Dark horse Brandon McNulty has outsmarted all the favourites and become the first American to be crowned road cycling world champion since Lance Armstrong. The team-mate of the injured defending champion Tadej Pogacar prevailed in Montreal ahead of Australia’s Michael Matthews. After 273.4 kilometres, Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel took bronze. Florian Lipowitz put in a good performance in Canada following his long injury lay-off, but played no part in the final outcome.
The American McNulty, who had won the 2025 Montreal Grand Prix held at the same venue, launched an attack 33 kilometres from the finish and secured the first US victory in the men’s race since 1993. The favourites, led by France’s Paul Seixas, Mexico’s Isaac Del Toro and Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, worked together too late to catch McNulty on the gruelling course with 3,800 metres of climbing.
Just one World Championship medal for German Cycling
For the German Cycling Federation, the World Championships thus came to an end with just one medal. Franziska Koch had won bronze in the individual time trial in the very first event of the championships. Alongside some impressive top-ten finishes amongst the non-professionals, there were also disappointments, such as the highly fancied U23 men’s team, who failed to even make the top 20. Last year in Kigali, German Cycling had failed to win a single medal.
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