade teammate and two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar unable to defend his title due to a crash at the Vuelta. The question of whether it was better without him was answered tenfold.

For 238 of the 273.4km, several breakaways were attempted, but the most crucial moment came with 35km to go, and the USA were the best-represented team, when a lead breakaway quartet spearheaded by Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) was finally caught by a group containing the pre-race favourites of Isaac del Toro (Mexico) and Paul Seixas (France).

12 riders looked set to play out the finale, including the likes of Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), Ben Healy (Ireland) and Primož Roglič (Slovenia) also present, but it was the men from just across the border who took up the initiative, first attacking with Matteo Jorgenson, and then McNulty, who was able to get a gap.

10 seconds quickly became 35, and by the time he crossed what would be the finish line with a 1:03 lead heading into the final two laps, McNulty could start to dream. Fourth in the Worlds time trial a week ago, this became the most important solo effort McNulty would ever make, almost crashing around one of the corners and seeing his gap cut down to just 35 seconds at points.

But just when it seemed like McNulty was going to do it, the absolute thriller delivered another twist, with his gap coming down to just 10 seconds on the final rep up the key Voie Camillien-Houde climb, seemingly cracking on the climb. With Jorgenson marking everyone and defending like a true champion himself, the chasing group was narrowly unable to pull back the daring American attacker, who won by just 13 seconds from Michael Matthews (Australia) in second, and Van der Poel in third.

Speaking after the race, the newly crowned World Champion had this to say: "Honestly I don't know. Really this is – I don't know. I'm really at a loss. Until the last 100 metres I really didn't even believe it I was so tired. I mean, I don't know, I really don't know," said a completely dumfounded McNulty, still not able to take in just what he had managed.

"Absolutely, the last climb up Mont Royal I was doing like zone 2, just dying, but I just kept pushing and I don't know. We've said for weeks now that we have a super strong team and it's possible. I think we rode cray well, marked everything, had guys ahead, I'm just seriously at a loss for words.

Did he really believe this was possible? "No, I mean we talked about it, I made some jokes to my wife – I knew something could happen, but it would take a miracle, and I guess miracles happened."

How it unfolded

As the second of two headline events of the World Championships arrived with the men's elite road race, the tension was palpable in the bunch at the start, with cold and blustery conditions welcoming the 181 starters to Brossard on Sunday.

The speed was high behind the lead car, and as the flag was dropped, the fight for the early breakaway began, with 16 riders eventually getting up the road without much resistance with 167km to go: Tilen Finkšt (Slovenian), Andreas Leknessund (Norway), Felix Engelhardt (Germany), Biniam Girmay, Henok Mulubrhan (both Eritrea), Jamie Meehan (Ireland), Guillaume Boivin (Canada), Emīls Liepiņš (Latvia), Heorhii Antonenko (Ukraine), Mihajlo Stolić (Serbia), Christofer Robín Jurado (Panama), Alexandre Mayer (Mauritius), Iustin-Ioan Văidian (Romania), Andreas Miltiadis (Cyprus), Kaden Hopkins (Bermuda), and Amir Arsalan Ansari (Refugee Cycling Team).

In the peloton behind, the question of which of the favourites' teams was going to pace was answered by the Netherlands, Belgium, and then Mexico. As the racing settled down on the road leading towards the Montreal circuit laps, the break had already got more than three minutes ahead with 245km to go.
Not much changed for the next 60km, aside from Great Britain also committing riders to the chase, and the pace coming out so much that the break had built a lead of almost eight minutes with 185km to go. The 16 riders in front continued to press on as they approached the entry onto the circuit, where 12 laps would decide the new rainbow jersey.

As the race crossed over the St Lawrence River and reached Montreal, huge crowds met the breakaway on the University climb, with the 16 riders in front maintaining a lead of just over six minutes leading into the last 160km and first of 12 laps around the 13.4km circuit.

After a mix of teams had been swapping turns on the front, Seixas' France teammates moved to the front, with Bruno Armirail upping the tempo and beginning to cut down the significant deficit with a long pull.

