2026 World Cycling Championships Route | Schedule and course details for Pogaċar, Vollering, and other superstars

One of the most important races of the autumn cycling season is the World Cycling Championships. This year, it will be held in Montreal, already an annual host town thanks to the GP Montreal. The World Championship road races bear many similarities to the Canadian race, but when do they take place, and what time, taking the time difference into account, should you be ready to watch? IDL Pro Cycling has all the details.

After Kigali, Rwanda 2025, it’s time for Montreal, Canada 2026. The Elite Women’s World Time Trial Championship will kick off there on Sunday, September 20, starting at 9:00 a.m local time. The race will finish at 12:00 p.m Canadian time, which is 6:00 p.m CET and 5.00 p.m GMT. Immediately following that will be the Elite Men’s World Time Trial Championship, which ends at 10:30 p.m CET.

In the days that follow, we will see the remaining time trials, for juniors and U23s, and the mixed relay. All of these races take place on a relatively easy course, along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, the Formula 1 circuit (Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve) on Île Notre-Dame, and through historic Old Montreal. We’ll finish at Mount Royal Park, but it will skip the hills.

Wednesday, September 23, is a rest day, though it can also be used to scout the local circuit for the road races. It closely resembles the Montreal GP, featuring the Côte Camillien-Houde (1.8 kilometers at 8%), the Côte de la Polytechnique (780 meters at 6%), Avenue Pagnuelo (534 meters at 7.5%), and the final 500 meters at approximately 400 percent as the decisive climbs.

The juniors and U23 riders will compete on Thursday and Friday, followed by the women on Saturday and the finale on Sunday: the elite men. The women—including Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky—are set to finish on Saturday around 8:00 p.m. CET. Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogačar, and their teammates will finish on Sunday around 10:00 p.m CET.

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