McNulty’s 33 km solo in Montreal ends a 33-year American wait for the rainbow jersey

Brandon McNulty of the United States won the men’s world road race championship in Montreal on 27 September, attacking alone with 33 km to go and holding off the chasers to win by 13 seconds. He is the first American man to win the elite road title since 1993.

Australia’s Michael Matthews won the sprint for silver ahead of the Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel. McNulty’s compatriot Quinn Simmons was fourth in the same time.

“I’m really at a loss for words,” McNulty said moments after finishing, according to the UCI.

How the race was won

The 273.4 km race started in Brossard, south of the city, before crossing the Samuel De Champlain Bridge for 12 laps of a 13.4 km circuit around Mont-Royal. The circuit’s climbs, the Voie Camillien-Houde and the steep Chemin de la Polytechnique, produced 3,803 metres of climbing in total. In all, 184 riders from 61 nations started.

The race was missing its two-time defending champion: Tadej Pogačar, who won the title in 2024 and 2025, was still recovering from injuries sustained in a crash at the Vuelta a España. McNulty, one of his UAE Team Emirates XRG teammates, went clear on the circuit with 33 km left. At the start of the final lap he led by 53 seconds over a ten-man group led by Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, who had won the individual time trial title earlier in the week. With about 10 km to go the gap had fallen to around ten seconds, but the chase never closed it.

Montreal was hosting the championships for the first time since 1974, when Eddy Merckx won the men’s title on a similar circuit. Admission to every event was free.

Vollering’s first title

The Netherlands’ Demi Vollering won the elite women’s road race, her first world road title, completing a season in which she also won the Giro d’Italia Women and became the first two-time winner of the Tour de France Femmes. Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was second and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini third, according to Cyclingnews’ race report.

American riders also won the men’s under-23 road race, where Ashlin Barry took the title with a long solo effort of his own.

Why it matters

McNulty has long been one of the strongest time-triallists and climbing domestiques in the professional peloton, more often riding in support of team leaders than racing for himself. In Montreal, on a course that rewarded exactly the sustained power that defines his riding, he turned that strength into the sport’s most prestigious one-day jersey.

He will wear the rainbow stripes in every road race he rides until next year’s championships.