Two world champions were crowned on the same Mount Royal circuit on the last weekend of September, and they couldn't have done it more differently.
On Saturday, Demi Vollering attacked alone with 38.5km to go, got caught, and still won. On Sunday, Brandon McNulty attacked where nobody was looking, on the flat with about 32km left, and never saw the chase again. One is among the most dominant riders of her generation, finally filling the one gap in her palmarès. The other is the first American elite men's road world champion since 1993, winning a race everyone expected someone else to win.
I previewed both races on the podcast — the men's and the women's. Now they've been run, let me break down how each was won, because there's more racing sense in those two finales than in most tactics books, and almost all of it applies to your club race or your Saturday bunch.
The circuit that shaped both races
Both races started in Brossard, crossed the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge into the city, and finished with laps of a 13.4km circuit around Mount Royal. Each lap had 269 metres of climbing: Voie Camillien-Houde, 2.3km at 6.2%, then the steep pitches on Chemin de la Polytechnique, then the rising drag of Avenue du Parc to the line. The women did eight laps and 180.1km. The men did twelve laps and 273.4km, with 3,803 metres of climbing in total.
None of those climbs is a monster on its own. That's the point. A circuit like this doesn't hurt you once. It hurts you over and over, and the rider who spends too much on lap three is the one who can't follow on lap eleven.
How Vollering won
Vollering came in as the favourite, and favourites usually wait. Everyone marks them, so the textbook move is to sit tight and let the race come back.
She didn't. After a big turn from her Dutch teammate Puck Pieterse, she went alone with 38.5km to go. It was a brave move and, in the end, it didn't stick. Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini got across to her with about 15km left.
Here's where it gets really interesting. A lot of riders — and I include myself — would have been cooked at that point, mentally as much as physically. Your big move has failed. The two riders who've caught you are fresher for having sat on. Vollering didn't flinch. When Longo Borghini attacked at the bell, Vollering brought her back and dropped her on the final time up Camillien-Houde. When Niewiadoma-Phinney went about 4km out, she closed it. And in the two-up sprint she took the front from the last corner, 750 metres out, and held Niewiadoma-Phinney off. Longo Borghini was third at four seconds, Marlen Reusser fourth at eight.
How McNulty won
The men's race started without its two-time champion. Tadej Pogačar had crashed out of the Vuelta with a fractured collarbone and neck and his season was over. With him gone there was no one strong enough to control the race, and the previews spread their picks wide: Evenepoel, Del Toro, Van der Poel, Seixas, Pidcock, Van Aert.
With about 35km to go a group including Van der Poel was caught and around a dozen riders were left at the front. Matteo Jorgenson had a go. Then McNulty went — not on Camillien-Houde, where every favourite was waiting for the decisive move, but on a flat section. He said afterwards it was instinct, and that he chose the flat because everyone expected attacks on the climbs.
He had over a minute with two laps to go. Behind, nobody wanted to pay for the chase, and Jorgenson sat on it for his teammate. By the last time up Camillien-Houde the gap had come down to about ten seconds, and McNulty was, in his own description, close to cramping and completely empty. It held. Thirteen seconds to Michael Matthews and Van der Poel, Quinn Simmons fourth, Isaac del Toro fifth.
Five things a club racer can take from it
1. Attack where the group relaxes, not where it's braced
Everyone in your race knows where the hill is. Everyone is ready for it. The moment after the top of the climb, the drag where people reach for a bottle, the corner after a fast descent — that's where a group loses concentration. McNulty didn't out-climb anyone. He went where no one was ready. On your next group ride, watch where the bunch switches off. That's your spot.
2. Pace a circuit for the total, not the first lap
Twelve times up a 2.3km climb is a different climb from once. If your local race or crit has a circuit with a hill in it, ride the first few laps well within yourself and look at the power on the climb each lap. The rider who is steady on lap eight is the rider who's still there on lap ten. Our guide to pacing long climbs has more on holding a steady effort under pressure.
3. When nobody wants to chase, commit
A disorganised chase is worth a lot of watts. When the strongest riders are marking each other and nobody has teammates to burn, a committed rider with a good time-trial engine can hold a gap that looks impossible on paper. McNulty was fourth in the time trial earlier in the week. If you can ride steady on your own, the moment the group starts looking at each other is the moment to go — and then ride it like a TT, not a sprint.
4. A failed attack doesn't have to be the end
Vollering's first move was caught and she still won. The difference is that she hadn't emptied herself to make it. Most amateur attacks fail twice: once when they're caught, and again because the rider has nothing left to respond. Attack at an effort you can recover from unless it's the last move of the day. Count your efforts, not just your watts. Mental preparation for racing covers staying composed when a plan goes wrong.
5. On circuits, position is protection
The women's defending champion, Magdeleine Vallières, was brought down in a crash about 95km from the finish that took out more than 15 riders, and she eventually abandoned. Circuits mean the same corners and the same pinch points every lap, and crashes cluster at the back of a nervous group. You don't need to fight for the front all day, but you do need to be near it where the road narrows.
What to leave to the professionals
One word of caution. McNulty's solo was 32km at world-championship intensity after more than 240km of racing. Your version of that move is a few minutes, not three-quarters of an hour. Copy the timing and the commitment, not the distance. And Vollering's early attack worked partly because she is, on current form, one of the strongest riders in the world. If you're not the strongest in your group, the early move is more likely to be a sacrifice than a win — which can still be the right call if a teammate benefits.
The racing I love most is the kind that rewards courage and intelligence as well as watts. That was a weekend of both.
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