Great Britain’s Millie Couzens beats her compatriot Josie Knight in the final of the women’s individual pursuit at the Track Cycling World Championships in Shanghai.
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Olympic and defending world champions will be competing at the Shanghai Velodrome for the 2026 Track World Championships this week, and you can watch it on the BBC.
There are 22 titles at stake and this is the first track cycling qualifying event for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The championships, taking place between 14 and 18 October, will see riders compete for the coveted rainbow jerseys in a range of disciplines, with events split between endurance and sprint.
Great Britain finished second in 2025 with the Netherlands taking top spot with nine gold medals. Harrie Lavreysen was once again the dominant force for the Dutch team, winning an incredible four gold medals in the Keirin, Sprint, 1km Time Trial and the Team Sprint.
GB will be without one of their most decorated track cyclists, as reigning Madison world champion Katie Archibald hung up her cleats in May this year to pursue a career in nursing. Olympic team sprint champion Katy Marchant also announced her retirement last month.
They do, however, boast a strong team including eight riders who have won world titles and eight Olympic medallists.
Luke Littler missed out on the chance to hold the senior and youth world titles simultaneously after suffering a surprise semi-final defeat at the World Youth Championship.
The 19-year-old world number one was beaten 6-5 by world number 68 Cam Crabtree, who will face German Jan Schmidt in the final on 29 November.
That match will take place on finals day at the Players Championship Finals in Minehead – an event Littler has also yet to qualify for having skipped the majority of Pro Tour events this season.
He is currently ranked 126th in the Players Championship order of merit and only the top 64 qualify.
Four Players Championship events remain, but two of those are in Den Bosch in the Netherlands – where Littler withdrew from events recently after being subjected to boos by the crowds.
Littler has won successive full World Championships and won the youth title as a 16-year-old in 2023, but the semi-final loss to 23-year-old Crabtree was his second successive exit at that stage having lost to Beau Greaves in 2025. He could though enter four more times, with the tournament open to players aged 23 or under at the start of the season.
The loss is the latest in a series of surprise exits for Littler, who was knocked out of the World Grand Prix in the first round by Luke Woodhouse and lost to Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals of the World Series of Darts finals.
Brandon McNulty became the first American winner of the men’s road race world title in 33 years with a stunning victory in Montreal.
The 28-year-old put his hands on his head in disbelief as he crossed the line 13 seconds clear of the chasing pack, completing the gruelling 273.4km course in six hours and 17 minutes.
Australian Michael Matthews was second, with former winner Mathieu van der Poel, of the Netherlands, in third.
The last American winner of the race was Lance Armstrong in 1993.
“Until the last 800m I didn’t believe, I was so tired,” said McNulty.
“I’m at a loss for words. I knew something could happen but it would take a miracle and I guess today a miracle happened”.
He launched an attack going into the final 30km and was 50 seconds clear going into the last lap.
McNulty visibly began to tire on the final climb and his lead was cut to just 10 seconds, but the chasing pack were unable to reel him in.
Britain’s Tom Pidcock finished seventh, with Ireland’s Ben Healy 10th and Remco Evenepoel of Belgium in 12th place.
Olympic medallist Mallory Franklin completed her return to action by winning canoe gold and kayak cross silver at the Paddle Europe Slalom Championships in Ivrea.
The 32-year-old delivered a flawless, penalty-free run of 100.47 seconds to beat France’s Doriane Delassus by 0.03 seconds and claim her third career European C1 title.
Victory marked Franklin’s first individual medal since the birth of her daughter, having opened her week in Italy with a bronze medal in the team event.
“It’s a really nice way to end the year. It’s been a tough one coming back and getting back on the start line,” said Franklin.
“I’ve been building throughout the year and it’s just a nice way to finish it.”
Franklin went on to complete a full set of medals on the final day, battling through the kayak cross knockout rounds under the floodlights to secure silver behind the Czech Republic’s Tereza Kneblova.
Great Britain enjoyed double success in the kayak cross as two-time Olympic medallist Kimberley Woods took individual gold, winning the morning time trial in 48.02 seconds ahead of Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska.
And there was bronze in the men’s K1 team event for Ben Haylett, Sam Leaver and Joe Clarke, to go with the one won by Woods, Franklin and Ellis Miller in the women’s C1.
In the men’s events, Clarke and Sam Leaver missed out on the podium in the kayak final, finishing fifth and sixth respectively behind Czech winner Jakub Krejci.
Great Britain’s Chantelle Reid and Damar Thomas will fight for gold at the European Boxing Championships after semi-final victories on Wednesday.
Reid defeated Serbia’s Milena Matovic 3-2 in her light-middleweight semi-final, while Thomas triumphed 5-0 over Azerbaijan’s Mahammad Abdullayev in the men’s super-heavyweight competition.
Team-mates Callum Makin and Dimeji Shittu are also guaranteed medals in the men’s middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions respectively after victories in their quarter-finals.
Reid, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist, was behind after the first round against Matovic, but she was the unanimous winner of the second and did enough in the third to seal victory at Asics Arena Sports Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“It was a really good bout. She’s a really good girl and I hope we get to share the ring again one day,” said Reid.
“On to the next. Each bout’s gone better, each opponent’s gotten better and I’ll be boxing the best out of the weight category in two days’ time.”
The 28-year-old will face Busenaz Surmeneli in the final on Friday, after the Turkish boxer defeated Russia’s Nadezhda Golubeva 3-2.
