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September 20, 2026
33rd World Championships WE – ITT 2026 🇨🇦 (WC) WE – Montreal – Montreal : 39,2 km
Road World Championships 2026 individual time trials are on a 39.2 km course through Montréal,
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September 20, 2026
33rd World Championships WE – ITT 2026 🇨🇦 (WC) WE – Montreal – Montreal : 39,2 km
Road World Championships 2026 individual time trials are on a 39.2 km course through Montréal, combining fast city roads, riverside sections, bridges and the circuits of Parc Jean-Drapeau. With approximately 220 metres of elevation gain, the route is predominantly flat but includes several shallow rises and a final uphill section toward the finish. Riders pass through Old Montréal before heading along the St. Lawrence River and across the Samuel De Champlain Bridge, where exposed roads can make wind an important factor. The course then reaches Île Notre-Dame and the Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit, providing long, fast sections where maintaining aerodynamic efficiency is crucial. Technical corners, U-turns and changes in road direction interrupt the rhythm and demand precise handling. The absence of drafting places the emphasis on sustained power, pacing and aerodynamic positioning. After returning toward central Montréal, the final approximately 560 metres rise at around 4%, creating a short change of rhythm before the finish. The result is determined solely by elapsed time.
A compelling women’s elite individual time trial at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships saw defending champion Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) hold off a strong challenge from Great Britain’s Zoe Backstedt in Montreal on Sunday morning.
Riding on her 35th birthday, Reusser rode a perfectly paced race, and though she found herself trailing the 21-year-old Backstedt at both the first and second intermediate time checks, by the time she hit the final checkpoint, she had taken control, using her incredible power and consistency to deliver an unbeatable ride.
Reusser claims the first rainbow jersey of this year’s UCI Road World Championships, having gained a huge chunk of time in the final section of the race to finish in a time of 50:24:44, 40 seconds ahead of the Welsh woman.
Backstedt clinched a stunning silver medal on her elite debut, finishing just 5.43 seconds ahead of Germany’s Franziska Koch in a nail-biting battle to the line.
Koch secured the bronze medal, putting in one of the best time trial performances of her career, in a fascinating opening act to this year’s competition.
“Apparently I coped well [with the long course], but it made me really nervous,” Reusser said.
“On the one hand, I really was looking forward to it because it has so many challenges, like technical aspects, which makes it much more interesting to ride, but from the side of pacing and understanding how fast you should go and how you should also cope with these challenges on the way.
“I was really nervous and I was not really sure because we don’t have time trials like this often. I’m used to [doing] 20k, and we had huge discussions with the team, with performance coaches, like ‘what is good pacing?’ Until an hour ago, I was not 100% sure, and also on the course, I was not 100% sure. So yeah, it was challenging.”
A largely flat course but with plenty of corners
Opening proceedings at this year’s UCI Road World Championships, the women’s elite individual time trial, took place on Sunday morning in dry conditions. Travelling in a loop around Montréal city centre, the 39.2 kilometre course was one for the time trial purists, featuring plenty of technical difficulty but little in the way of vertical challenges, with just 220m of elevation in total.
Skye Davidson was first off the ramp for Zimbabwe, and there was an early issue for China’s Xin Tang as she went the wrong way, but was quickly back on track, as the first wave of riders set the early high bar. Mexico’s Romina Hinojosa briefly led the standings, but it was the USA’s Taylor Knibb who was the first to make a major leap forward in terms of the time, the triathlete absolutely obliterating the previous best with her finishing time of 52:43, 3:23 ahead of Hinojosa.
After that, riders began to improve upon the best times one after another. Belgium’s Lotte Claes and Poland’s Dominika Wlodarczyk surpassed Knibb, each spending a brief period in the hotseat, before Franziska Koch of Germany shaved more than another minute off, taking the hotseat with a time of 51:09.
With all the riders out on course, attention began to turn to Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt, as she set the fastest time at the first intermediate time check, 10 seconds ahead of Reusser, on her first outing at elite level.
She surpassed the time of Koch at the second intermediate check ensuring it would be down to the second half of the course, for Reusser to exert her authority.
One of the pre-race favourites for the title, Demi Vollering appeared to be having a difficult day, just 13th at the first time check and losing another half a minute before the second. Defending champion Reusser was faring better, however as she crossed the second intermediate time check she was still behind the Welsh rider, albeit by just under three seconds.
As the kilometres ticked down the tension rose. Bäckstedt stopped the clock at the final intermediate time check ahead of then leader Koch, who was hanging onto her lead despite a strong challenge from Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), who finished just under five seconds behind the German.
As Reusser crossed the final intermediate check it became clear that her pacing strategy was on point, as she surged ahead of Bäckstedt, bearing down on her former teammate Vollering.
She continued to gain in the final segment of the race, and despite a sketchy moment on one of the final corners as she delivered an imperious ride all the way to line, putting 40 seconds into Bäckstedt, who managed to overturn Koch by just 5.43 with a final burst of power.
On Bäckstedt pushing her all the way, Reusser said: “I didn’t have the gaps, and I was also saying, don’t give it to me. I was even expecting that she’d be faster because the first part is quite technical, and honestly, I think some corners I don’t do so well. So I was expecting this, and also, I mean, the only thing I then thought is that I can pass Demi [Vollering]. But for me, it was maybe on this course not the biggest reference. So till the finish line, I did not know what really happened.”