The break understandably started to splinter heading onto the second of 12 laps, with Leknessund pushing on to make it a group of only the strongest riders - Engelhardt, Girmay, Mulubrhan, Liepiņš, and Meegan able to live with him. Armirail's relentless efforts had reduced their lead to under four minutes with 145km to go.

France weren't without company on the front, even with Armirail's seemingly never-ending pull lasting more than 45 kilometres, as the Swiss and Mexican teams also committed riders to the chase. At the end of the third lap, the deficit was down to just over a minute.

The racing heats up on lap five of 12

With 110km to go, the race entered its next phase, with France making an attack through Valentin Paret-Peintre, as Armirail's incredible effort on the front came to an end after 60km of pacing. Jordan Jegat followed up with a second surge once Paret-Peintre was caught, while the four remaining breakaway riders were all being swallowed up by the shrinking, but simmering peloton.

Several top climbers were already dropping at this point, after almost 170km of racing, notably Vuelta a España champion Enric Mas (Spain), Ben O'Connor (Australia), and Felix Gall (Austria), with the attrition starting to show.

With 100km to go, there was a solo attack launched by one of the green jerseys of Slovenia, not the injured defending champion Tadej Pogačar, but Gal Glivar, whose move prompted a series of other riders to start chancing their arm off the front, including a certain Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands).

As the racing intensified, more accelerations were made by Alberto Bettiol (Italy), and then Anthon Charmig (Denmark), who was able to get some separation, with one of the big favourites Isaac del Toro (Mexico) marshalling things right towards the front of the peloton.

With Charmig out in front on his own, the jerseys of the USA men's team finally started to show themselves for the first time, Larry Warbasse setting the tempo for Quinn Simmons. Behind them, the big names were all being positioned before the start of the key climb with seven laps to go.

Alex Baudin got France's plan going again with the next move off the front, with two Italians following him, Giulio Pellizzari and Christian Scaroni, and several others coming across to try and make it into the attack.

It was the latter of the two who kicked on in front, with a new threatening group forming off the front, most notably including Van der Poel, Ben Healy (Ireland), and Maxim Van Gils (Belgium). But it was far from over, with the response being launched out of the peloton behind.

Unsurprisingly in pursuit of the dangerous Dutchman was his eternal rival Wout van Aert (Belgium), riding alongside former trade teammate Primož Roglič (Slovenia), and Oscar Onley (Great Britain), and with 88km to go, they made contact to form a group of 15, however, this new break was not together for long.

Van Aert went straight on the counter after making contact, with Van der Poel of course giving serious chase 87km from the finish. Onley followed the big Dutchman, with Charmig and Roglič also coming across the gap to make it a lead group of five. US rider Simmons was the only other rider to make it across, forming a very threatening new six-man breakaway heading into the last 83.5km.

France and Mexico were trying to salvage the race having lost control in the space of one lap, but the gap was going in the wrong direction as they crossed the line ahead of the final six laps.

The expected response in the bunch came from Del Toro on the next time up the Voie Camillien Houde climb, with the Mexican upping the pace in the saddle. Evenepoel was in his wheel, Seixas, McNulty, and Healy also among the riders following. It wasn't yet the big explosion, but it did reduce the gap down to 26 seconds with 78km to go.

Del Toro was helped at points by Seixas, reducing the gap down to under 10 seconds, but both of the young stars were isolated, with Evenepoel not pacing, and the two US riders in the chase group, McNulty and Jorgenson, also not pulling with Simmons in front.

Van der Poel makes his move

74.1km from the finish, Van der Poel launched a violent acceleration, dropping Van Aert, Roglič, and Charmig, but Simmons and Onley were able to make it back to his wheel. The other three from the leading six were soon 12 seconds behind, with the top chasing group at 27 seconds down.

Back onto the Voie Camillien-Houde, and suddenly three become four, as Roglič left Van Aert and Charmig behind on the terrain which suited him best.

Italy took up the mantle of chasing, but the gap had ballooned out further to 54 seconds into the last 64km, prompting a new attack from Healy, who was joined in the move by former Trinity teammate Tom Pidcock, who had chased back onto the group after an earlier crash, visibly wounded on his left leg and riding on his spare bike.

