As it happened: Defending champion makes history at Road World Championships 2026 elite men's individual time trial

Hi. Bonjour. Welcome to our live report on Cyclingnews for the elite men's individual time trial of the 2026 UCI World Road Championships in Montréal, Canada.

Belgium's Remco Evenepoel and Italy's Filippo Ganna have won five of the past six time trial world titles – can anyone beat them in Montreal?

Check out the riders to watch in the men's individual time trial in our in-depth preview.

The first rider who will ride down the ramp to kick things off for the 2026 World Road Championships will be Gil Gomes, from Guinea-Bissau at 13:00 local time.

See the full start list and each rider’s start time here.

Cycling fans were spoiled with a compelling women’s elite individual time trial at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships this morning.

Read more: Marlen Reusser storms to victory in elite women's time trial, catching Demi Vollering en route to second straight title.

As shown in the nail-biting elite women’s time trial, pacing is key for the 39.2km route, which begins with a short downhill run and concludes with a 400-metre, 6.1% uphill run to the line, though it is largely flat in between.

Three intermediate time checks will show us which rider is doing well, and who is not.

The technical but mostly flat route 39.2km will take riders through the streets of Old Montreal and along the banks of the St. Lawrence River before reaching Île-des-Sœurs and crossing the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge.

From there, the course follows the Greater Montreal River Walk before looping around Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, the iconic motor-racing circuit that hosts the annual Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. Riders then cross the St. Lawrence once more, this time via the Concorde Bridge, before returning to the finish line in Parc Jeanne-Mance.

The sun is out for the first of 61 riders to take on the race against the clock: Gil Gomes, third in the Guinea-Bissau national championship.

The next two riders: Gomes' compatriot Apolinario Ca and Ahmad Badreddin Wais representing the Refugee Olympic Team are the next two riders to tackle the course.

It is around 16 °C in Montréal, under cloudy skies.

More riders have started on the 39.2km course: China's Chenglu Liu, Daniil Marukhin of Kazakhstan, and Maral-Erdene Batmunkh (MGL) and Derrick Chavarria (MGL).

Iran's Arvin Moazami Godarzi did not take the start, though he was on the startlist.

Wais is catching the riders that started before him.

More riders take on the course: Nicholas Narraway (BER), Daniel Yon Hin (MRI), Fredd Matute (HON), Byron Munton (RSA) and Amir Ansari (REF).

More riders take on the course: Nicholas Narraway (BER), Daniel Yon Hin (MRI), Fredd Matute (HON), Byron Munton (RSA) and Amir Ansari (REF).

The first rider for the host nation, Canada's Nickolas Zukowsky is off as the crowd cheers him on.

Batmunkh sets the best time of 13:51.58 at the first intermediate timecheck, 14 seconds faster than Marukhin

Bermuda's Narraway clocks new fast time at first intermediate time check with 13:47.54, 4 seconds faster than Batmunkh

Brazil's Henrique Avancini is off. It will be interesting to see how the former mountain bike world champion does in this TT.

South Africa's Byron sets new fast time of 12:47.49 at the first intermediate check, averaging 50.9 km/hr for the first section. Zukowsky slots into second place, 14 seconds back.

The first riders to start are now crossing the second intermediate time check, with Batmunkh the fastest so far with 28:21.72.

Nelson Oliveira is the next rider to start. The Portuguese rider has raced to six top-10 finishes in 13 World Championships. He finished 4th in Bergen (2017), 6th in Glasgow (2023) and 8th at Yorkshire (2019) and Wollongong (2022).

He also excelled as a U23 rider, finishing 2nd in 2009.

Belgium national road race champion Rune Herregodts takes the start, and is followed 1:30 later by former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland.

Munten is flying, setting the fast time at the second split with 26:10.70. He still holds the best time at the first timecheck. Zukowsky slots into second place, 23 seconds down.

Canadian TT champion Michael Leonard is off. The 22-year-old was 12th last year in Kigali.

Oliveira slots into third at the first time check, less than three seconds behind Munton, who continues to set the fast time across all splits.

Denmark's Kasper Asgreen sets the fast time for the first timecheck with 12:37.62, two seconds faster than Jan Tratnik, pushing Munton to third for now.

A few notable riders on course include USA’s Artem Shmidt, the 2025 national TT champion and Norway’s Tobias Foss, who caused a major surprise when he won the TT title in 2022.

18 riders left to start.

Byron Munton goes to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 47:37.44, averaging 49.4km/hr over the 39.2k course.

The South African is a three-time national TT champion, winning the under-23 category in 2019 and 2020 and the elite in 2022.

Germany's Jasha Sutterlin takes the lead at the first time check with 26:01.02 with Oliveira 3 seconds back, and 9 seconds faster than Munton

French superstar Paul Seixas is off. He still has a compatriot, Bruno Amirail, left to start.

Leonard flies through the first time check with 12:35.41, averaging 52.9 km/hr, besting Asgreen by 2 seconds.

