As Tadej Pogačar rounded off an exhilarating version of the GP Montréal on Sunday, pink inflatables and boards promoting the return the UCI Road World Championships to Canada’s second-biggest metropolis in two years have been unmissable. Even the ultimate U-turn bend on the Avenue du Parc was colored by Montréal 2026 branding, with the anticipation constructing yr after yr for the town to behave because the epicentre for worlds.
Fittingly Pogačar’s solo triumph arrived 50 years after Eddy Merckx grew to become males’s World Champion for the third time in Montréal and on the first championships exterior of Europe. The Belgian additionally accomplished the first-ever fabled ‘Triple Crown’ that yr, one thing which the Slovenian will take purpose at on September 29 in Zürich after already profitable the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
The Slovenian went on to remark post-race how a lot the race had grown since he gained the 2022 version of the identical race, with the Tour de France: Unchained Netflix documentary probably enjoying a task on this and serving to the game develop in North America. This makes it the proper time to have worlds incoming, with a chance to vary the biking tradition in Québec.
“It was an unbelievable ambiance. Two years in the past, it was for certain not like this. 2026 will likely be a very good yr for Montréal and the Canadian races and I hope it is gonna be a very good yr for me as properly,” stated Pogačar in his winner’s press convention.
“Pogačar gained in Montréal two years in the past, then final yr there’s the Netflix collection and some months in the past folks have been saying, ‘Hey Pogacar will come it is unbelievable’ however we’ve got to inform them ‘Guys, Pogačar gained right here two years in the past’,” defined Montréal 2026 CEO and GPCQM General Manager Joseph Limare in an interview with media together with Cyclingnews.
“The Netflix impact in North America is excellent for biking.”
The documentary targeted on the Tour de France, titled ‘Unchained’ has tried to comply with the instance of Formula 1’s ‘Drive to outlive’ by rising curiosity within the USA, which has labored on a smaller scale, but additionally to Canada, the place the presence of prime riders like Derek Gee and Tour stage winner Michael Woods has contributed to a development in biking focus.
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“I feel you see with the Netflix documentary and with Canadians beginning to race so properly once more, the game is certainly gaining some momentum right here,” agreed Canadian nationwide champion Woods forward of the GP Montréal. “Then you place the World Championships in entrance of a Canadian crowd and I’m certain, I hope, that some youngsters will likely be impressed.”
Road race course particulars
It was already that the beautiful Mont-Royal will stay the heartbeat of the lads’s and girls’s highway races in 2026, making up the massive majority of the 270km course other than a brief tour off the island that a lot of the metropolis lies on.
While Limare and his group needed to fully honour the 1974 course with an similar route, it merely wasn’t attainable with the continuing building within the metropolis and a whole redesign of parts the place Merckx and France’s Geneviève Gambillon rode into rainbows.
Gambillon, winner of the ladies’s race 50 years in the past, was as soon as once more current on the race in Montréal, honoured on stage with a presentation alongside two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe and ringing the bell for the ultimate lap of the 2024 race.
“80% of the GP Montréal circuit will likely be used. We are going to make use of a reasonably related route because the Grand Prix however we alter perhaps 15%. The Junior and U23 races will likely be completely on the circuit however women and men elite will go exterior the Montréal island,” stated Limare.
But the famed Avenue du Parc will keep its spot as the placement of the end line, albeit in “the identical place however not the identical manner” in line with Limare. Sunday’s race confirmed it as a price ending place for rainbows to be determined, with lots of of followers lining all sides of the limitations to welcome Pogačar.
The nice Bernard Hinault instructed Montréal 2026 Président Sébastien Arsenault “You have already got your course!” final yr and the organisers have agreed, opting to stay with the Parc du Mont-Royal. It was additionally a provided that if Montréal once more hosted the worlds, the primary climb which characterises the 12.3km circuit – Côte du Camillien-Houde – would function the excessive level.
“It was a want [to copy the 1974 parcours] however with the works and building it was not straightforward,” stated Limare. “We will be unable to have the identical circuit and begin/end however will probably be 80% of the circuit. It was a situation that if Montréal needed to have worlds, we wanted to have the Camillien-Houde.”
Whatever the confirmed particulars will likely be when 2026 truly rolls round, the Mont Royal circuit is sufficient to present a worthy winner in line with Woods who, regardless of being from Ontario, is aware of it properly having reduce his tooth as a racer within the Montréal and Québec racing scene.
“Montréal basically is only a nice sporting metropolis so I feel from a fan perspective there will be lots of people right here,” stated Woods. “The course itself will likely be actually, actually laborious, I have not seen the precise particulars of the course but when it is something like this circuit, a worthy World Champion will likely be made.”
Time trial particulars and constructing a legacy
For the time trial, which is able to arrive every week after the ultimate costume rehearsal on the 2026 GP Montréal, Limare revealed that organisers needed to honour the 1976 Olympics in Montréal on its fiftieth anniversary, nonetheless, ongoing renovations to the Olympic stadium meant it would not work that includes it.
“First of all as a result of 2026 would be the fiftieth anniversary of the Olympics in Montreal, we needed to go from the stadium to a different Olympic set up and present the Olympic heritage, however the stadium will likely be within the works and we will be unable to see it so we stated no there,” he stated.
“100% of the TT won’t be on the island however within the Montréal territory as a result of we are going to most likely go on the Formula 1 circuit for one and a half laps after which go from the river by the bridge however it’s not booked 100%.”
With the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and crossing over the Saint Lawrence River prone to be outstanding, it ought to present a surprising view of a few of the metropolis’s most recognisable landmarks, all whereas suiting the pure TT specialists with underneath 200 metres of elevation acquire on a flat course.
It can be about legacy for Limare and the group organising the worlds in 2026, with the purpose of adjusting the biking tradition altogether by the landmark occasion.
“Every day of my life, I sit with folks from Montréal and say ‘take into consideration the GP and it is greater than 10 instances larger than that’ and at that time they realise,” stated Limare.
“No biking tradition right here however Montréal had one time the World Championships in 1974 and that is my software to persuade everyone. In 74′, Eddy Merckx gained however riders are usually not identified to everyone so the tradition just isn’t straightforward. That is what we’re searching for, we need to go to all of the Montréal island colleges, put the youngsters on the bike and play, have enjoyable and say OK it is possible for you to to see one of the best on this planet.”