Results World Championships men's under-23 road race 2026 - Gold for USA incredible Ashlin Barry survives breakaway battle and denies big favourites in victory
Cycling
Ashlin Barry is the under-23 world champion after he took a remarkable victory in Montreal, surviving over 120 kilometres as the last rider of the breakaway and holding off the big favourites behind.
With 174 kilometres and 13 laps of the Montreal circuit in store, almost 3500 metres of climbing gave an insight into what to expect for the weekend's elite rainbow jersey races.
An attacking opening two laps saw multiple top nations get involved in trying to establish an early breakaway move. However, things would soon come back together before Slovakia's Samuel Novak got away from the bunch.
He was soon joined by Kristian Egholm, Ashlin Barry, Matthew Dodd and William Heffernan at the front as the five riders quickly grew a gap of over a minute with less than 130 kilometres to go. Crucially, major nations such as Belgium and France weren't represented.
Ireland came to the fore in the next laps, working for leader Adam Rafferty to keep the breakaway in check. However, with less than eight laps to go and 100 kilometres to go, the breakaway's gap grew to over 1:30.
Peloton kicks into gear
The peloton soon kicked off with around 90 kilometres to go as multiple riders and nations attacked from the bunch. In the breakaway, Matthew Dodd also tried to up the pace as he left the other four riders behind on the circuit's main climb.
Pre-race favourite Hector Alvarez found himself out of position at the back of the bunch as the attacks continued and the breakaway's gap began to come down. As Dodd was reeled in with 75 kilometres to go, Egholm found himself just struggling to hold on.
The peloton soon kicked off with around 90 kilometres to go as multiple riders and nations attacked from the bunch
A counter-attacking group formed with over 60 kilometres to go as they broke free and got to less than a minute behind the break. Matteo Scalco, Remi Arsac, Matteo Vanhuffel, Max Bock, Jacob Bush and Jack Ward made up a six-rider group all-in to join the front of affairs.
With four laps to go, Egholm attacked the breakaway as the chasers continued to gain ground, while further chasers tried to break away from the peloton. Only Ashlin Barry bridged across to the Dane as the race approached 50 kilometres to go and the six chasers caught the three riders who were originally with them.
As the race approached its final phase, Barry and Egholm led a chasing pack of nine riders by 30 seconds, with the remainder of the peloton and the attackers from the bunch still chasing behind.
Barry goes solo as race reaches finale
With 47 kilometres to go, third and fourth groups joined the main chasers, forming a new peloton and focal point of the race that included pre-race favourites such as Niels Driesen, Aubin Sparfel, Henrique Bravo, Mateo Ramirez and Matisse van Kercklove, among others.
The big names continued to bubble up behind as the duo out front kept working together. With 30 kilometres to go, Barry went solo, leaving Egholm in his wake as the race approached the final two laps.
Matteo Scalco soon broke off in chase, and was joined by Sparfel, Driesen, Alvarez and Norway's Jasper Stiansen formed a heavyweight chase behind as Barry held his lead at around 30 seconds throughout much of the penultimate lap.
The race hit its final lap as Barry began to dream of a rainbow jersey, boasting an impressive 40-second gap over the five chasers as a box-office final climb and lap beckoned.
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Barry lost a few seconds on the climb, but the chasers continued to size eachother up while the Visma | Lease a Bike rider continued to drive on. As the kilometres rolled by, Barry found himself boasting 40 seconds of a gap over the quintet with six kilometres to go.
With two kilometres to go it was all clear. Despite Sparfel and Driesen attacks, the USA rider was destined to take the win as the rest fought for silver. As Barry crossed the finish line following over 120 kilometres out front, he becomes the first rider from the US to win this race.
Hector Alvarez took second while Stiensen rounded out the podium in third place.
Results World Championships men's under-23 road race 2026
Carlos Silva is a writer for CyclingUpToDate.com, where he contributes race reports, interviews, analysis pieces, and live coverage of the international cycling calendar. Holding a degree in Sports from the Jean Piaget Institute, he combines academic knowledge of performance, training, and competition with hands-on journalism experience in professional cycling.
Throughout his career, Carlos has conducted interviews with leading figures in the sport, including Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodríguez, Óscar Pereiro, João Almeida, Isaac del Toro, Derek Gee, John Degenkolb and Geraint Thomas. These conversations reflect direct engagement with Grand Tour winners, Classics specialists, and emerging talents.
He has provided on-site coverage at major events ranging from the Vuelta a España to the Tour de France, alongside stage races such as Vuelta a Andalucía, Volta ao Algarve, Volta a Portugal and O Gran Camiño. Covering the mythical climbs of the Giro d'Italia remains one of his professional ambitions.
Carlos is responsible for liveblog coverage of all major WorldTour races and beyond, including the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España. His reporting integrates verified data from ProCyclingStats to ensure statistical accuracy, contextual depth, and analytical precision.
A lifelong cycling enthusiast, he approaches storytelling across written, photographic, and video formats with a focus on credibility, tactical insight, and informed race interpretation.
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- Great win.However will the world champions jersey be simply a domestic for the season which will some what tarnish the jersey. I hope he is given free rein to try and win some races.paultryan200206-11-2026
- Gretsky wow how old are you lol. Classy sportman though.🤣🤣🤣🤣 Hope it is a good as the one they made on Mark Cavendish.paultryan200206-11-2026
- Literally the perfect RedBull athlete.anonymouscyclist06-11-2026
- And well understood in the CX community.anonymouscyclist06-11-2026
- "Anatomy of a G.O.A.T." OK, that's great!!! I've been saying all along: Tadej Pogačar-Pogi is the G.O.A.T... period. Not only in cycling... but he's the greatest sportsman that ever lived !!! But let's take a look of what real foolishness is. We have many many fools, also on this site, saying that Pogi is "boring,"... he's making cycling "boring"??? I can't believe what's comming out of their deteriorating bad breath mouths. So I guess Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, Fasto Coppi and Anquetil were also boring at their time!?!? I guess Michael Jordan, Le Bron, Gretzky, Messi, Ronaldo, Shumacher, Novak Džoković, Federer, Rossi, Marquez, Phelps, Michaela Shiffrin, Venus Williams, Bolt, Lewis Hamilton... etc. were all boring. PS: Many cycling fans that think that way, have to get a brain scan. Ad acta!!!PogiSloFans06-11-2026
- ridiculous. a normal racing incident. how lame do you have to be to complain about that?Ketterechts06-11-2026
- Rubbing is racing.
santiagobenites06-11-2026 - Throws an elbow, but crashes afterwards and he's upset.
Front24206-11-2026 - There should be nothing but praise for them: 1. Trying to make things safer, and 2. Trying something "new".acem8206-11-2026
- And a bit of a malcontent on top of it all that doesn’t help.mij06-11-2026
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