​From Sunday, men’s cycling will be in the strange position of knowing that the best rider in the world does not in fact wear the jersey of the best rider in the world. The absent and injured two-time defending world champion Tadej Pogacar will be back in standard-edition UAE kit for the next season and watching the race to determine his successor from the sofa, or more likely the indoor trainer, following surgery on injuries sustained in a crash at the Vuelta a Espana. That leaves Montreal as an unexpected free-for-all. British rider Callum Thornley, who will support Tom Pidcock and Adam Yates, summed it up when he told Cyclingnews last week: “I think it’s kind of like an unspoken thing. All those big guys who would usually be fighting for the podium are now fighting for the win, and I’m sure it makes it even more at stake than normal.”And with that comes significant pressure. This is many riders’ best chance to ever win the rainbow jersey – so who will sink and who will swim?Paul Seixas took bronze in the individual time trial and could double up on medals (Reuters)Last year’s course in Kigali was a novel experience for the majority of the peloton: over 5,000m of climbing, with altitude and pollution significant factors to deal with. This year’s course is much more familiar and even has a regular WorldTour outing as a dress run – last week’s Grand Prix de Montreal, the second and more difficult half of the autumn double-header of Canadian races. This weekend the men will tackle 12 laps of the Mont Royal circuit over 273km, the women eight laps over 180km, with 269m of elevation gain per 13.4km loop. The final standings from the Montreal GP could be instrumental in determining who will do well on Sunday; certainly 2022 champion Remco Evenepoel thought so. The Belgian’s assessment was that the climb made it “really difficult for the heavier guys”, putting him in pole position. Evenepoel was fifth in Montreal after winning in Quebec and has already won a world title this week, racking up his fourth consecutive time-trial rainbow jersey. He is one of the best climbers in the world and in the top three or four best one-day racers in the world. In short, he is the favourite – but in Pogacar’s absence, no one is a prohibitive favourite. Pidcock, sixth in Montreal and in excellent form, tipped the young pair of pure climbers Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas for the win, ahead of what he expects to be an “attritional” race like the Grand Prix. Should either the Mexican or Frenchman win and claim a maiden rainbow jersey, it would be a premonition of what the future of cycling could look like, once Pogacar’s era of unprecedented dominance is over. They may be the favourites but, as Pidcock conceded, anything can happen in a one-day raceRemco Evenepoel won the time trial last weekend and is favourite to add the road title (AP)That was certainly the case in last year’s women’s race, when Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres s