The individual time trials debuted at the UCI Road World Championships in 1994, and it still is one title that has eluded the Elite men from the United States.
The Junior men have claimed a pair of ITT victories (2007, 2016), and the U23 American men have won it twice since it was introduced to that category in 1996.
Is this the year the drought ends for the men and they move a step closer to catching the Elite women, who have won the time trial eight times, including the first one in 1994?
We’ll have that answer in a few days, as the Men Elite Individual Time Trial will be part of the opening day of action at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal.
This year’s UCI Road Worlds will feature 13 races over eight days – a time trial and road race for each division, plus the Team Time Trial Mixed Relay.
Fans in the United States can watch every minute of the competition live on FloBikes and the FloSports app from Sept. 20-27.
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The first day of racing in Montreal will get underway with the Elite women at 9 a.m. Eastern, and the men will head down the start ramp beginning at 12:45 p.m. EDT.
Most countries will be sending two riders in each category into battle, and the United States will be represented by two men who have enjoyed repeated success in time trials across the globe – Brandon McNulty and Artem Shmidt.
McNulty, 28, has worked his way up the ranks at the Road World Championships, and now it’s time to see if he can match his previous success at the highest level.
He won the Junior Men’s ITT in 2016 after taking the bronze medal in 2015, claimed the U23 silver medal in 2017 and added a U23 bronze in 2019.
Shmidt, just 22 years old, is the two-time reigning champion in the Elite Men’s Time Trial at the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships. He won the U23 version the year prior in 2024.
His time-trial success hasn’t been limited to his home country, however. In 2022, he finished sixth in the Men Junior Individual Time Trial at the Road Worlds, while also collecting a fifth-place finish in the Men Junior Road Race the same week.
If either McNulty or Shmidt is going to reach the top of the podium in Montreal, it’ll mean beating one of the most talented performers the event has ever seen, as well as a slew of hopeful contenders.
Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel is the three-time defending champion in the time trial at the Road World Championships and the reigning Olympic champion in the time trial and road race.
Other familiar names and potential threats in the time trial this week will be Alec Segaert (Belgium), Mathias Vacek (Czechia), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), Bruno Armirail and Paul Seixas (France), Filippo Ganna and Matteo Sobrero (Italy), Isaac Del Toro (Mexico), Andreas Leknessund (Norway), Pablo Castrillo and Ivan Romeo (Spain) and Stefan Kung (Switzerland).
The Elite men and women all will face the same 39.2-kilometer trek around the city, which includes 220 meters of climbing.
Read more: Who's In The Women Elite Individual Time Trial At The 2026 UCI Road World Championships?
Here is the complete list of entries for the race. There are 67 riders expected at the start line for the men.
Men Elite Individual Time Trial Entries
- AIN – Aleksandr Vlasov
- Australia – Conor Leahy
- Belgium – Remco Evenepoel
- Belgium – Rune Herregodts
- Belgium – Alec Segaert
- Bermuda – Kaden Luke Hopkins
- Bermuda – Nicholas Narraway
- Belize – Derrick Chavarria
- Belize – Cory Lewis
- Brazil – Henrique da Silva Avancini
- Canada – Michael Shea Leonard
- Canada – Nickolas Zukowsky
- Cayman Islands – Christopher Bodden
- China – Houwang Cao
- China – Chenglu Liu
- Colombia – Brandon Smith Rivera Vargas
- Colombia – Walter Alejandro Vargas Alzate
- Czechia – Mathias Vacek
- Denmark – Kasper Asgreen
- Denmark – Mikkel Norsgaard Bjerg
- Estonia – Madis Mihkels
- France – Bruno Armirail
- France – Paul Seixas
- Great Britain – Ethan Edward Hayter
- Great Britain – Callum Thornley
- Guinea-Bissau – Apolinário Cá
- Guinea-Bissau – Gil Gomes
- Germany – Jasha Sütterlin
- Germany – Maximilian Richard Walscheid
- Honduras – Fredd Matute Baca
- Hungary – Barnabás Peák
- Hungary – János Zsombor Pelikán
- Iran – Arvin Moazami Godarzi
