Trending searches · 2026-09-28
Cycling World Championships 2026 Montreal: McNulty Wins Men's Road Race
This post was compiled with AI. We checked it against the original articles and announcements, but please confirm details in the linked sources. Trending on Google Trends (US) 10,000+; sources collected 2026-09-28 14:47 (KST).
In one line
Brandon McNulty won the elite men's road race at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal on Sunday, Sept. 27, becoming the first American to take the title since Lance Armstrong in 1993.
Why people are searching
Cycling jumped in US searches after the race because an American winner at the Worlds road race had not happened in 33 years. McNulty, 28, rides for the same trade team as Tadej Pogačar, and he won in a year when Pogačar was not on the start line.
| Item | Confirmed detail |
|---|---|
| Event | Elite men's road race, 2026 UCI Road World Championships |
| Place and date | Montreal, Canada, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026 |
| Winner | Brandon McNulty (USA), 28 |
| Margin | 13 seconds |
| Second | Michael Matthews (Australia) |
| Third | Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) |
| Distance | 273.4 km (about 170 miles) |
| Race time | A little over six hours |
| Last US winner before him | Lance Armstrong, 1993 |
How the race was won
The race stayed open for most of the day. A small group broke clear on the Camillien-Houde climb with roughly 90 km to go, and the favorites kept attacking each other from there. McNulty made his move about 30 km from the finish and went clear alone.
He started the final lap about 50 seconds ahead. The gap shrank sharply on that last lap as the chasers pushed hard, but it held. Matthews won the sprint for second place, 13 seconds behind, and van der Poel took third.
After the finish McNulty said he was exhausted and had known a win "would take a miracle." He then said a miracle had happened.
What we could not confirm
- The exact winning time. One report gives 6 hours 17 minutes and another says about six and a quarter hours, so we used a rounded figure.
- Finishing places further down the order, such as Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy and Remco Evenepoel, appear in only one of our sources.
- How far from the line McNulty said he started to believe he had won. One report quotes the last 800 m and another the last 100 m.
- Details of the women's road race and the time trials earlier in the week were not checked for this article.
Sources
- BBC Sport, UCI Road World Championships: Brandon McNulty becomes first American winner in 33 years (Sept. 27, 2026) https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/articles/cqe8xr05dj1no
- The Guardian, USA's McNulty transcends chaos of Montreal road race to claim 'miracle' world title (Sept. 27, 2026) https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/27/brandon-mcnulty-uci-world-championship-road-race-2026-lance-armstrong-cycling
- Escape Collective, How Team USA won Worlds before it started (Sept. 2026) https://escapecollective.com/how-team-usa-won-the-worlds-before-it-started/