With riders all over the road, Del Toro and Seixas made their next move out of the bunch heading into the last 60km, with Evenepoel being the most obvious absentee from all of the attacking, appearing to not be on his best day.

The Pidcock and Healy chasing group was infiltrated by Del Toro, who was keeping the pressure on as, shockingly, both Evenepoel and Van Aert were dropped heading into the final 57km. The former looked to be empty, but the latter did return to the main chase group.

10 riders made up the chasing group into the final four laps: Healy, Pidcock, Seixas, Mikkel Honore (Denmark), Michael Matthews (Australia), Van Aert, Del Toro, Jorgenson, McNulty, and Giulio Ciccone (Italy). They were half a minute down on the leading quartet, but the pace lulled several times as the likes of Healy and Matthews tried to attack solo.

Van der Poel took matters into his own hands with 51.7km to go, on the long climb, with this time only Simmons able to go with him initially, but Roglič also working his way back across.

Behind, the race was exploding again, with Del Toro hitting them with another move, as Seixas followed, but it's almost as though the climb wasn't hard enough, with a train of riders constantly in his wheel. As the pace lulled again, Evenepoel was able to return to the second chasing group heading into the final 44km.

At this point – 44km to go – the situation on the road was Van der Poel, Roglič, and Simmons in front, with Onley and Healy around 21 seconds down, and around 14 riders in the main chasing group at 40 seconds, including the likes of Evenepoel, Van Aert, Del Toro, Seixas, Del Toro, Jorgenson, and McNulty.
Out of nowhere, with 44km to go, Evenepoel found the energy to make an attack, but he was quickly shut down by Seixas. Del Toro made a clever counter around one of the corners, forcing Seixas into chasing from the group to reel him back in.

The final three laps

Five hours of epic racing in the legs, and with just under 40km to go, the lead trio went into the final three laps with an 18-second lead on the first chasing duo, with the bigger group still needing to make up 33 seconds.

Back onto the Voie Camillien Houde and Healy made contact with the lead trio, who still had half a minute on the chasing group, with Onley dropping back. Behind, Del Toro was pushing on again to try and close the gap, with Van Aert completely dropped and Evenepoel struggling to follow again. Healy tried to hit the leaders with an instant attack, but he was quickly chased by Simmons.

Finally, with 35km to go, though, the front of the race came back together, with the first chase group making contact with the four leaders. Of the 12 riders, nine were without teammates, but the USA had three riders present and a huge numeric advantage.

It shouldn't be surprising then, that it was Jorgenson who made the next move, Ciccone, Pidcock and Matthews trying to follow him. Del Toro shut this down as the selection continued and more and more riders started to struggle under the pressure.

Former GP Montreal winner McNulty made the next move for the USA with 32km to go, and he was able to get ahead as Jorgenson marked the response from Matthews. What was 10 seconds soon became 33 seconds with 28.5km to go, as the US rider flew away, and the pace came completely out of the chasing group.

Despite almost crashing at high speed around one of the corners heading towards the line, McNulty crossed the line heading into the final two laps with a massive lead of 1:07. Was it all over? It certainly looked like it.

The penultimate lap of Camillien Houde brought an attack from Pidcock, but it was going to take a real miracle to bring back the charging American. Almost everyone was starting to pay for their earlier efforts at this point, with Del Toro, Van der Poel, and Seixas all beginning to struggle, and Jorgenson marking the moves.

Still, Pidcock and Seixas tried to push on from the front chasing group, cutting the massive gap down to 37 seconds, as the weather threatened to close in, with only Ciccone, Van der Poel, Matthews, Del Toro, Healy, and Jorgenson also able to follow.

After 255km of racing, strange things were happening as Jorgenson's constant presence again saw the gap go back out to just under a minute, with Evenepoel returning.

After the next wave of attacks, Evenepoel even mounted a counter move just before taking the bell for the final lap. This move cut McNulty's lead down to just 52 seconds with one final lap to go.

A breathless final run to the line

Just when it seemed like it was over, though, McNulty faced his biggest challenge yet as his legs started to fail him on the final lap up the Camillien Houde climb, with Pidcock and Ciccone launching a final charge from the group behind.

