Rivals accuse one another of “riding across national borders” during men’s world road race as Tom Pidcock and Michael Matthews blame lack of co-operation; Tributes paid to Katy Marchant after Olympic champion retires + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Polemica!
— Cillian Kelly (@cilliankelly.bsky.social) 27 September 2026 at 20:47
Cycling has moved on so much, that we no longer consider a 32km solo victory a particularly long range attack. This is what Pogacar has done to us, and the consequences we must live with.
Yesterday’s men’s road race looked at a certain point rather formulaic. A large early break comprising several semi-professional riders achieved an advantage exceeding eight minutes, then saw their lead almost single-handedly brought back by Bruno Armirail, working for Paul Seixas who clearly wanted a hard race. Mission accomplished.
Then attacks began, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel were at the pointy end, with Briton Oscar Onley doing a sterling ride to follow in the wheels, along with Quinn Simmons, before Primoz Roglic rolled back the years to bridge to the front.
Gradually the numbers in the lead group started to erode as Van der Poel kept pushing on, but the lead group never had a lead exceeding a minute. Ben Healy bridged across on his own, before a dropped Wout van Aert started pulling the group behind to work for Remco Evenepoel, only for the double Olympic champion to lack the punch on the circuit’s key climb. Soon, the front group of favourites came together, and there was a stalemate until Brandon McNulty went clear and never looked back.
Well, he actually looked back a few times. His margin yo-yoed wildly in the final 20km between 1’10” and 10 seconds only for a lack of cooperation behind to enable him to hang on and take a famous victory. At least his UAE paymasters still have Pogacar’s jersey template to use.
Michael Matthews, bouncing back from a rough couple of years including a terrible training crash with a fire engine driver, won the sprint for silver whilst Van der Poel bested Simmons for the final spot on the podium.
But both Matthews and Tom Pidcock, who repeatedly attacked in vain to reel in McNulty, have noted that trade team connections seem to have influenced the finale, specifically Isaac del Toro’s lack of co-operation with the others in the group behind…
Pidcock, who also crashed earlier in the race and crossed the line with cuts on his leg, told Eurosport, “It was hard to make the difference, to get the gap with the wind the way it was, with the USA team and with Matteo, who was super strong once Brandon attacked, and obviously Isaac is on the same team as well.”
Matthews, in his post-race press conference, said, “There was a little bit of teamwork between certain riders, they were riding a little bit together.”
“If fewer teams had ridden together across national borders, then we would have caught him. It is what it is.”
Of course, riders riding for trade teammates is a long-running debate. In fact two British riders, Tom Southam and Charly Wegelius, were handed an effective lifetime ban from being selected for world championships after working for their Italian trade teammates.
Although that ban may have had more to do with their abandoning their own team leader, Roger Hammond, than choosing as appears to be Del Toro’s case, not chasing their own personal objective.
None of this detracts from McNulty and the USA team, who rode brilliantly all day shadowing and marking moves before the final deadly attack. It also means the USA have their first men’s world champion since Lance Armstrong in 1993. Yes, that win remains formally un-asterisked.
But there’s just enough gossip for a Monday morning, exactly how we like it…
Mathieu van der Poel appeared to ride prototype Shimano 13-speed groupset at Road World Championships
We’ve already heard that it’s coming – and there were previous sightings at the Vuelta – but now it looks like MVDP has given Shimano’s unreleased groupset its biggest seal of approval yet by riding it to third place in a brutal edition of the World Championship road race.
Our photographer didn’t get a look at the sprockets, but the shape of the brake levers and lack of branding on them vs the current generation of 12-speed Shimano Dura-Ace suggests Van Der Poel was riding the new groupset. His team is sponsored by Shimano, and it would be unheard of for a rider of his calibre to switch to a different component manufacturer while racing in his national team kit.
We’re expecting Shimano’s new top-end groupset to launch in the new year.
