Evenepoel had gone into the race as the clear favourite and lived up to expectations on the 39.2-kilometre course through Montréal, completing the largely flat but at times technical route in 44:53 minutes – an average speed of 52.4 km/h. In doing so, he made up 57 seconds on Ganna and 1 minute 13 seconds on Seixas.

​“It’s just incredible. My aim was to come here and win, to claim this fourth title. That was my motivation,” said Evenepoel after securing his fourth title, which makes him joint-record-holder for the most world time trial titles, alongside Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara. “Thanks to the team around me and to Specialized for the excellent kit I had at my disposal. It was a challenging course with a technical start and finish and a power-intensive section in the middle,” which the 26-year-old clearly coped with well. “After six kilometres, we’d done our own split timing, and when I saw I was out in front, I felt reassured for the time being.”

For the two German riders, Jasha Sütterlin and Max Walscheid, the World Championships ended in 14th and 27th place respectively. Sütterlin, who started early, put in a strong performance, finishing 2 minutes and 10 seconds behind the reigning and new world champion. Walscheid, on the other hand, is likely to be less satisfied, finishing 2 minutes and 48 seconds behind. The German time trial champion, Nils Politt, was not granted permission by his team, UAE Emirates – XRG, to compete in the World Championships.

2026 World Championships Individual Time Trial – Men’s Results

How the men’s individual time trial went at the 2026 World Championships

61 riders set off on the Montréal course at one-and-a-half-minute intervals. Two riders from Guinea-Bissau, Gil Landim Gomes and Apolinário Cá, were the first to set off, before Ahmad Badreddin Wais, a rider from the UCI refugee team, rolled off the ramp and, like all the other riders from further afield, earned the applause of the spectators.

South African Byron Munton was then the first professional to start the race, in 14th position. And the 27-year-old put in a strong performance, holding off, amongst others, Nelson Oliveira (Portugal), Michał Kwiatkowski (Poland) and Sütterlin at the first intermediate time check. It was only Jan Tratnik, who started the race exactly halfway through, who managed to beat that time. Local hero Michael Leonard was among the riders who were still able to edge out the Slovenian before the very top riders reached the timing point. Meanwhile, it was Sütterlin who set the new fastest time at the finish, only to be overtaken by Kasper Asgreen (Denmark).

Söderqvist drops out of the medals

Back at the first timing point, only Evenepoel managed to beat the provisional leader, Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden), finishing nine seconds faster. Küng was only sixth there, 22 seconds behind the Belgian, whilst Ganna was half a second slower and three places further back.

Söderqvist initially set the fastest time at the second timing point as well. However, the battle for the medals behind Evenepoel – who already had a 34-second lead at that point – intensified. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Ganna were almost level, six seconds behind Söderqvist. By the third split, however, Ganna was level with Söderqvist and thus five seconds ahead of Ganna.

In the final section, however, the Swede skidded on a bend, which dashed his hopes of a medal. At the finish line, he was 13 seconds behind Seixas, and Brandon McNulty (USA) had also overtaken him as a result. Ganna was on course for silver, whilst Evenepoel was now certain to take the title.