A Half Century On, Cycling’s World Championship Returns to Montreal
Montreal didn’t host any World Cup matches this summer. But during the coming week, fans of another sport centered in Europe will be keeping their eyes on the city as it hosts cycling’s U.C.I. Road World Championships.
For casual spectators, the Tour de France has come to define bike racing. But aside from the yellow jersey worn by that race’s winner, there’s no piece of clothing as coveted in cycling as the white jersey with a rainbow band of colors awarded to world champions. At Worlds, riders represent their countries — not commercially sponsored teams, as in the Tour de France. As a result, it has far more teams: 100 countries, compared with 23 teams at this year’s Tour de France. Between the road races, time trials (races against the clock) and the women’s and men’s events, about 1,000 of the world’s top cyclists have come to town. They won’t be riding around a suburban office park either. The highlight of the road racing circuit will be multiple ascents of Voie Camillien-Houde up Mount Royal, as at the last Worlds in Montreal, in 1974, and at the 1976 Olympics. The Champlain Bridge will be partly closed as riders cross over from the south shore of the St. Lawrence River onto the island of Montreal. And, yes, the traffic disruptions should be similarly epic.
The surrounding show will also be up to Tour de France standards. At the base of Mount Royal on Thursday, work crews were busy making final touches on the grandstands and elaborate V.I.P. hospitality tents at the finish line. For me from 1992 until 2018, July often meant packing a large suitcase and heading off to report from the Tour de France. Here are a few of my favorite articles for The Times from those days: [Read: Back on a Motorbike: Old-School Reporting at the Tour de France] [Read: Riders Get Little Room for Fashion at Tour de France] [Read: Last Over All in the Tour, but Blazing a Trail] [Read: Finding a Path to Success in the Second Tier of the Tour de France] Back then, readers often asked me where to go in France to watch the Tour. If they lived in Eastern Canada, I sometimes suggested traveling to Montreal or Quebec City. Since 2010, Montreal and Quebec City have hosted the only two races in North America on the International Cycling Union’s World Tour, which includes the Tour de France. The biggest teams, based on a points ranking, are required by the governing body, which is known by its French initials U.C.I., to ride all World Tour events. And there’s an incentive to come to Canada: World Tour races are rich in the U.C.I. ranking points that teams need to ensure automatic entry in the Tour de France and that largely determine riders’ salaries.
The Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal, which were held this month, allow fans a more intimate experience. And because they are based around laps of a circuit — like the Worlds road races — spectators get to see the race action multiple times and from different points. (Most of the Worlds racing will be free for the viewing. But unlike nearly all other major bike races, sitting at the finish line costs up to 277.99 Canadian dollars. Most of those tickets were sold out as of Friday.) In 1974 in Montreal, the professional men’s road race — there was a distinction with amateurs then — was won by Eddy Merckx. It was the third and final time he pulled on the world champion’s jersey. His overall record of wins remains unmatched.
This year, Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia had been the overwhelming favorite to win in Montreal. He won his fifth Tour de France in July and was touted by Merckx himself as the only rider capable of matching his record. But injuries from a crash in late August have sidelined him and cracked the men’s road race wide open. Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at austen@nytimes.com.
Carney’s European ambitionsThis week, our colleague Matina Stevis-Gridneff traveled with Prime Minister Mark Carney as he addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg on plans for Canada to become the European Union’s first “associate member” — a significant milestone in Carney’s effort to shift Canada away from the United States and closer to Europe. Matina served as The Times’s bureau chief in Brussels, leading coverage of the European Union until she moved to Canada in 2024, and knows the bloc inside out. Have questions about the new Canada-European Union relationship, what it means, what is possible and what isn’t? Please email us at nytcanada@nytimes.com. Matina will respond to as many questions as possible in next week’s newsletter. A French outpost navigates the spotlight
Nori Onishi, our correspondent in Montreal, visited the last outpost of France’s once-vast colonial empire in North America, the tiny archipelago of St. Pierre and Miquelon. Nearly encircled by Canada, it was safe in the anonymity of the world’s lost corners until three recent events yanked it from obscurity: a hit television series from Canada, a political insult from France, and tariffs — of course — from the United States. Capping a year of unusual attention, the French territory will be the setting this weekend for a meeting between President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Carney with the aim of “reasserting national sovereignty” in the face of American expansionism. Read the full article. Trans Canada
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