Thomas, the 21-year-old Commonwealth gold medal winner, will face Russia’s David Surov in Friday’s final after the Russian also completed a 5-0 victory over Austria’s Ahmed Hagag.
Shittu, who had to settle for Commonwealth Games silver in August after a controversial defeat by India’s Ankush Panghal, made sure of a European medal with a 5-0 win against Austria’s Lucky Aimufua.
The 24-year-old will fight Russia’s Cheerav Ashalaev on Thursday for a place in the final.
“My first performance wasn’t the best, but that’s what I’m like, I go back to the drawing board and showed what I’m really capable of,” said Shittu.
“Credit to my opponent. He was game, he was strong, but ultimately skills paid the bills, booked me a place in the semi-finals and a guaranteed medal.
“Last time I brawled, now I want to show that I can box. And the end of the day it’s hit or not get hit. So I went out there, put on a show. Got the medal, let’s go change that colour.”
Makin, a bronze medallist at last year’s World Boxing Championships, won 3-2 against Armenia’s Marat Mikaelyan.
The 22-year-old will face Azerbaijan’s Saidjamshid Jafarov in Thursday’s semi-final.
The remainder of Great Britain’s fighters experienced defeat on Wednesday, with Lauren Mackie and Amy Broadhurst both losing in the quarter-finals.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mackie lost 5-0 to Lenka Bernadova of the Czech Republic in the women’s bantamweight division, while Broadhurst was beaten 4-1 by France’s Sthelyne Grosy in the women’s lightweight.
Abdul Burton also represents Britain on Thursday, facing Turkey’s Semih Gumus in the men’s super-bantamweight semi-finals.
He and Shittu compete in the session starting at 11:30 BST, while Makin’s bout with Jafarov is among the fights scheduled from 16:00.
Great Britain’s impressive rider line-up for cycling’s Road World Championships means the team have rarely stood a better chance of glory.
For the men, there is also the helpful factor of Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar being absent, after he suffered crash injuries during the Vuelta a Espana in August.
But at the same time a new generation of British cycling talent is rising, and GB riders could take the coveted winner’s rainbow jersey in the men’s and women’s road races in Montreal this weekend.
While Pogacar crashed out of the Vuelta, the race showcased the continued emergence of 21-year-old British rider Matthew Brennan, who won five stages of the three-week endurance test for Visma Lease a Bike – a record for a Grand Tour debutant.
There are currently 49 British riders competing across the men’s and women’s world tours – more than ever before – and some of those will compete in this World Championship weekend.
The road race itself is much like a stage of the Tour de France, but in which riders compete in national squads, looking to out-think and out-muscle each other.
A lot of the British potential is thanks to the inspiration of British cycling’s golden period, which featured great success from the likes of Team Sky, Mark Cavendish and Lizzie Deignan across the past 15 years.
Deignan won the road race in 2015, while Cavendish triumphed in 2011.
In total, British riders have won the elite road races seven times, including Tom Simpson (1965), Beryl Burton (1960 & 1967), Mandy Jones (1982) and Nicole Cooke (2008).
Amid an unpredictable performance landscape for the women, Britain’s best young female riders have a chance to infiltrate the once-dominant Dutch contingent.
Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering remains the sport’s best overall, but Briton Zoe Backstedt’s brilliant second place in Sunday’s Worlds time trial was her first shot at the elite level.
She will be involved in Saturday’s women’s road race, and Olympic mountain bike gold medallist and Tour de France stage winner Tom Pidcock will race for the men on Sunday.
“You need a lot of faith in your team to be present at the front,” Backstedt told BBC Sport. “You need to talk, hear, see and feel each other to know they are there, especially as there’s no team radio.
“Obviously it’s about knowing the big names to follow. If Demi or Kasia [Niewiadoma] go off the front, you know it’s a dangerous move and you need to be there.
“But we’ve got a super strong team, and if any one of us was with them, we all could stand have a chance.”
The women’s road race is 180.4km long, which includes eight laps of Montreal, and the men’s 273.2km race incorporates 12 circuits.
Great Britain are guaranteed at least three medals at the European Boxing Championships in Bulgaria after Chantelle Reid, Damar Thomas and Abdul Burton reached the semi-finals.
Reid cruised to a 5-0 win over Ireland’s Evelyn Igharo in a women’s light-middleweight contest at the Asics Arena Sports Hall in Sofia.
The 28-year-old Commonwealth Games silver medallist will face Serbia’s Milena Matovic in the last four on Wednesday.
Thomas won by the same margin in a men’s super-heavyweight fight against Georgia’s Nikoloz Begadze and the 21-year-old will take on Mahammad Abdullayev of Azerbaijan in the semi-finals.
Burton, 20, beat home favourite and Olympic bronze medallist Javier Ibanez 3-2 to secure a meeting with Turkey’s Semih Gumus.
“Sometimes you have got to dig in and when things went against me I had to get stuck in and show who I was,” Burton said.
“I am young, hungry and here to take over.”
Lauren Mackie, Amy Broadhurst, Callum Makin and Oladimeji Shittu are all due in quarter-final action on Wednesday, but over half of Britain’s squad of 15 are now out.
On Tuesday, flyweight Ruby White was beaten 3-2 by Olympic silver medal winner Hatice Akbas of Turkey while Emily Asquith suffered a 5-0 defeat in her light-heavyweight bout with Ireland’s Lisa O’Rourke.
In the men’s heavyweight division, Commonwealth Games champion Isaac Okoh bowed out with a 3-0 defeat by Germany’s Kevin Lebowski.