2024 World Road Cycling Championships: live coverage of the men's race in Montreal

The men's peloton advances on Sunday towards a 273.7 km course in Montreal, with a final hilly circuit taken 12 times.

In the absence of Tadej Pogacar, all dreams are allowed. Double title holder but withdrawn since his fall in the Vuelta, the Slovenian leaves the field open in the world cycling championships, Sunday September 27, in Montreal. With a demanding course of more than 270 km, including 12 laps of the final circuit with three listed difficulties, the expected profile of the future world champion is that of a puncher-climber.

Remco Evenepoel is aiming for an unprecedented double. Now a quadruple time trial world champion, Remco Evenepoel could become the first rider in history to win the time trial and the road race in the same edition of the Worlds. Second last year in Kigali, the Belgian, 2022 world champion, is the big favorite.

Paul Seixas doesn't talk about age. Five years after Julian Alaphilippe's second world title, another Frenchman is a declared candidate for the rainbow jersey: Paul Seixas. At barely 20 years old, the fourth in the last Tour de France is one of the main candidates for the iridescent jersey.

Watch out for the flying Mexican. If collectives like the Netherlands, Italy or the United States will be worth watching, single men can shine, like the Briton Tom Pidcock, but especially the Mexican Isaac Del Toro. Winner of the Montreal GP ahead of Seixas two weeks ago, he arrives at the head of a very modest Mexican selection.

The Côte Camillien-Houde (1.6 km at 7.5% average) will be the main difficulty of the day for the runners. But the circuit will include another steep slope: Chemin de la Polytechnique, with passages at 11%. All on a 13.4 km loop around Mount Royal, taken 12 times. 3,803 meters of positive altitude difference await the runners.

The World Cup is an old-fashioned race, with the national selection, and, since 2018, without the instructions of the sports directors in the earpieces. Which gives more freedom to runners and their racing sense.

Update on the leading group: 16 riders make up the breakaway, here are the details: Tilen Finkst (Slovenia), Andreas Leknessund (Norway), Felix Engelhardt (Germany), Biniam Girmay (Eritrea), Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrea), Jamie Meehan (Ireland), Guillaume Boivin (Canada), Emils Liepins (Latvia), Heorhii Antonenko (Ukraine), Mihajlo Stolic (Serbia), Christofer Robin Jurado (Panama), Alexandre Meyer (Mauritius), Iustin-Ioan Vaidian (Romania), Andreas Miltiadis (Cyprus), Kaden Hopkins (Bermuda) and Amir Arsalan Ansari (refugee team).