Jorgenson, Simmons, Faulkner, Courtney Headline Stacked USA Team for Montréal Worlds

Olympic champions, Tour de France stars, and a mountain bike world champion turned road racer — USA Cycling is bringing a stacked team to Montréal in pursuit of the rainbow jersey.

With the UCI Road World Championships returning to North America for the first time since Richmond in 2015, the biggest names in U.S. cycling have circled this one on the calendar.

Team USA will send 34 athletes across all categories to compete in Montréal from September 20 to 27, with Matteo Jorgenson, Quinn Simmons, Brandon McNulty, Kristen Faulkner, and Kate Courtney headlining the elite road teams.

The rainbow jersey ranks alongside the Tour de France yellow jersey as one of cycling’s most prized tunics, and it has been decades since an American won the elite road race.

Lance Armstrong was the last American man to win in 1993, while Beth Heiden remains the most recent American woman to claim the title all the way back in 1980.

This year’s U.S. teams are packed with potential outsiders and race-breakers capable of challenging five-star favorites such as Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Lotte Kopecky, and Demi Vollering.

Double Olympic gold medalist Kristen Faulkner headlines the women’s team alongside the surprise addition of Kate Courtney, who recently pivoted from mountain biking and gravel to road racing after signing with FDJ United-Suez.

Courtney, a former cross-country and marathon mountain bike world champion, won the U.S. road title earlier this season and will make her elite Road World Championships debut in Montréal.

Chasing the rainbow jersey

With two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar still a question mark after undergoing shoulder surgery Monday in Spain, the elite men’s race could also be more open than expected.

That uncertainty could create an opening for Simmons, who finished ninth at the 2024 worlds in Zürich and has already shown he can thrive on Montréal’s grinding circuit.

Simmons — a junior world champion — finished third at last year’s GP Montréal behind winner McNulty and Pogačar on roads that closely mirror the worlds course.

McNulty and Jorgenson will give the United States two more proven WorldTour options, with both riders capable of attacking or supporting Simmons deep into the race.

Neilson Powless adds another proven championship performer, and his fifth at the 2021 worlds in Leuven remains the best result by an American elite man since 1999.

U.S. time trial champion Artem Shmidt will carry the American colors against the clock after winning his first elite national title earlier this season. No American man has won the elite world time trial title, with Taylor Phinney’s silver medal in 2012 remaining the country’s closest result.

Faulkner brings the biggest championship pedigree to the women’s roster. The 2024 Olympic road race and team pursuit champion will chase another major international title in Montréal.

Courtney will make her road worlds debut alongside triathlete and Olympic time trialist Taylor Knibb, who will contest the individual time trial.

Lauren Stephens and Grace Arlandson, teammates at Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment, complete the deep elite women’s selection.

A few big names missing

Several prominent Americans are missing from the selection.

Chloé Dygert, the 2024 road race silver medalist and a two-time world time trial champion, continues to recover from surgery.

Sprinter Luke Lamperti was also left off the roster, while Sepp Kuss and Matthew Riccitello are racing the Vuelta a España and their respective climbing profiles are not ideally suited to the Montréal circuit.

American riders face a deep historical drought in the road race.

Greg LeMond remains the only American man to win two elite road titles, with the rainbow jersey in 1983 and 1989. Armstrong followed with victory in Oslo in 1993.

Although Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and other results, his 1993 world championship remains on the official UCI results sheet.

Audrey McElmury in 1969 and Heiden in 1980 are the only American women to win the elite road race. Dygert came closest to ending that drought with silver in 2024.

American women have enjoyed far more success in the time trial.

Karen Kurreck won the inaugural women’s title in 1994, followed by Mari Holden in 2000, Kristin Armstrong in 2006 and 2009, Amber Neben in 2008 and 2016, and Dygert in 2019 and 2023.

Full rosters for 2026 Montréal road worlds

The rising talent of tomorrow will also chase rainbow jerseys in Montréal.

U.S. champions Ashlin Barry and Kade Kreikemeier headline the U23 men’s team, while Katherine Sarkisov and Kylee Hanel lead the U23 women.

National champions Enzo Hincapie and Kashus Adamski anchor the junior men’s selection. Sophia Wellmeier and Liliana Edwards will carry American hopes in the junior women’s road race and time trial.

Here’s the full Montréal selection: