OK, a better beer!

Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won the elite men’s road race at the Montréal Worlds with a 32km solo. He finished 13 seconds clear of Michael Matthews (Australia) and Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) after 273km, 3,803m of climbing over twelve laps of Mount Royal, and 6:17:04 of racing.

And you will wish you’d had a $100 bet on him – TNT Sports called him a 50-1 outsider, and in three previous elite Worlds road races his best finish was 17th.

A RACE THAT NEVER SETTLED

Sixteen riders, including Biniam Girmay (Eritrea – weird move that) and Andreas Leknessund (Norway), went clear early and had around six minutes when they first crossed the line to start the circuits. Bruno Amirail was setting a hard pace for France and Paul Seixas behind them, but it was a daft thing to do – Seixas needed him later but he was already changed and tucking into a bowl of pomme frites.

With more than 90km to go Van der Poel and Wout van Aert blew the race apart and Primož Roglič, Oscar Onley and Quinn Simmons joined them. It looked like it was all over to be fair, but VDP looked a little tired – despite takimg 2nd – possibility due to his massive solo in Luxembourg.

Ben Healy bridged across with 39km left and Isaac del Toro dragged the chase back up to them four kilometres later. McNulty attacked with about 32km to go.

BRILLIANT AND LUCKY TO HAVE HIS TEAMMATES FULLY COMMITTED

He took his chance brilliantly. His lead went past a minute (1:08 with two laps to go) and was still over 50 seconds at the bell. Then Tom Pidcock and Giulio Ciccone drove the chase and over the final climb the gap fell to somewhere between 10 and 15 second. He was also lucky. A little more cohesion behind and he would have been caught on that last crest, with a steep finishing straight still to come. Instead the hesitation returned, he still had 24 seconds with 5km to go, and he held on.

“I knew something could happen, but it would take a miracle,” he said afterwards.

THREE CARDS TO PLAY

McNulty’s win was down partly to favourites who failed to commit and didn’t see him as a threat – could see that when he attacked – and partly to numbers. The USA had three riders in the mix, while every other nation had no more than two and most just one. Matteo Jorgenson and Simmons marked every chase move from Pidcock, Evenepoel and others. Simmons finished fourth and Jorgenson eighth, which put three Americans in the top ten.

“We rode crazy well,” McNulty said. I thought Joegensen in particular rode out of his skin, it was an incredible series of full gas efforts to latch on to the wheels the way he did.

BELGIUM?

Belgium arrived with the best team on paper, Evenepoel and Van Aert plus Tiesj Benoot, Quinten Hermans, Thibau Nys, Alec Segaert, Maxim Van Gils and Gianni Vermeersch, and finished without a rider in the top ten. Again. Van Aert cracked with about 38km to go. Evenepoel launched one big move just before the final lap, which didn’t work, and finished 12th. “No excuses, I simply wasn’t good enough,” he said. That explains the legs but not the plan. It was such a strange effort by Remco, who seemed the be riding petulantly – if that makes sense!

SEIXAS

Seixas turned 20 on Friday and was France’s sole leader. His headline before the race was “Anything other than gold would be a disappointment.” He stayed with the leaders until the decisive stages, then cramped on the final lap and finished 15th. “It was a childish mistake,” he said. He blamed his own fuelling and hydration, and said he had never cramped on the bike before. He was hardest on himself over his teammates, who had ridden the peloton to pieces for him: “They deserve a better team leader.”

Yikes. A bit too self-critical there. He’s young, his team did not exactly help him out, and that was a heck of a distance and route.

DEL TORO

Del Toro (Mexico) finished fifth and closed gaps and was looking very sharp throughout – but some felt he was slowing down the chase at the end.. Pidcock said that “Del Toro was obviously working for McNulty in the end.”

For him though, he is young also, and had it been a bit more mano a mano, with 5 guys up the road from 5 different nations, he could have taken it.

THE PODIUM

Matthews took a brilliant silver the day after his 36th birthday, his fourth elite road race medal and 11th world medal overall. He got there after a pulmonary embolism in 2025 and two broken arms in a March training crash. “Honestly, it feels like a win,” he said. Van der Poel was one of the main aggressors for the last 70km and settled for bronze. He had the best line on the day: “Racing without earpieces always makes for the best races.”

The rainbow jersey stays at UAE with Tadej Pogačar absent. McNulty said “I hope I made him proud” –

Pogačar’s reply was “King of Montréal!”

This was an amazing Worlds Champs across the board.

Chapeau, Montreal!