Brandon McNulty competes in 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montréal

Brandon McNulty in Montréal

A Brutal Opening and Early Breakaway Set the Stage

The championship battle kicked off in Brossard, sending the 184-starters on an initial 100-kilometer flat approach before hitting the 13.4-kilometer finishing circuit. A 15-rider early breakaway formed on the flats, featuring Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay and Henok Mulubrhan, Norway’s Andreas Leknessund, Ireland’s Jamie Meehan, and several others. The escape group built a maximum advantage of nine minutes as Belgium’s Alec Segaert patrolled the front of the main field.

As the race swung toward Montréal’s urban circuit, the French national team drove the pace. Bruno Armirail drove the pace on the lower slopes to isolate rivals for Paul Seixas. The acceleration shattered the early breakaway. By the 115-kilometer mark, only Leknessund, Mulubrhan, Emīls Liepiņš, and Meehan remained clear before the peloton swallowed them whole with seven laps remaining.

Attacks on Voie Camillien-Houde

The race exploded inside the final 100 kilometers as Valentin Paret-Peintre opened the floodgates with an attack that unseated major contenders like Australia’s Ben O’Connor and Italy’s Mattia Cattaneo. With 98 kilometers remaining, Mathieu van der Poel briefly surged to the front of the bunch on a tactical probe before Denmark’s Anthon Charmig slipped away to grab a 10-second gap entering the sixth lap before the finish.

On the climb of Voie Camillien-Houde—measuring 1.6 kilometers at an average gradient of 7.5 percent—a counter-attack joined Charmig. Van der Poel, Maxim Van Gils, Giulio Pellizzari, Oscar Onley, and Ben Healy bridged across. The attritional racing took a heavy toll: the peloton shrank from 184 starters down to just 80 riders six laps before the finish, while Czech leader Vacek and Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock both hit the deck in separate crashes.

The Decisive Move

Belgium’s Wout van Aert launched a late-race offensive. Van der Poel, Onley, Primož Roglič, Charmig, and Quinn Simmons matched the move, forming a six-man alliance that established a gap heading into the final circuit.