- Ireland – Ryan William Mullen
- Italy – Filippo Ganna
- Italy – Matteo Sobrero
- Jordan – Majid Abu Harrah
- Japan – Jo Hashikawa
- Kazakhstan – Anton Kuzmin
- Kazakhstan – Daniil Marukhin
- Luxembourg – Arthur Kluckers
- Mexico – Edgar David Cadena Martinez
- Mexico – Isaac Del Toro Romero
- Mongolia – Maral-Erdene Batmunkh
- Mauritius – Alexandre Mayer
- Netherlands – Daan Hoole
- Norway – Tobias Svendsen Foss
- Norway – Andreas Leknessund
- Poland – Michal Kwiatkowski
- Portugal – Ivo Emanuel Alves Oliveira
- Portugal – Nelson Oliveira
- Refugee Cycling Team – Amir Ansari
- Refugee Cycling Team – Ahmad Badreddin Wais
- South Africa – Byron Munton
- Spain – Pablo Castrillo Zapater
- Spain – Ivan Romeo Abad
- Rwanda – Samuel Niyonkuru
- Rwanda – Shemu Nsengiyumva
- Slovenia – Jan Tratnik
- Serbia – Ognjen Ilić
- Switzerland – Stefan Bissegger
- Switzerland – Stefan Küng
- Sweden – Jakob Söderqvist
- Ukraine – Heorhii Antonenko
- Uruguay – Antonio Eric Fagundez Lima
- United States – Brandon McNulty
- United States – Artem Shmidt
In all, the 2026 Road World Championships is expected to feature 1,700 participants, hailing from 100 nations.
How To Watch The 2026 UCI Road World Championships
For viewers in the United States, the 2026 UCI Road World Championships will be streaming on FloBikes and the FloSports app.
Highlights, race replays and breaking news will be available on both platforms.
Stage highlights, replays and more breaking news, including recaps and rider interviews, will be on both platforms.
About The Individual Time Trial
The individual time trial is one of the easier formats to understand. The riders descend the ramp one at a time, and the fastest time wins. And, the margin of victory could be so slim, that every movement, hesitation, gust of wind, etc., could be the difference between a medal and disappointment.
All of the time trials this year will begin on Montreal’s Avenue du Parc and run through the city to the Parc Jeanne Mance, though the total distance and level of difficulty vary between categories.
Montreal and the surrounding areas certainly are familiar with top-tier bike racing and sporting events, including the recent one-day Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on Sept. 13.
But the history goes back even further.
In the 1970s, Montreal was a hotspot for elite athletic competition, including the 1974 UCI Road World Championships, which marked the first time the event had been held outside of Europe.
The world’s best road cyclists returned to Canada (Hamilton, Ontario) in 2003 for the Road World Championships, and this year’s visit to Montreal will include celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Montreal Summer Olympics in 1976.
The defending champion in the women’s time trial is Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser, who beat Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands by almost 52 seconds last year in Kigali, Rwanda.
On the men’s side, Evenepoel will be aiming for his fourth consecutive time trial world championship. Last year in Kigali, he bested Australia’s Jay Vine by 1 minute, 14 seconds. The two years prior, Ganna took the silver medal.
The women’s time trial debuted at the Road World Championships in 1994, with Karen Kurreck of the United States winning the gold medal. France’s Jeannie Longo won the following three editions and added a fourth victory in 2001.
The American women have excelled in the ITT and claimed the coveted rainbow jersey eight times overall – 1994, 2000, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2019 and 2023.
This year’s Team USA representatives will 2024 Olympic Road Race champion Kristen Faulkner and accomplished triathlete Taylor Knibb.
The U23 time trials will be contested Sept. 21, and Sept. 22 will feature the Junior individual time trials and the Mixed Relay Team Time Trial.
Men Elite Individual Time Trial Gold Medals For The United States
First held in 1994
- No winners.
Three total medals – Silver: David Zabriskie (2006); Taylor Phinney (2012); Bronze: David Zabriskie (2008).
2026 UCI Road World Championships Schedule
Date, event, (start – finish), start time
*All Times Eastern
- Sept. 20 – Women’s Elite Individual Time Trial (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), 9 a.m.