Rejoice for Lachlan Morton, and a new FKT for Isla Short
There was a bit of racing this weekend up north, with the epic Three Peaks cyclocross race. And, at the third time of asking, Lachlan Morton finally got his win though he had to sprint for it at the death…
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Meanwhile in the women’s race, Scot Isla Short not only won on debut but also set a new fastest known time over the 61km course, beating a 23-year-old record by finishing in 3:36:30. A stunning performance…
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Outfit change...
No longer the reigning world champion, Tadej Pogacar has been quick to switch to his European Champions jersey, though he hasn’t worn it for a single day of racing this year!
And he’ll only have a week to enjoy the blue hues before another champion of the continent is crowned. Every ounce of me wants another certain Slovenian to take over the honour, and it’s not Luka Mezgec…
Space biking!
I think it was Alexei Sayle who had a joke that riding a bicycle whilst tipsy was the closest ordinary people will ever get to feeling like we’re in space. Not that we recommend Sayle’s tempting offer, but unfortunately it’s the best segue I can muster for this entry, that a former champion track cyclist is heading up and out of the planet.
Christina Birch, a former national and continental champion on the track, has been selected to launch to the International Space Station next year, and will be piloting the SpaceX rocket in the process.
She was first selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, and has an academic background in biological engineering. Birch was also long-listed to compete for the USA at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Having previously served as a capsule communicator and crew lead for previous missions, her upcoming mission will be her first spaceflight.
The 39-year old is a former national individual pursuit champion and won gold as part of the team pursuit at the 2018 Pan-American Championships. It would also be fair to say cycling runs in the house, with Birch married to Ashton Lambie, or should we say the Roger Bannister of cycling who broke the 4 minute barrier for the individual pursuit. The couple became parents to twins last year.
> “The Roger Bannister of cycling” – Ashton Lambie breaks four-minute barrier on the track (+ video)
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Makes a nice change from the usual roll-call of gravel racing/nutrition ambassador/sports director-ing that so many ex-riders go to…
No mention of active travel in Transport Secretary's speech to Labour conference
There’s difficulty in saying much more than what the headline shows, which is that Heidi Alexander declined to mention active travel or announce any policy related to walking or cycling in her address to the Labour Party conference.
As was widely expected, the speech was rail-heavy, after The Times leaked government plans to take over Avanti West Coast from March before Alexander’s speech. Her remarks focused on the impact of the decision, and efforts more broadly to create an integrated transport network that can improve social mobility.
Even when it came to praising her ministerial team, she declined to mention active travel within the portfolio of the responsible minister, Simon Lightwood MP. It’s strange considering there are several active travel policies that could have been mentioned.
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Just six days ago, £104 million was announced to be invested in the National Cycle Network. Or if that figure is not big enough, as many people have pointed out. how about the £4.5 billion investment strategy announced in June, with specific targets for encouraging children to cycle to walk or cycle to school? Nowt, despite the Transport Secretary happily signing off and providing quotes for each policy announcement.
Incidentally, you can watch Alexander’s remarks in full at the link below, she took to the stage just after 2pm.
Ruddy foreign laws coming over here stealing our attention...
For the next fortnight or so, we’re a little bit “all hands on deck” at road.cc towers. Consequently, we welcome Alex back from the world of subbing reviews with this write-up of Spain’s new cycling laws that seem both a step forward and a step back. A running man of cycle regulations if you will…
Blame assignment in stats?
I wish cyclist injury statistics separated out incidents where the cyclist was clearly at fault. Would be useful to know how dangerous it is, controlling for people who cycle through busy junctions and undertake turning trucks.
— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) September 27, 2026
As someone who ends up dredging through quite a lot of stats, I can confirm that data like this in principle would be rather useful.
Although I can also detect through the tone of the tweet that this sort of stat could be weaponised against cyclists. “Cyclists responsible for X% of serious injuries” say the Telegraph, because a driver hit a cyclist. Where we might want to focus on how the speed and size of cars cause these collisions to be serious injuries, others might use this data to highlight the rogue cyclists who, as the tweet suggests, “cycle through busy junctions”.
