Hugo Houle thought he would end his career in 2024, the year of the Paris Olympics. But the Quebec cyclist now has an excellent reason to ride for two more years: the UCI Road World Championships will take place in Montreal in 2026.
Posted at 6:15 a.m.
Updated at 6:50 a.m.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed what was an open secret in the middle, Thursday, as part of its annual Congress which takes place in Wollongong, Australia, scene of the 99e Worlds on the road until Sunday.
“With what we have done in recent decades as a cycling nation, in my eyes, our report card was perfect”, rejoiced Sébastien Arsenault, promoter of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal (GPCQM), the originator of the bid, which will organize the 2026 event with the support of Cycling Canada.
Arsenault says he has been thinking about this project since “2012, 2013”, but he “really opened the valves in 2019”. He wanted a favorable response as early as last year’s Congress in Belgium, but political considerations, combined with the resurgence of COVID-19, delayed the final approval of funding from various levels of government, he said. -He specifies.
Scheduled from September 20 to 27, 2026, the World Championships will begin a week after the GPCQM, in what will become a real cycling festival, hopes the organizer.
“From the start, my desire was not only to organize 13 cycling competitions and to award 13 world champion medals. It’s to make it a big celebration of cycling, yes, but also of physical activity and healthy lifestyles. »
The Worlds therefore return to Montreal 52 years after Eddy Merckx’s victory over Raymond Poulidor in 1974. This first presentation of the championships outside of Europe established the reputation of the Mont Royal circuit and its Camillien-Houde route. .
The mountain will once again be at the heart of elite road racing in what will mark the 50e anniversary of the holding of the Montreal Olympic Games, whose road races took place on the same course. Other events will be contested elsewhere on the island and perhaps even outside.
With a potential of 13 events spread over eight days of competition, Arsenault had to sell his project to the decision-makers.
“Often, they think of the Grand Prix Cycliste [qui se déroule sur] a day. Some even said to me: why does it cost so much when we have just financed the gran fondo? [Série mondiale UCI] of Drummondville for X thousand dollars. So there is a lot of education to be done. We do it in a polite, unpretentious way, because we are not in Belgium. »
Arsenault says he has sometimes been “incisive and insistent” to convince the three levels of government, as well as Tourisme Montréal, to jump into the adventure. “I had to apologize for it at times, but I always saw that it was a huge opportunity. »
About 1,000 athletes from 75 countries will travel to the metropolis. They will compete for the famous rainbow jerseys in the junior, under 23 and elite categories. More than 5,000 team members, officials, UCI representatives and guests will accompany them, according to a statement from Mondiaux Montréal 2026. “More than half a million spectators are expected, more than half of them from the outside the region,” it says.
“We are delighted to have the UCI Road World Championships, our flagship annual event, back on the American continent, 11 years after the UCI World Championships in Richmond (USA), said UCI President David Lappartient in the same statement. The country and the province love cycling, and have demonstrated it every year for more than 10 years with the holding of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal (GPCQM), two events of the UCI WorldTour, the most prestigious men’s cycling circuit. on road. I am convinced that the event, thanks to its seasoned organizing committee, to which we owe the success of the GPCQM, will constitute a fantastic showcase for cycling in North America. »
The promoter claims to have “secured the financing” which ensures that he can hold the championships on the sporting level. He now turns to “Quebec and Canada Inc. to seek private sponsorship” and thus expand the activities that will take place on the sidelines and establish a national and international communication plan.
Its goal is to achieve a budget of nearly $40 million, which includes the value of services. He did not want to quantify the height of the public investments, but they will account for more than half of the anticipated budget.
On the sporting level, the men’s elite road race of these World Championships could mark the swan song of Hugo Houle… who will celebrate his 36e birthday that day.
“2026 will probably coincide with the end of my career”, confided the one who first thought of retiring in 2024 in the wake of the Paris Olympics.
The only Quebecer to win a stage in the Tour de France attributes all the merit of obtaining the 2026 Worlds to the “seriousness” and “professionalism” of the team of Sébastien Arsenault and his father Serge, his predecessor at the head GPCMQs.
“It gives me a very motivating additional goal to pursue until 2026. It would be a great way to come full circle and end my career, a bit like Mr. [Antoine] Duchesne did it at the Montreal Grand Prix. »
It still has to be selected, specifies Houle, who also sees this deadline as a mobilizing element for the entire Canadian cycling community. The attention given to the succession must be intensified to align a performing team in 2026, he warns.
“It’s a good challenge to develop our next generation, which we are doing with [l’équipe continentale] Premier Tech U23. It gives a date when we can assess whether the program is working or not. […] We have to start working on that now so that we don’t look crazy presenting these competitions here in four years. Cycling Canada will have money, there will be no plane tickets to pay…”
Venues for the next World Championships
- 2023: Glasgow, Scotland
- 2024: Zurich, Switzerland
- 2025: Kigali, Rwanda
- 2026: Montreal, Canada
The Worlds were last held in Canada in Hamilton in 2003.