The gap was cut down to 30 seconds, but by the top, the situation was much worse for the US rider, down to just 10 seconds with his stars and stripes jersey in view of the chasers. But the pace came out and no-one wanted to commit to bringing back that final gap – or they simply didn't have the legs.

Van der Poel launched a final bid with 7km to go on the University climb, where he had attacked previously, but the great constant which supported McNulty's effort, Jorgenson, was still on his wheel, prompting him to pull up his effort at the top and allow the lone leader to build his lead again.

More attempts came from Schmid, Pidcock, Healy and Del Toro, but none could shake Jorgenson, nor really cut into the lead of the lone leader as they had done on the main climb. He was going to do it, coming around the final corner with enough of a lead to know that the World Championships was about to be his. Even still he didn't believe it as he came across the line, celebrating with his teammates and UAE Team Emirates-XRG owners. Unsurprisingly, it was pure shock and emotion painted all over his face, as he won one of the most memorable Worlds road races of all time.

Results

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Pavel Bittner (Team Picnic-PostNL) edged out Lionel Taminiaux (Lotto-Intermarché) to take his first victory of the season in a high-octane bunch sprint finish at Paris-Chauny on Sunday.

The Czech rider held his nerve with a well-timed final effort, powering over the line ahead of Taminiaux, who was the rider to celebrate, believing he had done enough to take the win.

It was then determined later that Bittner had pipped him to the post, with Tobias Müller of the Unibet Rose Rockets rounding out the podium, following a day of hard work driving the chase from the French Pro team.

Beginning in Margny-lès-Compiègne in the Hauts-de-France region of Northern France, the 76th edition of Paris-Chauny featured a 203.6 kilometre route with just over 1900 metres of altitude gain across its distance. In the past, the race has favoured sprinters and hardy classics-style riders, with the past six editions concluding in a bunch sprint.

The peloton rolled out in warm, dry conditions, and a six-strong breakaway moved clear in the early stages of the race. Comprising six riders all representing different teams, they accrued an advantage of just over three minutes after around 80 kilometres of racing, but the peloton began to reel them in gradually after that.

The pre-race favourites included Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) and Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling), but it was the Unibet Rose Rockets who were most prominent at the front of the bunch, driving the chase, with assistance from Tudor, Alpecin-PremierTech and Picnic PostNL, a team desperate for a victory to add to their single win in 2026.

At the halfway mark, Lotto-Intermarché and Groupama-FDJ United moved to the front of the race, with Lotto-Intermarché briefly taking over the pace-setting. The breakaway’s advantage began to tumble with the addition of extra firepower at the head of the peloton, dropping below two minutes with 90 kilometres still to race.

Unibet returned to take control with numbers at the front, and the wind picked up after that with crosswinds coming into play, but the strongest teams were able to maintain control over the bunch. With 60 kilometres remaining, an attack from a trio of riders including Axel Huens (Groupama-FDJ United) almost made it clear, but the peloton closed the three down and stretched out along the road.

The result was that the breakaway’s advantage was slashed to 30 seconds, and Groupama continued to fire off attacks, with the next move pulling a group of 12 riders clear; this almost proved to be a decisive move, but the remaining three determined breakaway riders resisted the catch, and the chase group was swallowed up by the peloton once again with 50 kilometres to race.

Shortly after, the breakaway was reduced to one man – Michiel Lambrecht (Team Flanders-Baloise) moved into the solo lead of the race. Groupama-FDJ United’s Johan Jacobs attacked solo from the peloton, and with 33km to go he united with Lambrecht to form a lead duo. The two built a 50-second lead over the peloton, and though the bunch remained patient, slowly closing in as the kilometres ticked down, the pair combined well to resist the catch for a significant period.

It all kicked off in the bunch just ahead of the final climb of the day, the Côte de Guivry, with accelerations breaking up the peloton, and with the pair up front caught, Groupama-FDJ United profited, ending up with two riders in the race lead along with one from TotalEnergies.

They held off the peloton until just 900 metres remained, and the expected bunch finish transpired, but there was confusion after that as Taminiaux appeared to close out Bittner to take victory, raising his arms in celebration as he crossed the line. It later transpired that it was in fact Bittner who triumphed, a well-timed sprint seeing him surge just ahead of Taminiaux and the rest to claim a sorely needed win for his team.

