Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG)’s absence through injury leaves the Montréal World Championships without the rider everyone else would have organised their road race around. Other star riders now come into the road race with the belief that they can win instead of accepting that the best they could do is race for second.
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG) arrives as the form favourite after winning the GP de Montréal. However, his Mexican team cannot supply the support he is used to getting at UAE. He has shown that he can win on the World Championships course, but he may be very isolated early on.
The Worlds’ defining climb, 1.6km at 7.7%, is tackled 12 times. That repetition gives climbers opportunities to wear down faster finishers, while leaving attackers scope to move before the final ascent.
Del Toro bridged to Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) late in the GP and beat him in their uphill sprint. The Mexican’s strongest route is another small-group finish after following the decisive acceleration. Seixas has reason to seek separation: his final-climb attack created the winning move, but taking Del Toro to the line cost him victory.
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) has told Feltet that the accumulated climbing could prove too much for Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Wout van Aert (Team Visma-Lease a Bike). After winning Québec, Evenepoel missed Montréal’s key selection but managed to bridge to the group behind Del Toro and Seixas to finish fifth on the day. He looks strong but has failed in his ambitious plan to win all four races in Canada. After taking Québec, however, he is the odds-on favourite to win his fourth world time trial title and is one of the favourites for the road race.
The men’s road race course - Image: UCI
It is unclear where Van der Poel’s form is. The former world champion hasn’t raced on the road since the Tour de France and fell well short of challenging for the world cross country mountain bike title. He also chose not to race the Canadian GPs and instead has opted for the Tour de Luxembourg from Wednesday 16 September to Sunday 20 September, just one week before the road race on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Van Aert, by contrast, showed strong form at the Vuelta, where he won two stages, helped his team to seven in total and came close to winning the mountains jersey. Van Aert may be on his limit on this course, but if he is there at the end in the lead group, his sprint will be feared by everyone around him, giving Belgium a very strong two-pronged attack. But the question of whether Evenepoel and Van Aert will work together is yet to be answered.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) offers a different problem. He went clear alone in the GP and carried an advantage into the final lap before Seixas caught him. Ireland’s opportunity lies in another earlier attack, making favourites decide who should sacrifice energy to drag him back.
Britain and Belgium can make rivals chase
Great Britain has confirmed Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) as leader, with Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates XRG) also protected. Pidcock helped force Montréal’s late selection and his route to a potential victory is to win from a select group or solo. The world cross country mountain bike champion has an extremely fast sprint, but winning solo will always be preferred.
Yates, as well as Vuelta white jersey winner Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos), bring credible options for the team with the two climbers likely to be used earlier in an attempt to force a selection that could potentially see a surprise group go to the finish. Onley can also rely on a strong kick whereas Yates will need to get away solo to have any chance of taking a surprise victory.
Sending both riders up the road would allow Pidcock the luxury of just following. Simple on paper but the Brit has to follow some of the strongest punches in world cycling from Evenepoel, Seixas, Del Toro and others. Olus the headache of other nations using their numbers to try and create successful breaks earlier in the race.
Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates XRG) finished Montréal GP in third place after bridging to the chasers and attacking over the top. He also has the added strength of Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) with riders like Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) also adding depth. The USA squad could use these numbers to their advantage and overload the favourites with repeated attacks to force a group that suits them more than their rivals.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), second at the Vuelta, gives Slovenia a late attacking option without obliging it to reproduce Pogačar’s race plan. The Slovenian squad do have to look at the race differently to when they had the favourite on the squad. They can now just try to follow. Roglič has been steadily building form after going into La Vuelta undercooked due to being hit by a car in training, but still managed second overall. He could bring his top form to the race, but he would be the main hope with Vuelta stage winner Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) being a possible outsider.