Asgreen, who started earlier, now sets the fastest time at the second split, 19 seconds faster than Tratnik.

Meanwhile, more riders took the start. Callum Thornley (Great Britain), Mathias Vacek (Czechia), Brandon McNulty (USA) and Alec Segaert (Belgium) are all on course.

Leonard slots into second at the second split, 10 seconds slower than Asgreen. The Canadian rider may have gone out too quickly on the early technical section.

At first split, Seixas slots into second place, less than one minute slower than Leonard, and about 1:30 faster than Asgreen who is flying through the timechecks.

Dan Hoole of the Netherlands and Mexico's Isaas del Toro are out on course.

Germany's Jasha Sutterlin takes over the top of the standings, lunging across the line with a time of 47:04.01, 33 seconds faster than Munton.

The final five riders are up. Switzerland's Stefan Kung, France's Bruno Amirail and Great Britain's Ethan Hayter are off.

Italy's Filippo Ganna, two-time TT world champion, is underway. He sprints away from the start ramp.

Asgreen continues to set the fast time at the split. He clocks 34:56.79, 16 seconds faster than Leonard.

And defending champion Remco Evenepoel is off. He almost hit a curb, as he pushes the pace on a corner in the technical start.

New fast time

Not a surprise, Asgreen - with no visor- sets the new fast time of 46:41.67, 22 seconds faster than Sutterlin.

Paul Seixas sets new fast time at second split,. three seconds faster than Asgreen.

Meanwhile, Evenepoel is speeding around the cracks on the road,

Stefan Küng is in 6th place at first time check, 12 seconds slower than Jakob Soderqvist who clocked 12:27.03.

Michael Leonard finishes with a time of 47:02.78, 21 seconds slower than Asgreen, and slots into second for now. He lost five seconds in the third section of the course.

Whoa, Seixas went almost too fast on a corner. He's definitely pushing the speed as much as he can

At the first split, Evenepoel sets the fastest time of 12:17.63, besting Soderqvist by 9 seconds.

Del Toro, Küng and Ganna were 22 seconds slower.

Thornley is speeding up, going from 8th to 5th, so far at the third split, 37 seconds off the pace of Seixas.

McNulty has upped his pace, slotting into 2nd at the third split, 11 seconds off of Seixas' time.

McNulty seems to be wearing a different kit (shorts) than his compatriots.

Söderqvist sets a new fast time at third check, besting Seixas by 5 seconds.

New fast time

France's Paul Seixas sets new fast time, with 46:06.17, 35 seconds than Asgreen.

But Evenepoel is coming in hot. The Belgium sets the new fast time, by 34 seconds at the second time check.

Meanwhile, Ganna and Küng are off the pace. The Italian is 40 seconds off the pace of Evenepoel, and Küng is 56 seconds down from the Belgian at the second time check.

Fastest so far, Jakob Söderqvist went in too hot on a corner and hit the deck. He got back on his bike but lost time.

Evenepoel sets fastest time at third check with 33:49.87, as Ganna slots into second, 48 seconds slower, and one second ahead of Söderqvist

After his crash, Jakob Söderqvist lost time and finishes third with 46:19.31, 13 seconds slower than Seixas, and one second off McNulty.

Evenepoel looked down at his bike. Not sure if he thought he had a mechanical, a gear change issue, or was he talking to himself? Hopefully we find out after the race.

Stefan Küng crosses the line with a time of 46:37.57, 31 seconds from Seixas. The Swiss rider is outside of the medals.

Evenepoel keeps looking down at his bike. Does he have gear problems?

New fast time

Seixas can't look at the screen as Filippo Ganna is in full flight to the finish line.

Ganna sets new fast time of 45:50.44 but Evenepoel is coming!

Winning time

Remco Evenepoel obliterates the time trial with a time of 44:53.13, 57 seconds faster than Ganna, and 1:13 on Seixas.

The Belgian makes history by winning four consecutive TT world titles.

Brandon McNulty is fourth and Jakob Söderqvist is fifth. What could have been if not for the crash for the Swedith rider.

Medals

Gold - Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)

Silver - Filippo Ganna (Italy)

Bronze - Paul Seixas (France)

Evenepoel led from start to finish, setting the fastest time at all three intermediate time checks. The Belgian was the only rider to average more than 52 km/hr on the 39.2 course.

Ganna had a different pacing strategy, moving from 10th at the first split to fourth at the second and then second at the third.

Seixas, meanwhile, went from fourth at the first split to third at the second before slipping back to fourth at the third time check.

Make sure to read our post-race report on all the action while also keeping an eye on our homepage for the latest reactions.

Road World Championships: Record-breaking Remco Evenepoel makes it four in a row with blistering time trial performance in Montreal

History is made

And that brings our second live report of the day to an end, with the elite men’s ITT concluding the first day of the World Championships in Canada.

Keep an eye on our homepage for the latest news from the Cyclingnews team on the ground in Montréal.

There is much more racing to come with the women’s and men’s under-23 individual time trials on Monday.