The most anticipated appointment of the 2026 Montreal World Championships is approaching, the elite men's road race, and curiosity is growing about who will be the heir to Tadej Pogacar. Among the great favorites on the eve, Evenepoel and Del Toro boast the highest number of individual victories this season, 12 each. For the Belgian, there are 6 triumphs in World Tour races, for the Mexican 10. They are followed by Van der Poel and Van Aert with 8 victories combined and Seixas with 7.

At the starting line there will be 13 riders who have already stood on the podium at least once in the road race at the World Championships during their careers. Of these, four have already worn the rainbow jersey: Polish Michal Kwiatkowski in 2014, Danish Mads Pedersen in 2019, Belgian Remco Evenepoel in 2022 and Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel in 2023.

In the 92 editions held from 1927 to 2025, there have been 73 riders capable of winning the world title, representing 18 nations. Belgium holds the record for world titles (27), Italy is second in number of triumphs and first in total medals (56). For Italian cycling, gold has been missing since 2008 (the year of Alessandro Ballan's success), the podium since 2019 (Matteo Trentin's silver medal).

Canada will host the elite road race world championship for the third time in history. In the two previous occasions, Italy has never managed to reach the podium and in both cases the best result was 4th place: in 1974 in Montreal with Giacinto Santambrogio, in 2003 in Hamilton with Paolo Bettini.

Source www.ciclopico.it - full article and other statistical curiosities at the link https://ciclopico.it/altre-corse/mondiali-ciclismo/mondiali-di-ciclismo-2026-pre/