2026 UCI Road World Championships: Making MTL sports history
Sports Sport activities
Montrealers are legendarily passionate fans of elite competition, and Montréal ranks among the world’s top cities for high-level athletics, holding approximately 60 major competitive events in an average year. It’s only fitting then that Montréal is set to become the epicentre of world cycling, hosting the prestigious 2026 UCI Road World Championships, the most significant sports event in the city since the 1976 Summer Olympic Games.
A welcome, and timely, return
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Road World Championships will be held in Montréal from September 20-27, 2026. This will only be the second time that the event has taken place in Montréal and only the third time it’s been staged in Canada. The first UCI Road World Championships in the city were in 1974 (crowning Belgium’s Eddy Merckx and France’s Geneviève Gambillon as champions), marking the very first time the UCI Road World Championships were held outside of Europe.
The return of the event comes at a time when interest in cycling in Montréal has never been higher. Since 2010, Montréal has hosted the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, part of the UCI World Tour, which brings together the most important road cycling events in the world. And beyond competitive cycling, the city is also renowned for facilitating and promoting cycling for all of its inhabitants, as evidenced by its esteemed designation as a UCI Bike City.
Riding into the sports record books
It bears mentioning that the 2026 UCI Road World Championships is a free event on an unprecedented scale: 13 separate time trials and road races that are open to the general public and free of charge. There will also be “fan zones” with a variety of entertaining and family friendly activities along the race route on du Parc Avenue.
As mentioned, not since the Montréal 1976 Summer Olympic Games has the city anticipated such a thrilling and impactful sporting event, expected to draw in the neighbourhood of 500,000 cycling fans and the simply curious over the course of eight days. In addition, the 2026 UCI Road World Championships will be part of the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Olympics, and be a part of numerous celebratory happenings taking place throughout the city.
Set your expectations on “high”
The 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montréal will not only be history-making in terms of its scale, scope and significance, it will also mark the first-ever gender-equal UCI Road World Championships. It will feature top-tier cycling talent — over 1,000 men and women athletes, from junior to elite championship categories — from more than 80 countries. (It’s worth noting that all UCI world championship events are ridden by national teams and not trade teams.)
Some 5,000 team members, officials, UCI staff and guests, and several hundred volunteers will contribute to the success of the event, which in total is expected to be seen by approximately 250 million television viewers worldwide. In short, the 2026 UCI Road World Championships are shaping up to be quite the ride.
Jamie O'Meara
Jamie O'Meara was the Editor-in-Chief at C2 Montréal and the former Editor-in-Chief of alt-weekly newspaper HOUR Magazine.