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Results

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Day 1 of the Virginia's Blue Ridge GO Cross in Roanoke, Virginia saw experienced Dutch rider Manon Bakker extend her perfect record on US soil, winning a third consecutive race in the USCX series. Rising talent Tofik Beshir (CXD Trek Bikes) took his first elite men's victory at the C1 level, which was his second consecutive win in the series following Rochester CX last Sunday.

"Today was about being smooth and being patient," Beshir said after his victory, which saw him extend his lead in the USCX standings.

"There were definitely times where I wanted to go. I remembered [Team Manager] Chris [Merriam] told me I needed to wait. But once everyone did their attacks and got a little tired, I hammered it."

Beshir attacked with three laps of the eight remaining to move into the solo lead of the race, and he never looked back. Tyler Clark finished second, 42 seconds down on Beshir, with Calvin Conway of Midwest NXT in third place.

"It felt great winning my first C1 [UCI race]," Beshir said. "I’ve been waiting for this for a long time."

In the women's race, the pre-race favourite Bakker confirmed her superiority with a convincing victory. The Dutch rider is a regular fixture on the European circuit but has found success in the USCX in past seasons and extended her perfect record.

On Saturday in western Virginia, she won with a 38-second advantage over Kaya Musgrave (Competitive Edge Racing) in second. Lauren Zoerner (Corner Racing p/b Beyond Horizons) rounded out the podium in third, finishing one minute down on Bakker.

Bakker pushed into the lead on the first tricky section of the course, the long sandpit. She remained in the lead for the entirety of the six-lap race after that.

Speaking after the race, Bakker said it was not an easy effort, as the hilly GO Cross course is the most challenging one for her on the USCX circuit.

"For me, it’s like a road race," she said. "There aren’t any very [many] technical parts, so it’s full gas the whole time. I was suffering."

Day 2 in Roanoke offers the C2 race taking on much of the same course but in the reverse direction.

Women's results

Men's results

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It was one of those days on stage one of Le Tour de Langkawi where just a few centimetres either way would have changed the outcome, flipping the script from the expected opening stage win of Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) to instead a victory on their debut at the race for both Modern Adventure and Riley Pickrell.

It wasn't to be, even though hopes may have been high on the run toward the line at the end of a hot and humid 193km in Malaysia.

"I definitely thought I had it – even in the bike throw, I wasn't sure," Pickrell told Cyclingnews after heading up to the podium in the town of Kampar."I could feel Malucelli coming in the last 50m, but I thought he was staying behind, but he managed to just get ahead in the final.

"I did go a bit early, but I've had other times this year where I didn't go early and got boxed or I had to stop mid-sprint. I really came into this and I said, 'you know what, the last corner is 270 meters to go, 280 meters to go. I'll come out of that. I'll whack it and I'll see what happens'."

And what happened was that he almost won. If Pickrell had pulled it off it would have been his first win of the season, instead it was his third podium placing.

"We thought we could get a win today, and I think that was pretty much as close as we possibly could without the win," said Pickrell. "So I don't think any of us are very disappointed. We rode really well as a team, and then Malucelli was just faster today."

What's more they did it as a squad of five with Leo Hayter – who had he been racing would probably have been roped into the leadout – unable to line up after arriving in Malaysia only to discover he had pericarditis.

Things may not have gone exactly to plan with losing a rider and then just missing out on the opening stage win but there is plenty of cause for optimism about what is still ahead for the next seven stages, and beyond.

"We should have three or four more sprint opportunities, so you never know," said Pickrell. "Of course, every day I'm going to be going for the win, but it's not like I'm complaining about second."

Or his season for that matter, with the 25-year-old Pickrell signing with the new Modern Adventure squad in 2026 after joining the pro ranks with Israel Premier Tech in 2024.

"They really sold the team, and what they sold is exactly what I've got so I'm really happy," said Pickering, who is contracted to the squad through to the end of next season.

"Really, I can't say enough good things about the team and next year, if we keep building on what we've started, I think some big results and big races will come."

