Expressions of Interest Open for Road World Championships in Montreal
Today expressions of interest open to represent Ireland at the UCI Road World Championships taking place this year in Montréal, Canada from 20th to 27th September. This marks a return to Montréal since they hosted the first UCI Road World Championships to be held outside of Europe back in 1974.
The championships take place utilising much of the route familiar to those that have followed the World Tour race in recent years, and indeed the Canadian World Tour Races, Gran Prix Cycliste de Québec and Gran Prix Cycliste Montréal are still taking place on 11th and 13th September the week before the World Championships begin.
As such, the road race course defined by the repeated challenging loops of Mount Royal Park featuring the Voie Camillien-Houde climb, bringing once again what is likely to be a very attritional attacking race with lots of elevation gained. By contrast the TT is a slightly flatter proposition based around the St. Lawrence River with the start and finish beside Mount Royal part. The UCI race hub can be found here: 2026 UCI Road World Championships | UCI
The Expression of Interest pro-forma is here: Expression of Interest - 2026 UCI World Road Championships, Montreal. – Fill in form (Please note the provisions of the National Team Selection policy for elite males regarding the longlist and internal communications). All other categories will need to complete the above expression of interest pro-forma.
Speaking of the event, High Performance Director Iain Dyer said, “It’s another tough championship course. One for the climbing oriented riders. The sprint finishers don’t seem to be having much joy at the moment with the parcours for these events as organisers are favouring elevation gain over a bunch finish. Selectors will be looking for riders that have demonstrated international level of competitiveness over attacking and climbing parcours.”
Quotas in each category for the event have already been established based on last year’s rankings, with male junior and male U23 notably tight with quota’s of just 3 and 4 respectively. 2026_UCI_Road_World_Championships_-_Quotas_updated7July.pdf
Expressions of Interest close automatically at midnight on Monday 3rd August, with information gathering and the selection panel meetings taking place as per policy across the two days that follow.