2018 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race

The Men's road race of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships was a cycling event that took place on 30 September 2018 in Innsbruck, Austria. It was the 85th edition of the championship, and Slovakia's Peter Sagan was the three times defending champion, a record in the event. 188 riders from 44 nations entered the competition.

After previously winning six medals in the race without taking the gold medal, Spain's Alejandro Valverde took his first world title after a four-rider sprint finish decided the medals. Valverde went clear with a small group of riders on the steep Höttinger Höll climb, making headway on the descent with France's Romain Bardet and Canadian rider Michael Woods. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) joined the trio on the run-in to the finish, but his efforts to do so resulted in him missing out on the medals, behind Bardet (silver) and Woods (bronze).

Valverde's victory was the first for Spain in the event since Óscar Freire won the title in Verona, Italy in 2004. France and Canada also ended long streaks without a medal in the event as Bardet's silver was the first medal for France since Anthony Geslin won the bronze medal in Madrid, Spain in 2005, while Woods won only the second medal for a Canadian male rider in the road race, after Steve Bauer's bronze medal at the 1984 race, also in Spain in Barcelona.

Course
The race started in Kufstein and headed south-west towards Innsbruck with a primarily rolling route, except for a climb of 5 km between Fritzens and Gnadenwald – as had been in the time trial events earlier in the week – with an average 7.1% gradient and maximum of 14% in places. After 84.2 km, the riders crossed the finish line for the first time, before starting six laps of a circuit 23.8 km in length. The circuit contained a climb of 7.9 km, at an average gradient of 5.9% but reaching 10% in places, from the outskirts of Innsbruck through Aldrans and Lans towards Igls. After a short period of flat roads, the race descended through Igls back towards Innsbruck.

On the seventh and final lap, the race continued onto a further loop of just over 7 km at Hötting, with the 2.8 km-long Höttinger Höll climb towards Gramartboden starting almost immediately. The climb featured an average gradient of 11.5%, with a portion of the climb reaching 28% around two-thirds up. Upon reaching the top, the race descended through Hungerburg back towards rejoining the original circuit with around 3.5 km to go and heading towards the finish line in front of the Tyrolean State Theatre. In total, the race featured 4681 m of climbing.

Qualification
Qualification was based mainly on the UCI World Ranking by nations as of 12 August 2018. The first ten nations in this classification qualified eight riders to start, the next ten nations qualified six riders to start, with the nations ranked 21st to 30th qualifying five riders to start. One rider from each of the next twenty nations was also qualified to start. In addition to this number, any rider within the top 200 of the UCI World Ranking by individuals that was not already qualified, the outgoing World Champion and the current continental champions were also able to take part.

UCI World Rankings
The following nations qualified.

Participating nations
188 cyclists from 44 nations were entered in the men's road race. The number of cyclists per nation is shown in parentheses.



Final classification
Of the race's 188 entrants, 76 riders completed the full distance of 258 km.

Failed to finish
112 riders failed to finish.