*Cyclingnews is attending Le Tour de Langkawi on an invitation/media package from the race that included travel and accommodation. In line with our editorial standards, our coverage is independent and was not subject to review, approval or influence by the organiser or any sponsor; no favourable coverage was promised or given in return.

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After her sixth-place finish in the women’s elite road race at the UCI Road World Championships, Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) flew through the mixed zone on her bike, shouting "I’ll come back" to the waiting journalists. The reason became apparent when the whole Dutch team, including national coach Laurens ten Dam, joined newly-crowned World Champion Demi Vollering on the podium to celebrate the victory after a united team performance.

"It was super cool; everybody was happy for each other. We put quite some pressure on ourselves; we had an ambitious plan, but there was also a lot of pressure from the media," said Pieterse on her second pass of the mixed zone, once the podium celebrations were over.

"The Netherlands are really quite dominant in women’s cycling, but then, coming to the World Championships, everything has to come together. Demi has to have a very good day, all the others also need to have a good day to perform their tasks. But I think we showed a lot of confidence throughout the race, and that helped Demi as well,"

In previous years, the Dutch national selection had had several leaders who often could not agree on who to support during the race, sometimes to their own detriment. But on Saturday, the orange-clad team rode as one to support Vollering’s goal of her first-ever rainbow jersey – a decision made easier by Vollering’s domination throughout the season.

"Everybody had the same goal. I think that was the case in the past too, but then there were several riders with big wins throughout the season," said Pieterse. "Now it was clear, when one rider wins the Tour, Flanders, Liège, Flèche Wallonne, well, that’s your leader."

Amber Kraak, Femke de Vries, Riejanne Markus, Lieke Nooijen, and Karlijn Swinkels controlled the race for a long time, with three Dutch riders at the front of the peloton for most of the race until a first tentative move was made by France’s Maëva Squiban in the last 55km.

"At one point, it became a bit harder, about a lap before [Vollering’s attack]. We didn’t have the numbers and Squiban went away," added Pietersen. "But we stuck to our plan, we had the idea that we would make our move with three laps to go, and that’s what we did."

Her own job was arguably the most important one, pulling hard up the Voie Camillien-Houde, the main climb of the 13.3km Montreal circuit, to set up Vollering’s attack with 38km to go.

"That pull had to be as long as possible. So I went all-out there. When Demi attacked, I looked back, and there was really nobody left in the wheel, so I thought, ‘okay, it was hard enough’," said the 24-year-old.

"Then I dropped back to the group with Kasia. I didn’t have to do much more, but I also was really exhausted. At one point, I saw we were getting closer and tried to disrupt the chase a bit."

After that, with her leader up the road, Pieterse had a free pass in the groups behind, but the lead-out had taken so much out of her that she couldn’t follow the moves in the final.

It was here that her leader was caught by Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland) and Elisa Longo Borhgini (Italy), forced to chase down the latter after she attacked, and then hold onto the former when she tried to drop her on the final kicker. In the end, a sprint between the Dutch rider and the Pole saw Volelring still emerge victorious, even if it wasn't from plan A.

"After my lead-out, I was still in a good position to get a result myself. If I’d had a bit more left, maybe I could have stayed with the others longer, maybe helped Demi a bit or even sprint for a podium myself," said Pieterse

"I didn’t completely sacrifice my own chances, but you know that if you do the lead-out, certainly on the flatter part of the climb, it costs a lot of energy. I think that the women with the most endurance stood on the podium today, and for me it was still a bit too hard."

By the time she reached the finish, Pieterse wasn't completely exhausted, though, still able to execute a few wheelies to entertain the Montreal crowds on the finishing straight, before joining up with an emotional, elated Vollering, and celebrating huge success for the Dutch.

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Tobias Svarre capped off a perfect six days of racing at the CRO Race for Uno-X Mobility, winning the general classification and adding to the team's two stage victories by safely finishing the final stage in Zagreb.

Rising Italian sprinter Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies) won stage 6 from the bunch sprint, benefitting from Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) hitting the front way too early. The Frenchman finished third, with Lorenzo De Longhi (Campana- Imballagi-Morbiato-Trentino) also coming around him before the line arrived to finish second.

