Brandon McNulty of the USA won the last men’s elite road race at the UCI Road World Championships, in Montreal on September 27, 2026. The next one is on August 29, 2027, at Sallanches in Haute-Savoie, France, and this page will carry its odds once we have prices to quote.
McNulty went clear alone with 33 kilometres to go and held on by 13 seconds, the UCI reported. Australia’s Michael Matthews was second and Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands third.
The 2026 race in Montreal
The 2026 championships ran from September 20 to 27, and the men’s road race closed them. It was 273.4 kilometres with 3,803 metres of climbing: a loop of about 100 kilometres, then 12 laps of a 13.4-kilometre circuit on Mont-Royal, with the Voie Camillien-Houde (1.67 km at 7.4%) on every lap. The UCI counted 184 riders from 61 nations.
McNulty started the final lap 53 seconds ahead of a 10-man group led by Remco Evenepoel, who had won the time trial that week. With 10 kilometres left the gap was down to 10 seconds, and it still held at the line. “Even in the last 300 metres, I really didn’t believe it,” McNulty said afterwards.
Tadej Pogacar, the winner in 2024 and 2025, did not start. ESPN reported on September 5 that he had ended his season after a crash at the Vuelta, which ruled out a defense of the title.
Recent podiums
| Year | Host | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Montreal, Canada | Brandon McNulty (USA) | Michael Matthews (AUS) | Mathieu van der Poel (NED) |
| 2025 | Kigali, Rwanda | Tadej Pogacar (SLO) | Remco Evenepoel (BEL) | Ben Healy (IRL) |
| 2024 | Zurich, Switzerland | Tadej Pogacar (SLO) | Ben O’Connor (AUS) | Mathieu van der Poel (NED) |
Van der Poel has been on two of the last three podiums, and won the race himself in 2023, as the UCI’s 2024 report notes. Pogacar’s 2025 win in Kigali, the first worlds held in Africa according to ESPN, came after a solo of 77 kilometres; Evenepoel finished 1:28 behind him.
How our 2024 picks did
This page made four picks for the 2024 race in Zurich, and three of them won.
| Bet, as published | Result |
|---|---|
| Tadej Pogacar to win (-175) | Won: he attacked with more than 100 km left and won alone |
| Ben O’Connor (+125) to finish ahead of Enric Mas | Won: O’Connor took silver, 34 seconds down |
| Remco Evenepoel to finish in the top 3 (-135) | Lost: the podium was Pogacar, O’Connor and van der Poel |
| Mathieu van der Poel to finish in the top 10 (-135) | Won: he won the sprint for third, 58 seconds down |
The -175 on Pogacar implied a 63.6% chance. With that win, the UCI said, he became the third rider to take the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the world road race in one year.
The 2027 race in Haute-Savoie
In 2027 the road worlds are part of the UCI Cycling World Championships, which put 20 world championships in one event from August 24 to September 5 in Haute-Savoie Mont-Blanc, with track cycling near Paris. The men’s elite road race is on Sunday, August 29, in Sallanches-Domancy-Pays du Mont-Blanc. The UCI says the course will include the Domancy climb, where Bernard Hinault won his world title in 1980.
The elite time trials are on September 1 around Lake Annecy, and the women’s elite road race closes the event on September 5. We will add the odds and a pick for the men’s race here when the start list and prices are out. More cycling is in our cycling odds and predictions.
Sources: UCI race reports for 2024 (Zurich), 2025 (Kigali) and 2026 (Montreal), and the UCI 2027 calendar release, read October 25, 2026; ESPN, September 28, 2025 and September 5, 2026.