Cycling Worlds: follow the men’s road 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 Double title holder but withdrawn since his fall in the Vuelta, the Slovenian leaves the field open in the world cycling championships, Sunday September 27, in Montreal.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. The Belgian is the big favorite.

Paul Seixas doesn't talk about age. At barely 20 years old, the fourth in the last Tour de France is one of the main candidates for the iridescent jersey. In the event of victory, the tricolor prodigy would quite simply be the youngest world champion in history.

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 breakaway has just finished with the ascent of Mont Saint-Hilaire, the only difficulty of the online part of the route.

Without earphones, you have to improvise. 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.

Mexico is at the front of the peloton. The opportunity to talk about one of today's favorites: Isaac Del Toro. Tadej Pogacar's teammate is seen as a threatening free electron.

Double title holder, Tadej Pogacar is absent. In fact, bib number 1 reserved for the title holder had to be reallocated. It was his compatriot Tilen Finkst who inherited it.

Update on the leading group: 16 riders make up the breakaway, including 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).

First tactical indication: it was the Netherlands who took the lead of the peloton, behind the breakaway. Which confirms that Mathieu van der Poel did not come to Montreal to discover the joys of poutine and maple syrup.