This marks Donati's fourth pro victory already, despite being a rider on Red Bull's under-23 squad, with a step up to WorldTour level in 2027 looking more than likely.

Svarre went into the final stage with a narrow four-second lead over Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), which he gained from his stage 3 victory, and held by finishing 35th in the bunch. Pre-race favourite Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took third on GC, eight seconds back on the Dane.

A five-rider breakaway led for most of the final 100km on Sunday, with Andrea Bessega (Lidl-Trek Future Racing), Valentin Ferron (Cofidis), Jon Agirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Dario Giuliano (Polti VisitMalta), and Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) lasting out in front until the final 10km.

It was from there that Soudal-QuickStep tried to take control of the flat stage for Magnier, but the likes of Modern Adventure and then Red Bull were able to overhaul them before the final 2km.

Without the same star lead-out as he had on stage 5, Magnier was forced to freestyle in the final kilometre, where he ended up in the wind too soon and had to go long. Unable to get out of the saddle as he tried to use brute force for back-to-back wins, Donati was sat in his wheel and pounced, winning convincingly at the line.

Results

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After the horror crash which rocked the women's elite race at the UCI Road World Championships, positive medical updates have been provided on those worst affected, including Caroline Andersson (Sweden) and Lauretta Hanson (Australia).

With 95km to go, more than 15 riders came down towards the middle of the peloton on one of the fastest parts of the 13.3km Mount Royal circuit in Montréal.

Andersson and Hanson were unable to get back to their feet, and were the first two to be transported straight to hospital. The Swedish Federation provided an update to their website in the evening to confirm that Andersson's condition was thankfully improving and that she was conscious, after the incident left teammate Julia Borgström visibly distressed.

"She has a broken collarbone. It's an open fracture, so she needs surgery later. Otherwise, it seems to have stopped at a small haemorrhage in the hip, but the doctors are keeping an eye on it," said Alexander Wetterhall, a member of the Swedish team management.

"She is conscious, talking and can communicate, but is tired from painkillers. Otherwise, everything seems okay under the circumstances. The parents are here now, which is great. She is also getting help from her team doctor, whom she has known for some time. So at least there is a good overview of the situation here at the hospital."

Hanson left the race in an ambulance after being put into a neck brace, but confirmed to her own Instagram story that, while injured, she had escaped without a more serious injury.

"Thank you to everyone that checked in after my crash today. I'm OK. Banged up and a few broken ribs, but thankful it wasn't worse," read her story. "Grateful for the best support here in Canada."

The crash had major implications for the tactics of the race, which was eventually won by Demi Vollering (Netherlands), with defending champion Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada) coming down hard on her right side and being forced to abandon after chasing for a couple of laps with visible road rash on her hip and blood on her hand.

Smiling as she crossed the line and waving to her home support, she was evaluated by the team's and the organisation's doctors at the hospital. Vallieres later confirmed on her social media that she was without fractures in the evening.

"A big thank you to everyone who came out today! Just a quick message to let you know that I’m fine and nothing broken," said the 2025 champion.

"Sorry if I don't reply to your lovely messages; due to the risk of concussion, I'm taking a short break from social media."

Vuelta Femenina champion Paula Blasi (Spain) also had to abandon as a result of the crash, detailing how "When the race entered the circuit, it was crazy. People were taking too many risks," after speaking at the finish.

But she, too, posted an image to her Instagram with a bruise and cut near her eye to confirm she wasn't badly injured in the high-speed incident. The young superstar will look for more success at the European Championships in Slovenia next weekend.

"This was far from the race we were hoping for, but sadly crashes are also part of the game. I am grateful to have the support of the team, and even though I was not feeling 100%, they committed to the plan. Thanks, girls," said Blasi.

"Now is time to fly back home, get a couple of tests in my ribs to make sure everything is fine and heal quick to face the last races of the season, the European Championships. Thanks for all the support and to all of you who asked about my health; no worries, I will be back."

Several other riders were left bloodied and bruised by the crash, and forced into a chase to try to get back into the race. This included USA leader Kate Courtney, Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mauritius), Lauren Dickson (Great Britain), and Sarah Gigante (Australia).

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