- Sept. 20 – Men’s Elite Individual Time Trial (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), 12:45 p.m.
- Sept. 21 – Women’s U23 Individual Time (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), 9 a.m.
- Sept. 21 – Men’s U23 Individual Time Trial (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), noon
- Sept. 22 – Team Time Trial Mixed Relay (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), 8:30 a.m.
- Sept. 22 – Men’s Junior Individual Time Trial (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), 12:15 p.m.
- Sept. 22 – Women’s Junior Individual Time Trial (Avenue du Parc – Parc Jeanne Mance), 3:15 p.m.
- Sept. 24 – Women’s U23 Road Race (Parc Jeanne Mance), 9 a.m.
- Sept. 24 – Men’s Junior Road Race (Parc Jeanne Mance), 1:30 p.m.
- Sept. 25 – Men’s U23 Road Race (Parc Jeanne Mance), 9 a.m.
- Sept. 25 – Women’s Junior Road Race (Parc Jeanne Mance), 2:15 p.m.
- Sept. 26 – Women’s Elite Road Race (Quartier Dix30 – Parc Jeanne Mance), 9 a.m.
- Sept. 27 – Men’s Elite Road Race (Quartier Dix30 – Parc Jeanne Mance), 9 a.m.
The time in Montreal matches Eastern Daylight Time.
Who Were The Winners At The 2025 UCI Road World Championships?
Elite Events
- Men’s Road Race – Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia
- Men’s Time Trial – Remco Evenepoel, Belgium
- Women’s Road Race – Magdeleine Vallieres Mill, Canada
- Women’s Time Trial – Marlen Reusser, Switzerland
- Mixed Relay – Australia
Under-23 Events
- Men’s U23 Road Race – Lorenzo Finn, Italy
- Men’s U23 Time Trial – Jakob Soderqvist, Sweden
- Women’s U23 Road Race – Celia Gery, France
- Women’s U23 Time Trial – Zoe Backstedt, Great Britain
Junior Events
- Men’s Junior Road Race – Henry Hudson, Great Britain
- Men’s Junior Time Trial – Michiel Mouris, Netherlands
- Women’s Junior Road Race – Paula Ostiz, Spain
- Women’s Junior Time Trial – Megan Arens, Netherlands
About The UCI Road World Championships
The UCI Road World Championships boasts more than a century of history and tradition, though it took a gradual evolution to become the spectacle it is today.
The amateur-only debut of the event came in 1921, followed by the inclusion of professional in 1927. The addition of a women’s category came in 1958, and youth categories were added to the menu in 1975.
The weeklong UCI Road World Championships also now includes a team time trial mixed relay (2019) and a U23 women’s title (2022), which was earned in a standalone women’s event for the first time in 2025.
In 2026, the schedule includes 13 separate events over the eight days of competition.
The winners are considered the world champions and get to wear the rainbow jersey during all competitions of the same discipline during the following season.
In 2025, the UCI Road World Championships was held Kigali, Rwanda, in Southeast Africa, marking the first time in race history the action took place on the continent of Africa. All of the news, notes and results from last year can be found here.
For those who are ready to see what happens in Montreal in 2026, the complete schedule is listed below.
One top contender, also the two-time reigning champion and easily the early favorite in the road race, won’t be there. That’s Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogačar, who crashed out of the recent Vuelta a España and chose to end his season prematurely to focus on his recovery.
The five-time Tour de France winner, including 2024, 2025 and 2026, wrecked during Stage 8 of the 21-stage Vuelta, which was held Aug. 22 through Sept. 13. He was leading the race by nearly four minutes, but he left in an ambulance with a fractured collarbone that ultimately required season-ending surgery.
Belgium Just Picked A 2026 World Championships Super Team
Belgium has selected a powerful team for the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, with Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel leading the charge.
Both are massive stars, but the big question is whether Belgium can bring them together in one clear plan.
We break down Belgium’s team, the leadership question, possible tactics and the Montreal course ahead of the road race Sept. 27.
Can Van Aert and Evenepoel work in unison to deliver Belgium gold?
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