Results :
 WE </strong> - Montreal - Montreal : 39,2 km
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Road World Championships 2026 individual time trials are on a 39.2 km course through Montréal, combining fast city roads, riverside sections, bridges and the circuits of Parc Jean-Drapeau. With approximately 220 metres of elevation gain, the route is predominantly flat but includes several shallow rises and a final uphill section toward the finish. Riders pass through Old Montréal before heading along the St. Lawrence River and across the Samuel De Champlain Bridge, where exposed roads can make wind an important factor. The course then reaches Île Notre-Dame and the Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit, providing long, fast sections where maintaining aerodynamic efficiency is crucial. Technical corners, U-turns and changes in road direction interrupt the rhythm and demand precise handling. The absence of drafting places the emphasis on sustained power, pacing and aerodynamic positioning. After returning toward central Montréal, the final approximately 560 metres rise at around 4%, creating a short change of rhythm before the finish. The result is determined solely by elapsed time.
A compelling women’s elite individual time trial at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships saw defending champion Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) hold off a strong challenge from Great Britain’s Zoe Backstedt in Montreal on Sunday morning.
Riding on her 35th birthday, Reusser rode a perfectly paced race, and though she found herself trailing the 21-year-old Backstedt at both the first and second intermediate time checks, by the time she hit the final checkpoint, she had taken control, using her incredible power and consistency to deliver an unbeatable ride.
Reusser claims the first rainbow jersey of this year’s UCI Road World Championships, having gained a huge chunk of time in the final section of the race to finish in a time of 50:24:44, 40 seconds ahead of the Welsh woman.
Backstedt clinched a stunning silver medal on her elite debut, finishing just 5.43 seconds ahead of Germany’s Franziska Koch in a nail-biting battle to the line.
Koch secured the bronze medal, putting in one of the best time trial performances of her career, in a fascinating opening act to this year’s competition.
"Apparently I coped well [with the long course], but it made me really nervous," Reusser said.
"On the one hand, I really was looking forward to it because it has so many challenges, like technical aspects, which makes it much more interesting to ride, but from the side of pacing and understanding how fast you should go and how you should also cope with these challenges on the way.
"I was really nervous and I was not really sure because we don't have time trials like this often. I'm used to [doing] 20k, and we had huge discussions with the team, with performance coaches, like 'what is good pacing?' Until an hour ago, I was not 100% sure, and also on the course, I was not 100% sure. So yeah, it was challenging."
<strong>A largely flat course but with plenty of corners</strong>
Opening proceedings at this year’s UCI Road World Championships, the women’s elite individual time trial, took place on Sunday morning in dry conditions. Travelling in a loop around Montréal city centre, the 39.2 kilometre course was one for the time trial purists, featuring plenty of technical difficulty but little in the way of vertical challenges, with just 220m of elevation in total.
Skye Davidson was first off the ramp for Zimbabwe, and there was an early issue for China’s Xin Tang as she went the wrong way, but was quickly back on track, as the first wave of riders set the early high bar. Mexico’s Romina Hinojosa briefly led the standings, but it was the USA’s Taylor Knibb who was the first to make a major leap forward in terms of the time, the triathlete absolutely obliterating the previous best with her finishing time of 52:43, 3:23 ahead of Hinojosa.
After that, riders began to improve upon the best times one after another. Belgium’s Lotte Claes and Poland’s Dominika Wlodarczyk surpassed Knibb, each spending a brief period in the hotseat, before Franziska Koch of Germany shaved more than another minute off, taking the hotseat with a time of 51:09.
With all the riders out on course, attention began to turn to Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt, as she set the fastest time at the first intermediate time check, 10 seconds ahead of Reusser, on her first outing at elite level.
She surpassed the time of Koch at the second intermediate check ensuring it would be down to the second half of the course, for Reusser to exert her authority.
One of the pre-race favourites for the title, Demi Vollering appeared to be having a difficult day, just 13th at the first time check and losing another half a minute before the second. Defending champion Reusser was faring better, however as she crossed the second intermediate time check she was still behind the Welsh rider, albeit by just under three seconds.
As the kilometres ticked down the tension rose. Bäckstedt stopped the clock at the final intermediate time check ahead of then leader Koch, who was hanging onto her lead despite a strong challenge from Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), who finished just under five seconds behind the German.
As Reusser crossed the final intermediate check it became clear that her pacing strategy was on point, as she surged ahead of Bäckstedt, bearing down on her former teammate Vollering.
She continued to gain in the final segment of the race, and despite a sketchy moment on one of the final corners as she delivered an imperious ride all the way to line, putting 40 seconds into Bäckstedt, who managed to overturn Koch by just 5.43 with a final burst of power.
On Bäckstedt pushing her all the way, Reusser said: "I didn't have the gaps, and I was also saying, don't give it to me. I was even expecting that she'd be faster because the first part is quite technical, and honestly, I think some corners I don't do so well. So I was expecting this, and also, I mean, the only thing I then thought is that I can pass Demi [Vollering]. But for me, it was maybe on this course not the biggest reference. So till the finish line, I did not know what really happened."
<strong>Results : </strong>
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