Six riders who will challenge Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Pedersen at the World Championship road race
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Follow us on GoogleMathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert may say that they aren’t top favorites for the 2026 World Cycling Championships, but these two powerhouses are consistently named among the five contenders for the rainbow jersey. Unlike the other three names on the list, Van der Poel and Van Aert will have to start early. And that’s where these six riders can really come in handy.
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José De Cauwer put it well in his analysis: “Van Aert, Van der Poel, and Mads Pedersen have to make their move somewhere else; they can’t just wait and see. On the intermediate sprints, those heavier riders can break away,” said the Belgian, referring to the fact that the other three top favorites—Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro, and Paul Seixas—can break away in the final stretch.
Van der Poel, Van Aert and Pedersen can't leave it too late
Van der Poel and Van Aert—as well as Pedersen—will generally have to start earlier, and there are quite a few of them on the World Championships start list. Now that Tadej Pogacar isn’t there, more riders weighing over 70 kilograms with ambitions will be at the start. Who are the riders in the same weight category as Van der Poel and Van Aert who could play a key role in the hunt for a world title?
Many of the major teams have a climber on their roster, so they won’t necessarily have to send someone along. In addition to Belgium, Mexico, and France, you should also consider Great Britain with Tom Pidcock, a ridiculously strong Italian team, Germany with Marco Brenner and Florian Lipowitz, and the Americans and Australians, who have plenty of strong climbers on their teams.
Many climbers will probably want to get started sooner. Think of riders like Ben Healy (Ireland), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Norway), Santiago Buitrago (Colombia), and João Almeida (Portugal). However, those aren’t the kind of riders Van der Poel and company would want in their group. Who would be?...
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Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel.
Michael Matthews - Australia
There he was again, suddenly among the top six in the results. The ever-tough Michael Matthews, after 13 (!) World Championships, knows exactly how things work by now, and in a field consisting otherwise entirely of climbers, the puncher has to break away before the final stretch. He’s already finished on the podium three times at a World Championship and placed sixth in the GP Québec as part of his preparation for the World Championship.
Matthews is also the kind of rider who’s always eager to attack, simply because he always believes in his own abilities. He’s not the type to hang back, so when he stands on the pedals, as someone like Van der Poel, you’ll want to go with him. The big question is whether the circuit around Montréal isn’t a bit too tough for Matthews, who—on a really good day, though—can handle a lot.
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Michael Matthews
Mathias Vacek - Czech Republic
The Czech rider from Lidl-Trek is sure to break away on Sunday, so you’d better be there with him. After a somewhat disappointing Tour de France—where he mainly had to ride for others—Mathias Vacek has shown that he’s heading into the World Championships in top form. He finished fifth in the Tour of Germany back in August and followed that up in September with two stage wins and the overall victory in the ZLM Tour.
Vacek is a true classics specialist, even though he often rode in the shadow of Mads Pedersen at Lidl-Trek. At the World Championships, Pedersen will have an excellent partner in Vacek to join forces with. And then Van der Poel and Van Aert can just tag along. Try catching up to a group of four riders like that...
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Mathias Vacek in the Tour de France.
Michael Valgren - Denmark
Another rider Pedersen would like to have with him in an early attack is Michael Valgren. We could have also mentioned Kasper Asgreen or Søren Kragh Andersen here, but Valgren is a better climber and has shown in recent years that he’s almost always in the mix at the most important races. Valgren finished seventh in 2018, sixth in 2019, and took bronze in 2021 in Flanders.
In 2026, Valgren proved he had truly made a full recovery from a very serious, career-threatening injury by winning a stage at the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro d'Italia for EF Education-EasyPost. Denmark has brought a whole host of “heavyweights” and not many climbers, so it forms an ideal group for Van der Poel and his teammates to work with.
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Michael Valgren won a stage in the Giro d'Italia.
Laurence Pithie - New Zealand
On paper, New Zealand has a strong team, but since all the riders had to pay for their World Championships trip out of their own pockets, we can expect that each rider will race on his own terms. That makes Laurence Pithie even more dangerous, because—unlike at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe—he isn’t being pushed into a supporting role.
After moving to Red Bull in 2025, the 24-year-old sprinter needed a year to build on his major breakthrough in 2024, but he succeeded in doing so in 2026. Pithie won six races, though he didn’t compete in any Grand Tours. He recently finished second in the Flandrien 0.0 Classic and will be ready to make his bid for the World Championship. Just like Vacek and Valgren, Pithie can stay in contention for a very long time on a good day.
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Laurence Pithie
Andreas Leknessund - Norway
The Norwegian team has a lot of climbers on its roster, but before they hit the gas, Andreas Leknessund will already be looking to break away. After a Vuelta a España in which he won a stage, we can’t imagine Leknessund taking on a support role from the start. With his powerful engine and climbing ability, he carried his 72 kilos up all those mountains at an impressively fast pace during the Vuelta.
He even went head-to-head with Wout van Aert in one of the finals, so the two know they’re evenly matched. One downside for Leknessund, though, is that he has several strong climbers on his team, including Johannessen, Jorgen Nordhagen, and Embret Svestad-Bårdseng. So he could very well become an annoying wheel-sucker in a potential final.
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Andreas Leknessund won a stage in the Vuelta a España
Toms Skujins - Latvia
Just like Valgren, Toms Skujins has also been a sure bet for success in one-day races—and has been for years, in fact. In 2026, the Latvian didn’t make much of an impression yet, unlike in previous seasons when he did so in the biggest one-day races on the calendar. At last year’s World Championships in Rwanda, he even casually finished fifth, despite weighing in at over 70.
After the Tour de France, Skujins did ride in a few more races while supporting his teammates at Lidl-Trek, but at the World Championships he’ll be able to go in with a fresh, unburdened mindset. Of the six riders on paper, Skujins is the one with the least proven form, but the now 35-year-old veteran knows exactly what it takes to peak at the right moment. He’s definitely someone who wants to be in the lead group with Van der Poel and Van Aert as they head toward the finish.
Toms Skujins
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Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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Latest Comments
- Is the Giro the race that happens before the Tour? And does winning the mountains jersey mean Carapaz scored the most points on climbs? Which race was everyone’s favourite?bikebuffj05-11-2026
- How did Mathieu van der Poel miss the list? His classics results surely put him in the conversation.sprocketspiny05-11-2026
- McNulty deserves more credit than his ranking suggests. A world title and all that work as a domestique make for a superb season.tourdeforce905-11-2026
- Seixas winning Lombardia at 20 is astonishing. The “next Pogačar” label feels a bit premature, though—let him build his own story before piling on the comparisons.andrewf05-11-2026
- Pogačar’s palmarès is ridiculous, but Van Aert deserves a special mention for Roubaix. Beating Tadej in the velodrome was one of the moments of the season.cyclechamp4505-11-2026
- I’m still learning the calendar: is cyclocross mainly preparation for the spring classics, or does he race it as a separate goal as well? I’d love to see him back in the mud.jeremya04-11-2026
- The article makes it sound as if Roubaix is the only classic where he has a realistic shot. He’s been close in Flanders too, and one good tactical day can change everything.jennifer1904-11-2026
- Milan-Sanremo and Roubaix is a pretty special pair of Monuments. Any clues yet on which cyclocross races he’ll target?andrewf04-11-2026
- He’s right to be realistic about Flanders with Pogačar and Evenepoel around, but you can’t count Van Aert out on those roads. If he gets the right opportunity, he has the engine and experience to take it.davidm04-11-2026
- That Roubaix win felt like such a release after all the near-misses. Brilliant to hear that joy outweighed relief for Wout.patriciaw04-11-2026