The Canadian city of Montreal has been confirmed as the host of the 2026 UCI Road World Championships, while the multi-discipline 2027 Worlds has been awarded to the Haute-Savoie department of France. The announcement was made in Wollongong on Thursday following the UCI Congress.
The Montreal Worlds will be organised by Événements GPCQM, who have run the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal WorldTour races since 2010. Those races will serve as an obvious build-up to the 2026 Worlds, which will take place in late September.
Montreal previously hosted the Worlds in 1974, when Eddy Merckx and Geneviève Gambillon claimed the rainbow jerseys on the Mount Royal circuit.
1974 marked the first time the Worlds had ever taken place outside of Europe. The event returned to Canada in 2003, when Igor Astarloa and Susanne Ljungskog won the elite road races in Hamilton.
The assignation of the 2027 multi-discipline Worlds to Haute-Savoie, meanwhile, bridges a 27-year gap for France, which last hosted the World Championships road race in Plouay in 2000.
Haute-Savoie 2027 will be the second edition of the UCI’s multi-discipline Cycling World Championships, with title races in road, track, mountain bike, para-cycling, gravel and BMX taking place. The multi-discipline Worlds is held quadrennially in the year preceding the Olympic Games, starting with next summer's edition in Glasgow.
While Glasgow 2023 sees the Worlds take place in a novel early August date, the UCI has confirmed that the 2027 Worlds will be held from September 11-26. The 2027 Worlds to Haute-Savoie will also see the construction of a covered velodrome in the department, with the site yet to be announced.
The UCI has confirmed that there will be world titles in 19 disciplines on offer in Haute-Savoie, with gravel, enduro, pump track, junior track, cycling esport and polo-bike added to the schedule. Next year's Glasgow Worlds will see rainbow jerseys contested in 13 disciplines.
The road race circuit for the 2027 Worlds has yet to be revealed, but it seems likely to echo the demanding course of the 1980 Worlds in Sallanches, where Bernard Hinault emerged victorious. Indeed, when Haute-Savoie formally announced its candidature last February, the press conference was held on the Côte de Domancy where Hinault constructed his indelible victory.
“It will be time to have a World Championships where the Grand Tour specialists and the climbers will have a chance to become world champion,” UCI president David Lappartient told L’Équipe.
Thursday's announcements mean that the Road World Championships venues for the next five years are now confirmed. Glasgow will hold the event in 2023, followed by Zurich in 2024, Kigali in 2025, Montreal in 2026 and Haute-Savoie in 2027.
The UCI also announced the venues of some forthcoming World Championships in other disciplines. San Juan in Argentina will host the 2025 Track Worlds, with the event taking place in Shanghai the following year.
The Gravel Worlds will be held in Vlaams Brabant, Belgium in 2024, in Nice in 2025 and in Nannup, Australia in in 2026.
Leogang in Australia will host the 2028 mountain bike worlds, while Primiero San Martino Castrozza will host the Marathon MTB Worlds in 2026.
The Junior Track Worlds will be held in China in 2024, with the host city yet to be decided, and in Apeldoorn in 2025.
