Brandon McNulty surprisingly wins the World Championship race in Montreal

Outsider Brandon McNulty first hit the handlebars in joy on Avenue de Parc, then held his hands to his face in disbelief: In one of the most spectacular races in World Cup history, the 28-year-old shocked all the favorites and became the first American since Lance Armstrong to wear the rainbow jersey. After 273.4 extremely hard kilometers, Australian Michael Matthews secured silver ahead of Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel. Florian Lipowitz showed a courageous race in Canada after his long injury break, but as expected had nothing to do with the decision.

With about 33 kilometers to go, McNulty - who happened to be a teammate of the injured defending champion Tadej Pogacar - made a decisive move. Paul Seixas, Isaac Del Toro and Remco Evenepoel, who were highly talked about in advance, didn't react at all - and then too late. Armstrong, who was banned for life for doping, was the last American to win in Oslo in 1993.

The surprise winner was speechless after his coup: “I don’t even know what’s going on,” said the completely exhausted McNulty after the race. “I died,” he said about the last tough 33 kilometers of his solo ride to the finish.

Pogacar says goodbye to the jersey

One day before the race, defending champion Pogacar reported via Instagram. For the first time since his serious fall a month ago, the Tour winner was back on the bike and wearing his world champion jersey once again. “The first day back, the last day with the rainbow,” wrote the Slovenian, alluding to the jersey.

The hunt for the rainbow jersey began as expected with the formation of a breakaway group; German champion Felix Engelhardt was among the 16 riders. The lead grew to almost nine minutes, but gradually melted away as the race began on the Mont Royal circuit, which had to be completed 13 times.

“Disgusting distance”

269 meters of altitude had to be overcome per lap, the hardest of three climbs led to Montreal's local mountain. “He has a disgusting distance. It's too short to divide it up, but too long to go up in one go," said ZDF expert Simon Geschke about the 1.7 kilometer long hill. As a professional, Geschke drove the Grand Prix Montreal six times on an almost identical route.

The one-day race was won two weeks ago by Del Toro in a sprint against Seixas. Evenepoel was not completely convincing in fifth place. France took control of the race and the team put itself entirely at the service of Seixas. The 20-year-old was the driver with the weakest sprint among the favorites, so he had to try a solo attack after a difficult race.

Van der Poel causes chaos

The control was over 90 kilometers from the finish. Then former world champion Mathieu van der Poel made the tough race he wanted with an attack. With his Belgian arch-rival Wout van Aert, the American Quinn Simmons and Primoz Roglic, the Dutchman formed an extremely strong group.

So Seixas and Del Toro had to take the initiative in the pursuit, which was not good for Lipowitz. The 26-year-old had to take a break because the long break after breaking his collarbone two months ago was noticeable. Van der Poel and Co. were caught 34 kilometers from the finish - and the final was on.