The thoughts of the readership are, as always, welcome…
Lovely celebrations and cruel self-evaluation
With the worlds remaining one of the longest and hardest races on the calendar, the post-race celebrations and interviews are always that bit more special.
Michael Matthews’ immediate reaction post-race is just phenomenal. Hug someone tight enough they collapse to the ground…
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Primoz Roglic is continuing to warm the cockles in the autumn of his career, and gave this rather genial interview after following Van Aert and Van der Poel before fading in the finale…
Primož Roglič gave everything in Montréal 🥵💪 pic.twitter.com/wKEZNFVMGr
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) September 27, 2026
Not everyone was too happy with their day however. Paul Seixas was toe-to-toe with the race favourites before cramping on the final lap. The French prodigy only turned 20 last week and Sunday was his longest ever day of racing, so it’s a perfectly reasonable, understandable thing to happen, particularly when the racing was as manic as it was it’s easy to not fuel properly. But Seixas was bitterly upset with himself…
Paul Seixas was still in the fight for the rainbow jersey with 3.7km to go. Then the cramps hit 💔 pic.twitter.com/tCKuVhO7I1
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) September 27, 2026
Fingers crossed Thomas Voeckler, the French national coach, and his Decathlon CMA CGM team can provide him with the right support, because that response is no way for a young talent, heck any rider, to be feeling after the hardest race of their career.
Quiet lanes in action
Emily Kerr, one of the Oxfordshire councillors championing the county’s Quiet Lanes scheme, has been out to inspect the new roads for herself…
Thrilled to visit Oxfordshire’s first of the new Quiet Lanes: filtered to motor traffic, safe for us cyclists and walkers and horse-riders.
First time I have ever felt safe to cycle to the fabulous Rectory Farm: love supporting local businesses.
— Cllr Emily Kerr 💚 (@emilykerr36.bsky.social) 28 September 2026 at 09:39
The county has gone further than Department for Transport guidance suggests by physically preventing drivers from using the roads as cut-throughs and have been criticised by some motorists – as you might expect. The council though are defiant…
"An inspiration to us all": Katy Marchant retires
Katy Marchant has announced her retirement from track cycling at the age of 33.
The sprinter became World and Olympic champion in the Team Sprint in 2024, alongside Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane. She also became European Champion in the 500m Time Trial the same year.
Marchant first joined the GB team in 2013 after having once trained alongside Jessica Ennis as a heptathlete. After winning four national track titles in 2015, the following year Marchant made her Olympic debut in the sprint, winning bronze, her first elite international medal. The Yorkshire woman subsequently won bronze in the Commonwealth Games in 2018 before crashing out in the keirin at the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
After giving birth to her first child, Marchant returned to racing in 2023, winning her first European medals and cementing her place in the team sprint line-up. With Capewell and Finucane, Marchant broke the world record in the event three times in Paris to claim GB’s first Olympic Gold in the team sprint.
She took time off after the birth of her second child in 2025, before once again returning to racing and winning silver in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games earlier this year. Announcing her retirement, British Cycling said Marchant had become, “a leader of the women’s sprint squad, playing a pivotal role in the recent success of the programme and inspiring the talent it now boasts.
> Katie Archibald announces retirement after glittering career marked by triumph and fortitude
“She was also the first women’s sprinter to return to the programme twice after having her two sons and is an impactful voice supporting and encouraging mothers in sport. ”
Marchant has also paid tribute to the organisation, saying “The highs, the lows, and everything in between – British Cycling has been my home. My dreams came true, and I feel incredibly lucky that it has been my life for the last 13 years. I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the most amazing people and have made friends for life.
“While I am closing the door on this incredible era, I am truly excited to embrace what’s next for me.”
