Summary
- Remco Evenepoel won the elite men's time trial at the 2026 Road World Championships in Montréal on Sunday 20 September, covering 39.2 km in 44'53"13. He was the only rider under 45 minutes.
- Filippo Ganna took silver at 57"31. It is his third world time trial silver behind Evenepoel after Glasgow 2023 and Zurich 2024. Paul Seixas, 19, was third at 1'13"04.
- Evenepoel now has four world time trial titles, level with Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin, and is the first rider to win four in a row.
- Ganna was only tenth at the first time check and rode back through the field. The ride built rather than faded.
- The championships run until Sunday 27 September, when the elite men's road race closes the week on the Mont Royal circuit.
The result
The Montréal course measured 39.2 km with about 220 m of climbing, almost all of it flat until a final drag to the line. On paper that is Ganna terrain. In practice Evenepoel averaged over 52 km/h and put close to a minute into the second-fastest time triallist in the world.
| Pos. | Rider | Nation | Time / gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Remco Evenepoel | Belgium | 44'53"13 |
| 2 | Filippo Ganna | Italy | +57"31 |
| 3 | Paul Seixas | France | +1'13"04 |
| 4 | Brandon McNulty | USA | +1'25"27 |
| 5 | Jakob Söderqvist | Sweden | +1'26"18 |
| 6 | Stefan Küng | Switzerland | +1'38"83 |
| 7 | Isaac del Toro | Mexico | +1'44"44 |
| 8 | Kasper Asgreen | Denmark | +1'48"54 |
| 9 | Daan Hoole | Netherlands | +2'02"21 |
| 10 | Callum Thornley | Great Britain | +2'02"79 |
Mattia Cattaneo, the second Italian, finished sixteenth.
The bikes
Ganna rode the Pinarello Bolide F TT he has used all season: Torayca M40X carbon, a seat tube and seatpost shaped with tubercles borrowed from humpback whale fins to manage the turbulence behind the rider's legs, and 3D printed extensions. At the Tirreno-Adriatico in March his build was Dura-Ace Di2, 28 mm Continental GP5000 TT tubeless tyres and a Prologo T-Gale saddle. Evenepoel rode the Specialized Shiv TT. Time trial platforms change far less often than road bikes, which is why ex-team Pinarello Bolide frames and the Shiv TT stay relevant for several seasons after the pros move on.
How the race unfolded
Ganna started ninety seconds before Evenepoel. At the first intermediate he was tenth, a long way from where he needed to be. From there he gained on almost everyone in front of him, and at the line he pushed Seixas out of the provisional lead. Then Evenepoel arrived and the argument was over.
Ganna afterwards, translated from Italian: "I am happy, today I gave everything, maybe even a bit more than I had, so I have nothing to reproach myself for." And later: "I was at the limit, I do not know where I lost the time. Maybe one day I will win the rainbow jersey again." Evenepoel kept it short: "It's just incredible. My aim was to come here and win, to claim this fourth title."
What the 57 seconds mean
Ganna's record at the Worlds against the clock reads gold in Imola 2020, gold in Flanders 2021, then silver in 2023, 2024 and 2026, each time behind Evenepoel. In Glasgow and Zurich the gap was a handful of seconds. In Montréal, on a flat course, it was almost a minute.
Two readings, both partly true. Evenepoel has moved the reference point for what a flat 40 km takes. And Ganna, at 30, is still the clear second-best in the discipline: 16 seconds ahead of Seixas, 28 ahead of McNulty, more than 40 ahead of Küng.
For Evenepoel the numbers are simpler. Four titles equal Cancellara and Martin, and nobody had won four consecutive. He adds them to the Olympic time trial and road race titles from Paris 2024.
The women's race and the rest of the week
Earlier on Sunday Marlen Reusser, on her 35th birthday, defended the women's title in 50'24"44 ahead of Zoe Bäckstedt and Franziska Koch. Elisa Longo Borghini missed bronze by under five seconds in fourth. Vittoria Guazzini was tenth.
The Under-23 time trials are on Monday, the mixed relay on Tuesday, the Under-23 road races on Thursday and Friday. The elite men's road race on Sunday 27 September covers 273.7 km from Brossard with 3,803 m of climbing, finishing with 12 laps of the 13.4 km Mont Royal circuit. Italy brings Lorenzo Finn, the reigning Under-23 world champion, with Giulio Ciccone, Giulio Pellizzari, Alberto Bettiol and Matteo Trentin.
If you are looking at a time trial bike
A time trial bike is a specialist purchase, and the used market rewards patience more than in any other category. Frames turn over slowly, so a Bolide from a few seasons ago is not far from what was raced in Montréal. The Ineos Grenadiers team bikes on Bikeroom come straight from the service course, and the Bolide F TR 2026 currently listed is the triathlon version of the same frame, without the UCI position limits. If the difference between the two matters for what you race, our guide to TT and triathlon bikes goes through it. The wider Pinarello collection covers the road bikes the same team races.
If you are choosing between a UCI-legal TT frame and a triathlon frame, or sizing a used one, talk to our concierge.
Sources: Sky Sport, elite time trial results, 20 September 2026; Cyclingnews, live report; Olympics.com, Ganna silver report; SpazioCiclismo, Ganna interview; 2026 UCI Road World Championships; Bicisport, Ganna's Bolide F TT build.
