The very best riders within the males’s WorldTour descended on Canada final weekend for the GP Québec and Montréal double header, 50 years on from Eddy Merckx’s well-known triumph on the Montréal World Championships in 1974.
Merckx’s racing days could also be lengthy gone, however the present era of younger Canadian biking followers have a brand new hero to get behind within the type of Tadej Pogačar. Previous to the primary of the 2 races getting underway, a whole bunch of followers lined the Grande Allée in Quebec ready to catch a glimpse of the three-time Tour de France winner after solely seeing him on TV.
Pogačar revelled within the second, driving up and down the traces of followers as he stopped for infrequent images and to signal autographs for his adoring public. His reception in Montréal was simply as huge, with a relentless stream of photograph and autograph requests from followers as he made his option to signal on at the beginning on the avenue du Parc earlier than occurring to win on the Mont-Royal circuit for a second time.
With the World Championships set to return to Montréal in 2026, the organiser of the race is hoping to journey the Pogačar wave as enthusiasm builds for the return of biking’s showpiece occasion.
“After all, Pogačar gained right here in Montréal two years in the past. Final yr, there was the Tour de France Netflix collection, after which a number of months in the past, native folks began noticing that Pogačar will come right here to the Grand Prix, they assume it’s unbelievable and so they like it,” Joseph Limare, race director of the 2 Canadian occasions mentioned. “Once I instructed them earlier than that Pogačar gained right here in Montréal two years in the past, they regarded shocked, ‘oh yeah?’ they are saying. The Netflix impact is big for biking right here in North America.”
Fortuitously for Limare and his colleagues, Pogačar will nearly definitely be on the beginning line in 2026, and perhaps even wanting so as to add one other rainbow jersey to his assortment if, as anticipated, he triumphs in Zurich in a fortnight’s time.
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
1974 represented a brand new daybreak in biking, the primary world championships outdoors Europe and an opportunity for the game to start to extend its world attain to new audiences and new demographics. Merckx and Geneviève Gambillon of France claimed the rainbow bands on provide, and 50 years on Gambillon was again in Montréal with the identical jersey she claimed to witness one more Pogačar masterclass.
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The total particulars are but to be absolutely signed off by the UCI and different authorities, however Limare defined that the 2026 Worlds course will bear a placing resemblance to the one utilized in ’74 and inevitably the identical course used within the GP Montréal this yr.
“80% of the circuit might be used,” he mentioned. “Going again to ’74, the beginning and end was on Edouard-Montpetit. So sure, we’re going to use a fairly related circuit because the Grand Prix. However we are going to change perhaps 15% of it, and we are going to attempt to have loads of elevation within the last circuit, particularly for the elites. The end will nonetheless be on Avenue du Parc.”
Given the success and progress of the second of the 2 Canadian WorldTour races, it might solely appear becoming to make use of as a lot of the circuit by the park as attainable, as a result of historical past and id it has continued to develop for itself as a significant a part of the late season males’s calendar.
This yr’s Grand Prix de Montréal passed off over 17 laps of a 12.3 kilometre circuit. Over the course of 4 climbs, the race additionally featured 4,573 metres of elevation acquire, nearly as a lot as a mountain stage within the Tour de France.
The quantity of climbing is more likely to improve to nearly 5,500 metres in 2026 which, on paper, might make it one of many hardest world championships street race programs in latest reminiscence, one thing which Pogačar alluded to in his pre-race press convention in Québec.
‘I am certain and I hope that children might be impressed’
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Israel-Premier Tech’s Mike Woods was on the GP Montréal, resplendent in his eye-catching Canadian nationwide champions jersey. The Toronto native might be 39-years-old by the point the Worlds returns to Canada, however he didn’t rule out extending his profession for one last shot on the podium.
Previous to the race, Woods spoke at size in regards to the significance of the Worlds returning to his homeland for the primary time in 50 years. He defined that he hoped the occasion can be far reaching and assist to additional develop curiosity within the sport not simply in Montréal, however throughout Canada.
“I hope it continues to assist develop biking’s prevalence,” Woods mentioned. “I already really feel it within the sense that the game has grown considerably since even I began racing. Numerous that has to do with the Montréal and Québec races. They’ve actually helped develop the game, notably in Québec.
“Then with the Netflix documentary and with Canadians beginning to race so properly, once more, the game is certainly getting some momentum right here. After which while you put the World Championships in entrance of a Canadian crowd, I am certain and I hope that children might be impressed.”
The streets round Mont-Royal got here alive on Saturday night, filled with cyclists getting a style of the course alongside the professionals as they headed out for a short spin on arrival within the metropolis.
After ending their recon, Jayco AIUla and the GP Québec winner, Michael Matthews, had been simply one in every of a number of groups that descended on a neighborhood espresso store, Le Membership, for a flat white earlier than heading again to their lodge rooms forward of the race on Sunday.
Le Membership has turn out to be one thing of an establishment in Montréal, a biking mecca for lovers inside the metropolis to fulfill with like minded folks and share a sport that at one time appeared a novel a part of European sporting tradition, versus a spectacle seen on North American shores.
Constructing new communities
On the eve of the GP, Le Membership founder and proprietor, Guillaume Garneau, instructed Biking Weekly that the passion for the return of the Worlds was already mounting. He defined that native hospitality companies thrive every September when the WorldTour occasions happen, and mentioned he anticipated that very same profit to be amplified tenfold when the larger race involves city.
“I am tremendous happy with this metropolis and the organiser of the Worlds wanting to advertise as quickly as attainable the occasion that is taking place in ’26,” he mentioned. “To start with, I am hoping that it’ll push town to make our roads just a little bit higher by way of potholes and that stuff. However I believe the hype to this occasion has been phenomenal for the biking neighborhood right here.
“We have been open for seven years right here and we have seen the biking neighborhood develop by particular moments and occasions. The Worlds right here is simply going to carry that curiosity to folks that may not know that is taking place, however they begin listening to about it and can hopefully say what’s the entire cope with biking? The place can I begin? The entire concept of getting this occasion, this culminating occasion, is simply the proper alternative to develop that neighborhood larger and greater, it’s so thrilling.”
“2011 was the primary yr of the Grand Prix and I went as a child to the primary few and I proceed to go yearly now,” he continued. “The variety of folks watching has simply exponentially grown. There’s a few components at play, however you might have the perfect of the perfect on the town yearly. It is the one North American WorldTour race. An occasion like this simply brings curiosity not simply to the races, however to biking normally.
“We’re simply rising on a regular basis. After which 2026 taking place, it is only a dream come true for us right here.”
As Pogačar crossed the end line on Sunday, he gestured to maintain calm, a reference to a statue of Sir George-Étienne Cartier that stands on the ending straight. If he turns up once more in Canada subsequent September and dominates in the identical fashion, calmness could have gone out of the window. World Championships pleasure could have reached fever pitch as a substitute.