Tributes have also been paid by teammates and rivals alike…
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“A chapter I’m so glad we got to do together ❤️ my biggest inspiration, brb crying now” Emma Finucane wrote.
“An inspiration to us all❤️what an incredible career👏” BMX World Champion Bethany Shriever said.
“Congratulations on an incredible career Katy!! Best of luck with your next chapter ❤️” Jazz Carlin wrote.
And Jessica Ennis-Hill wrote, “What a fantastic career Katy 💫”
Favourite side plot of the day
Faced with mounting injuries, Slovakia realised they needed to field at least one rider in the men’s road race or risk losing vital UCI points that could affect their ability to qualify riders for the Olympics. Their solution? Draft the massage bloke.
Vladimir Kovacik hadn’t raced in nine years and gave an excellent interview to TNT Sports when asked about his shape…
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And Kovacik impressively survived the opening 100km in the peloton looping around Montreal before bidding farewell once he reached the pits. An amazing ride, almost as great as his moustache…
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What left for Vollering?
Merckx, Roche, Van Vleuten, Pogacar. That’s the company Demi Vollering now keeps in the history books after becoming only the fifth rider to complete cycling’s ‘Triple Crown’, winning the Giro, Tour and World Championships in the same year.
With 38km remaining of the women’s road race, all seemed serene with Vollering solo-ing clear ahead of a small group, with teammate Puck Pieterse ably marking all and any attacks. Then with 15km to go, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Elisa Longo Borghini bridged across. Longo Borghini, having twice finished third before in this race, attacked on the Camillien Houde climb but couldn’t follow Vollering’s counter-move.
With Niewiadoma’s cooperation, the pair continued to the finish line and held off Longo Borghini and the impressive diesel engine of Marlen Reusser to sprint for the title, where the Dutchwoman prevailed.
It means, for the first time ever in men’s or women’s racing, the exact composition and order of the world championships road race matched that of the final Tour de France podium. An excellent stat…
It also begs the question, for the Dutch climber, of what is left to tick off? By my count there’s the Olympic Games and a couple of cobbled classics and Milano-Sanremo if we’re applying the Pogacar-esque “completing cycling” lens to her career. Or she could keep trying to pile up the Grand Tours, which she’s podiumed twice a year since the pandemic. Nothing shabby about that…
Near Miss of the Day!
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Weak fork not necessarily weak. I did the same once, not so dramatically as here, but the fork was still toast and I cracked a wrist bone. Mechanism is, if the tyre catches the mudguard, the guard can start rotating with the tyre. The mudguard stays instantly dig into the tyre, because geometry, the front wheel locks completely solid in about a quarter of a revolution, and the rider gets brutally thrown off the front while wondering what just happened. This is why front mudguard stays need a breakaway fitment.
@Rendel Harris Or less unelegant?
@shufflingb So far I've had no issues with the port going wrong (unlike my Hammerhead Karoo V2, which melted!) 20+ hrs run time means I don't usually have to charge on the go. My plan for Pan Celtic means I'll have tome to charge when sleeping, and on the go as a last resort. I am looking at an angled USB C Male to Female cable though, to move the port below.
@mdavidford And indeed, looking in my copy of the complete OED, it's nearly 200 years old at least and is cited for first use by Thomas Carlyle, so you can't get a much better provenance than that. It is a bit ugly though, isn't it? "The previous criticism of a lack of strategy" or "that we were lacking in strategy" would be rather more elegant.
Re, Brandon Herrera 1) Given the exceptionally lenient sentences drivers who kill with their vehicles receive, it is almost like they get away with it. So, as has been said before, if someone's intention is to kill then using a vehicle could be the way he "... could get away with it..." 2) If he is this incensed about cyclists on roads slowing him down a little bit... How does he feel about all the other people IN MOTOR VEHICLES who force him to sit stationary in rush hour traffic? 3) My guess, as I've said before with the likes of him, is that he feels emasculated by cyclists. Which fuels his anger towards them. He feels weak because he himself isn't "tough" enough to be on a bike on public roads when faced with the danger of (ironically? paradoxically?) crazy people like him behind the wheel.
