As Tadej Pogačar rounded off an exhilarating version of the GP Montréal on Sunday, pink inflatables and boards promoting the return the UCI Street World Championships to Canada’s second-biggest metropolis in two years have been unmissable. Even the ultimate U-turn bend on the Avenue du Parc was colored by Montréal 2026 branding, with the anticipation constructing yr after yr for the town to behave because the epicentre for worlds.
Fittingly Pogačar’s solo triumph arrived 50 years after Eddy Merckx turned males’s World Champion for the third time in Montréal and on the first championships exterior of Europe. The Belgian additionally accomplished the first-ever fabled ‘Triple Crown’ that yr, one thing which the Slovenian will take intention at on September 29 in Zürich after already profitable the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
The Slovenian went on to remark post-race how a lot the race had grown since he gained the 2022 version of the identical race, with the Tour de France: Unchained Netflix documentary doubtless enjoying a job on this and serving to the game develop in North America. This makes it the right time to have worlds incoming, with a chance to alter the biking tradition in Québec.
“It was an unimaginable ambiance. Two years in the past, it was for certain not like this. 2026 shall be a very good yr for Montréal and the Canadian races and I hope it is gonna be a very good yr for me as effectively,” mentioned Pogačar in his winner’s press convention.
“Pogačar gained in Montréal two years in the past, then final yr there’s the Netflix collection and some months in the past folks have been saying, ‘Hey Pogacar will come it is unimaginable’ however we now have to inform them ‘Guys, Pogačar gained right here two years in the past’,” defined Montréal 2026 CEO and GPCQM Basic Supervisor Joseph Limare in an interview with media together with Cyclingnews.
“The Netflix impact in North America is excellent for biking.”
The documentary targeted on the Tour de France, titled ‘Unchained’ has tried to comply with the instance of Method 1’s ‘Drive to outlive’ by rising curiosity within the USA, which has labored on a smaller scale, but in addition to Canada, the place the presence of high riders like Derek Gee and Tour stage winner Michael Woods has contributed to a progress in biking focus.
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“I feel you see with the Netflix documentary and with Canadians beginning to race so effectively once more, the game is certainly gaining some momentum right here,” agreed Canadian nationwide champion Woods forward of the GP Montréal. “You then put the World Championships in entrance of a Canadian crowd and I am certain, I hope, that some youngsters shall be impressed.”
Street race course particulars
It was already that the gorgeous Mont-Royal will stay the heartbeat of the boys’s and ladies’s street races in 2026, making up the big majority of the 270km course other than a brief tour off the island that many of the metropolis lies on.
Whereas Limare and his group needed to fully honour the 1974 course with an equivalent route, it merely wasn’t potential with the continued development within the metropolis and a whole redesign of parts the place Merckx and France’s Geneviève Gambillon rode into rainbows.
Gambillon, winner of the ladies’s race 50 years in the past, was as soon as once more current on the race in Montréal, honoured on stage with a presentation alongside two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe and ringing the bell for the ultimate lap of the 2024 race.
“80% of the GP Montréal circuit shall be used. We’re going to use a fairly related route because the Grand Prix however we modify perhaps 15%. The Junior and U23 races shall be completely on the circuit however women and men elite will go exterior the Montréal island,” mentioned Limare.
However the famed Avenue du Parc will preserve its spot as the situation of the end line, albeit in “the identical place however not the identical method” in accordance with Limare. Sunday’s race confirmed it as a value ending place for rainbows to be determined, with a whole bunch of followers lining both sides of the limitations to welcome Pogačar.
The nice Bernard Hinault advised Montréal 2026 Président Sébastien Arsenault “You have already got your course!” final yr and the organisers have agreed, opting to stay with the Parc du Mont-Royal. It was additionally a on condition that if Montréal once more hosted the worlds, the principle climb which characterises the 12.3km circuit – Côte du Camillien-Houde – would function the excessive level.
“It was a want [to copy the 1974 parcours] however with the works and development it was not straightforward,” mentioned Limare. “We will be unable to have the identical circuit and begin/end however it is going to be 80% of the circuit. It was a situation that if Montréal needed to have worlds, we would have liked to have the Camillien-Houde.”
Regardless of the confirmed particulars shall be when 2026 really rolls round, the Mont Royal circuit is sufficient to present a worthy winner in accordance with Woods who, regardless of being from Ontario, is aware of it effectively having minimize his tooth as a racer within the Montréal and Québec racing scene.
“Montréal on the whole is only a nice sporting metropolis so I feel from a fan perspective there will be lots of people right here,” mentioned Woods. “The course itself shall be actually, actually laborious, I have not seen the precise particulars of the course but when it is something like this circuit, a worthy World Champion shall be made.”
Time trial particulars and constructing a legacy
For the time trial, which is able to arrive per week after the ultimate gown rehearsal on the 2026 GP Montréal, Limare revealed that organisers needed to honour the 1976 Olympics in Montréal on its fiftieth anniversary, nonetheless, ongoing renovations to the Olympic stadium meant it would not work that includes it.
“To begin with as a result of 2026 would be the fiftieth anniversary of the Olympics in Montreal, we needed to go from the stadium to a different Olympic set up and present the Olympic heritage, however the stadium shall be within the works and we will be unable to see it so we mentioned no there,” he mentioned.
“100% of the TT won’t be on the island however within the Montréal territory as a result of we’ll in all probability go on the Method 1 circuit for one and a half laps after which go from the river via the bridge however it isn’t booked 100%.”
With the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and crossing over the Saint Lawrence River more likely to be distinguished, it ought to present a surprising view of a number of the metropolis’s most recognisable landmarks, all whereas suiting the pure TT specialists with beneath 200 metres of elevation acquire on a flat course.
Additionally it is about legacy for Limare and the group organising the worlds in 2026, with the intention of adjusting the biking tradition altogether via the landmark occasion.
“Every single day of my life, I sit with folks from Montréal and say ‘take into consideration the GP and it is greater than 10 instances greater than that’ and at that time they realise,” mentioned Limare.
“No biking tradition right here however Montréal had one time the World Championships in 1974 and that is my software to persuade everyone. In 74′, Eddy Merckx gained however riders are usually not identified to everyone so the tradition will not be straightforward. That’s what we’re on the lookout for, we need to go to all of the Montréal island faculties, put the children on the bike and play, have enjoyable and say OK it is possible for you to to see one of the best on the earth.”