Pidcock and Backstedt head Great Britain squad for 2026 Road World Championships

Tom Pidcock and Zoe Backstedt will lead Great Britain's team at the 2026 Road World Championships in Montreal, Canada, from 20-27 September. The event, which features road race and time trial competitions, will be shown live across the BBC.

The men's road race will be led by Pinarello Q36.5's Tom Pidcock, with Ethan Hayter selected for the men's time trial, while Lauren Dickson and Pfeiffer Georgi are likely to lead the women's road race and Zoe Backstedt is expected to challenge for the rainbow bands in the time trial. Backstedt won last year's Under-23 world time trial title and steps up to the elite category for these championships.

Notably for Great Britain, the absence of double world champion and record-equalling five-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar, who has been forced to sit out the rest of the season after suffering multiple injuries in a crash at the Vuelta a Espana, is highlighted in the selection context. Pogacar won the world road race in both 2024 and 2025, events referenced in the team’s assessment of medal opportunities.

The time trial events start the programme with riders setting off at one-minute intervals. Backstedt will be joined in the women's time trial by Anna Henderson, who won silver in the time trial at the Paris Olympics in 2024. In the men's time trial Hayter — who finished second in the opening time trial of the recent Vuelta a Espana, losing out to Pogacar by just nine hundredths of a second — will be joined by Callum Thornley, and the defending champion Remco Evenepoel of Belgium is named as the favourite.

Both the men's and women's time trial course is 39.2km long and has a steep 45 metre rise at the finish. Tom Pidcock won the Mountain Bike Worlds last month and has Olympic gold in that discipline, but the World Road race remains a title he has yet to claim. Backstedt is described as being "in her element on a sophisticated TT bike."

The British squads named for Montreal are: Elite Women: Zoe Backstedt, Lauren Dickson, Pfeiffer Georgi, Anna Henderson, Anna Morris, Flora Perkins, Alice Towers. Elite men: Mark Donovan, Ethan Hayter, Oscar Onley, Finlay Pickering, Tom Pidcock, James Shaw, Callum Thornley, Fred Wright, Adam Yates. U23 Men: Jacob Bush, Mattie Dodd, Elliot Rowe, Will Smith, Ben Wiggins. U23 Women: Cat Ferguson, Abi Miller, Awen Roberts, Imogen Wolff, Morven Yeoman. Junior Women: Aalia Clay, Peggy Knox, Gabriella McHugh, Zoe Roche, Melanie Rowe. Junior Men: Leon Atkins, Gus Dutton, Finlay Storrie, Dexter Townsend, Evander Wishart.

Performance director for British Cycling Stephen Park said: "The Road World Championships are always one of the standout events in the cycling calendar, and we are excited to return with a highly competitive squad. "This squad showcases the very best of British road racing, at a time when more British riders are making their mark across Europe and on the wider international stage than ever before. "We're proud of the balance in this squad, from established world-class performers to riders taking the next step in their development."

The Road World Championships streams on BBC Sport app and website. Women's Time Trial - 14:00-16:45 BST (14:45-16:45 BBC Two); Men's Time Trial - 17:30-20:45 BST (19:00-20:45 BBC Three); Women's Road Race - 14:00-19:30 BST; Men's road race - 14:00-21:00 BST (19:00-21:00 BBC Three).