Why does 'unstrategic' require a [sic]? You'd think if it's good enough for the OED it would be good enough for road.cc.
Putting aside any imperfections, the emphasis on quality of infrastructure, and distinguishing between everyday and racing cycling is something to be welcomed! Good luck wales.
How are the 20mph speed limits being accommodated for the TDF stage? Is the stage avoiding all urban areas and villages or will there be special permission to exceed 20mph because the roads are closed - albeit not to pedestrians? Although there are clear benefits from the 20mph limit, it has seriously kerbed cycle road racing and time trialling in Wales and is starting to have a similar effect in England. If the aim is to attract more people into cycling, doesn't it make sense to find a way of accomodating competitive club cycling alongside active travel and leisure cycling? Just think of all the youngsters who will want to emulate their TDF heroes after seeing them racing in the flesh.
Hasn't it always been the case that active travel has been abused? Councils claiming to have put in hundreds of miles of bike lanes and claiming funding for it, and the consequence being that they simple paint bike symbols between the pavement and the existing white lines marking the edge of the road? Or my personal favourite of taking the money from central government and painting a bike lane, but then allowing car owners to store their metal cubes in it 24/7, and then wonder why it's (a) unused by cyclists and (b) they're getting complaints about cyclists riding in primary position.
17 thoughts on “Rivals accuse one another of “riding across national borders” during men’s world road race as Tom Pidcock and Michael Matthews blame lack of co-operation; Tributes paid to Katy Marchant after Olympic champion retires + more on the live blog”
Fabulous race, really gripping once the necessary rather boring softening up 100 km or so was completed. A lot of the riders in the final chase group will look back, if they end their careers without a rainbow jersey, and think you know what, I really didn’t play that right; no diminution of McNulty’s achievement implied by saying that they could’ve caught him easily without the multiple sit ups. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have agreed to work together in equal turns until they caught him 10 km out, as they so easily could have done, and then played cat and mouse from there. Huge kudos to MVDP for achieving a bronze on a course which, as he said, was absolutely on the limit of what was possible for him. As they noted in commentary, no other race this week on that course was won by a rider weighing more than 70 kg so for a rider his size to be able to hang on over the climbs and still be able to contest the sprint was amazing.
@Rendel Harris one of cyclings little mysteries isn’t it. So many teams/riders would rather lose and not help each other than risk being accused of losing “because” they helped each other.
Its like being scared to try because your scared of failing. Makes no sense but its rife in everyday life as well.
@mctrials23 Reminds me of Del Toro’s attitude towards the Giro last year. He lost the race because he cared more about stopping Carapaz. It doesn’t mattter how talented a rider is, if their attitude is all wrong they won’t succeed
@Smoggysteve Its the unfortunate nature of a sport where you can have 2 riders competing for the same place and one of them can coast whilst the other one absolutely buries themselves and the coaster wins.
I think its a case of spiting your opposition. I won’t work if you won’t work.
@Smoggysteve There was a big difference. Yates was going away up the road while yesterday they had reeled McNulty in to 10 seconds. I bet most of them are kicking themselves (although Jorgensen was probably rider of the day for marking so many moves with able support from Simmons).
@Surreyrider Not really. He threw away a chance to chase to mark another rider.
Or, which is even more prevalent in everyday life I think, being scared to try because someone else might ‘succeed’ by doing something different, “My dream was to be a painter but the teachers pointed out that it would mean five years scraping by at art college with no guarantee of success, whereas all the pupils who went to accountancy college had a downpayment on a Barrett home within five years…” Worrying about where other people are going instead of just doing your best at your passion, one of life’s great handicaps, for cycle racers and the population at large (including myself!).
