Van der Poel loves it, but a lack of race radios gave McNulty and USA the chaos it needed to slip away
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Follow us on GoogleMathieu van der Poel left Montréal with a bronze medal and a clear opinion: racing without earpieces is the most beautiful thing there is. The radio-free chaos he loves also shaped who won. Behind Brandon McNulty, a chase group full of favourites came close several times, but never got organised. And Van der Poel himself was named as one of the riders who did not help close the gap.
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As is much discussed each year, the elite World Championships are raced without the usual team radio communication. Riders have to make decisions themselves instead of constantly receiving information from a sports director in the team car.
Before the race, we learned that the Belgian team were deploying a new (old) system of writing time gaps and messages on water bottles. That clearly didn't work for them this year, but that wasn't because of the bottles! Now that the race is over, we look at what the lack of radio communication did to the result.
Van der Poel: 'That always makes for the best races'
Van der Poel went on the attack from far out: "It went exactly as I had imagined," he said. Afterwards, he said the missing radios were a big part of why he enjoyed it so much:
This is the best thing there is, racing without earpieces. That always makes for the best races. I'm quite a fan of it. Then you really have to race on instinct, and that's what I prefer to do.- Mathieu van der Poel to NOS (English translation)
In its analysis of the race, Brújula Bike said Montréal proved his point: for a good part of the final, attacks, regroupings, and situations occurred where the favourites had to make decisions without knowing exactly the differences or the composition of the groups.
As Cyclingnews explained, with no race radios, Evenepoel did not know that Van Aert was dropped, delaying any move he might have made until he saw his teammate ahead of him up the road.
Van der Poel finished 3rd at the 2026 World Championships
A chase full of favourites that never came together
The chase groups looked messy long before the decisive move. Multiple chase groups formed, splintered and reformed on the road, and despite not working all that well together, did manage to bring the gap to Van der Poel's early breakaway down.
The front of the race then came back together, and at that moment of hesitation McNulty made his decisive moveattacked with 32.4km left.
Pidcock, Ciccone, and Matthews have all spoken about how the co-operation proved elusive in the chase with attacks and counter attacks, allowing McNulty's advantage to spiral to nearly a minute.
Only one team had numbers in the bunch and could actually speak to each other
Pre-race favourites Paul Seixas and Isaac Del Toro could also not find the cohesion required to reel McNulty in. Without radio contact or information from their teams, riders were left to try and glean information from their rivals.
Crucially, only one team In the chase group had enough numbers to communicate verbally with each other, and that was the USA. With McNulty up the road and doing his thing, Quinn Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson were yo-yoing between groups in the finale, but could, in theory, speak to one another.
It was a huge advantage for Tea USA, and one that would prove to be decisive.
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Ciccone: 'Riders like Van der Poel weren't interested in closing the gap'
Giulio Ciccone, who finished ninth, named the riders who had refused to help in the chase group. His list included the very man who claims to enjoy racing without radios so much.
In the finale, the cards got reshuffled, and we had riders like Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, and Quinn Simmons, who weren't interested in closing the gap and did not collaborate to close it down.- Giulio Ciccone to Cyclingnews
Tom Pidcock crashed at a crucial moment of the World Championships, but afterwards said: "my legs were feeling really, really strong", but also accused some riders of split loyalties during Sunday's road race.
"Del Toro was obviously working for McNulty in the end there," he said, with others hinting that Del Toro and McNulty were actually talking in the bunch before the latter attacked. Without radios, old school communication, teammates or not, was the only way.
Pidcock and Ciccone got within 10 seconds, but they didn't know that exactly
Sources give slightly different gaps for the last lap. Cyclingnews reports that Pidcock and Ciccone got to within 12 seconds of the American as they accelerated, others say the closest they got was 10 seconds. Whatever the gap, if a British or Italian team manager had been able to relay this information, you could be that the two would've found the energy to push on.
"I think if me and Cicco, if we had a little bit more of a gap and we managed to stay away, I think we would have caught McNulty. But yeah, it's how the race goes," said Pidcock afterwards.
Of course, no rider has blamed the lack of radios for the result. Ben Healy was also extremely active in the chase group, but put his 10th place result down to exhaustion and American numbers: "I really feel like having numbers in the final today was a massive help for Team USA today, and Brandon was super strong as well and so chapeau to him,' said the Irishman after the race.
While racing without radios did not create the stalemate on its own, It did leave the favourites guessing for most of the final.
After nearly 280km of grueling racing, cramps setting in, and a few well-placed USA anchors to slow them down, the chasers must've felt completely alone. Giving Van der Poel the unpredictable race he thrives on, and the vast majority of cycling fans the most spectacular race of the year. And, of course, Brandon McNulty the rainbow jersey.
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David Bavin-HobbsChief Editor
David has been working in the sports & cycling industry for 16 years. Covering racing, business and technology, he has worked in communications for cycling companies, teams, and as a journalist. His proudest achievement is winning the first bike race he ever entered. He hasn't won a race since.
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