Mathieu van der Poel has one more race on the calendar before the big one.
He’s taking a different route than some other riders have, but it’s one that worked pretty well for him in the past. A lot of the top pros racing the road worlds came to Canada for Les Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal and will stick around in North America—Québec and Colorado seem popular—before the race at the end of the month. But Mvdp is staying in Europe for a bit longer.
2026 Tour de Luxembourg
In 2024, when he was defending his rainbow jersey, he finished third to Tadej Pogačar. It was Pogi’s first of two rainbow jerseys, and he did it in unbelievable style, staying away for almost 100 km. Although van der Poel couldn’t repeat, he did take an impressive third on a course which didn’t exactly suit him. And right before it, he did the Tour de Luxembourg, where he finished second overall, won the points jersey, as well as snagging a dub on Stage 1. So to get ready for the road worlds this year, he’s lining up again at the Tour de Luxembourg on Wednesday. It’s five solid days of racing, and he is using the hilly stage race as his final test ahead of the 2026 worlds in Montréal.
5 days of racing
It is a relatively compact field compared with some of the biggest stage races, but Luxembourg should still provide plenty of opportunities to test the legs. And given the proximity to the worlds, it should give him a bit of a bump just in time, and plenty of time to recover before the world champs on Sept. 27. Van der Poel will also have some help from his teammate from Toronto, Noah Ramsay. The 23-year-old talent is once again “riding up” from the Conti squad to race in the big leagues. In early August, he had another solid ride at Kreiz Breizh Elites. He finished fourth on Stage 4. His last race was a few days ago at the GP de Fourmies. He was having a good day, in the break for over 50 km, until a crash forced him to abandon.
The world’s best head to Canada for a week of racing, beginning on Sept. 20. Juniors, under-23s and elites will fight for rainbow jerseys and medals on the streets of Montréal. It’s going to be awesome.
As far as Luxembourg, the 157-km opening stage finishes with a short, steep uphill run to the line, while stage 3 brings a harder finale packed with several climbs.
Some tough days at the end
The biggest GC shake-up could come on Saturday. The 20.4-km individual time trial includes a 900-metre climb at 10 per cent before a downhill finish, making it considerably more than a flat-out TT specialist’s playground. Van der Poel will most likely give’er in the chrono — because when he wants to, he’s pretty good at them, and it would be a good test for his fitness ahead of the road worlds. He actually came so, so close to winning his first TT as a pro back at the Tour de Suisse in June. Pogačar beat him by the narrowest of margins, 0.04 seconds.
Sunday’s finale covers 177 km and includes three times up the Pabelergberg. It’s an 800-metre ramp averaging around 8 per cent. That should bite the last time up.
Is Montreal too hard for the Classics stars?
For Van der Poel, it is five days to sharpen everything before the rainbow-jersey fight begins.
The question many are wondering: is the climb on Camilien-Houde in Montreal too long for guys like van der Poel and van Aert?
Van Aert has finished second on the same course at Le Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, but the one-day is considerably shorter than the 273-km road worlds. Remco Evenepoel, never one to be shy of sharing his opinions, thinks the Dutch and Belgian ace are simply too heavy for the climb, which is just short of two km. But in a few weeks, we cycling fans can sit back and see for ourselves as the world’s best elite men (minus, sigh, Pogi) duke it out for the win.