“Thousands of illegal ghost plates on cars revealed by new cameras”
1) Presumably a good use of drones would be to follow a driver of a vehicle with illegal plates when spotted on the ANPR cameras.
2) As I’ve said many times before:
The government should put in a law saying petrol stations need to have their CCTV linked to DVLA and police databases.
The payer of the fuel can have their card tagged so the police can trace them with their face on CCTV.
Or they can be refused service if they are wanted.
3) Given there is only one reason to have cloned/ghost plates, the sentencing and prosecutions for suppliers must be high to deter them.
We have the technology.
We just don’t have the political will to put it in to place.
“Not a week goes by where we don’t see an example of someone on cloned plates involved in serious and organised crime,”
As Dept Supt Andy Cos said a while ago: reporting dangerous drivers help uncover other serious crimes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq9860162dj2o
@mitsky As Dept Supt Andy Cos said a while ago: reporting dangerous drivers help uncover other serious crimes
Unfortunately, the rest of the UK police don’t agree with him and regard the people who report offences as the real problem on UK roads
ttps://upride.cc/incident/pk05opm_freelander_closepass/
@wtjs
I appreciate You’ve faced a depressingly unco-operative police force.
The Met police, untill recently, were relatively good at taking action.
I used to get a good 70-80% of my reports resulting in more than a warning letter.
But now that they are getting more reports than they can cope with the hit rate is about 10% if not less.
@mitsky I used to get a good 70-80% of my reports resulting in more than a warning letter
I’m afraid these statistics are based on a highly unreliable police source: them saying they have ‘sent a NIP’. You’re not alone – Cycling Mikey is also now quoting ‘NIPs sent’ as evidence the police took real action. The infamous and essentially useless Met outcome spreadsheet only claims to provide ‘intended outcome’, and the reason they refuse to provide the actual outcomes is that they don’t want victims to know how few of these punishments result in any penalty at all. There’s a reason I’m still, 4 1/2 years after the event, battling Lancashire Constabulary and their assistants at the Information Commissioner for information about what they actually did about this:
ttps://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/
The reason is that they did either nothing at all, or sent out the worthless advice letter. I’m now using the routinely ignored Victim’s Code, and there has been no progress for years.
@mitsky I’ve got ghost plates on my bikes. Actually, I think we all have! It saves the time, cost & effort of having actual ones ; )
I wonder how ‘I’m a cyclist’ motorists counter that?
(Do EVs that charge at home miss out on surveillance?)
@I love my bike
An answer to the increasing number of EVs and the drivers also doing this with their plates is for someone smarter than me.
Which is pretty much everyone.
But I’m thinking that in the future, when an EV owner goes shopping and parks in the car park, the CCTV can catch the vehicle if it is illegal and call security and the staff can refuse to serve them.
I’m also thinking larger shopping centres might offer free charging to customers so again, this can be denied for any dodgy plates.
“BBC links fatal fire to ebikes despite no evidence it was linked to ebikes”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq62jyk6ne4vo
Cycling looks a lot safer per mile or per hour if you can remove from the statistics all the people riding on the wrong side of the road at night with no lights after a few drinks.
Driving also looks a lot safer if you can remove the same sort of people from the statistics.
@andystow as you subtly didn’t spell out …
…
the best bit about the second is that cycling (and walking) also looks safer if you remove those drivers. The opposite doesn’t make much difference to drivers.
@andystow not so helpful for current US cyclists or some UK ones * but I suspect the greatest safety benefits would come from a (conceptually) simple “separate modes where the speed / mass difference is significant, only allow mixing where the more dangerous is significantly slowed and not numerous compared to others”.
Note no references to skill or careful use in that formulation. That’s certainly needed for best results but the system better not *depend* on humans being on their best behavior…
* lots of people “have to drive” in the US, even more so than the UK (major generalisation but while public transport is fairly rubbish in much of the UK it *exists* to a greater degree than in much of the US).