‘Larry! Larry!’: Fans Give Warbasse Royal Treatment in Historic USA Worlds Win

Larry Warbasse had taken his pulls and was riding to the finish at the UCI Road World Championships when the fans started an impromptu homage to the popular American.

On the final laps of the world championships in Montréal, the U.S. road captain climbed through a crowd that tipped their collective hats to the 36-year-old.

Up the road, Brandon McNulty was racing toward the rainbow jersey.

Behind, Warbasse was getting a royal reception of his own for a job well done in America’s first elite men’s road title in 33 years.

“Yeah, even the last couple of laps I was dropped and I don’t know who started it, but they started just chanting like Larry! Larry!,” Warbasse told Velo. “Like the whole way up the climb, so that was pretty cool.”

McNulty’s Montréal worlds win was a collective effort for Team USA, and Warbasse played a special role during the race and behind the scenes.

As the designated road captain, he helped position and protect the American leaders until crunch time in the closing laps in the squad’s rainbow jersey-winning tactics.

“I thought with my experience and the years in the peloton, I could play a vital role,” he said. “I really wanted to race this worlds because I knew we’d have a super strong team.”

‘A group of American buddies’

Warbasse had Montréal circled on his calendar ever since it was announced. It was the first North American worlds since Richmond in 2015.

He knew the Americans were assembling an unusually strong team, and he wanted to be there.

McNulty, Matteo Jorgenson, and Quinn Simmons would lead. Warbasse wanted to bring his experience to help them succeed.

“For me it was it was a huge honor just to even be there,” he said. “A lot of those guys have been racing together since they were juniors. I’m a little older but I know these guys from racing together and we had a really good vibe the whole week. It was just a group of American buddies.”

The unique bond helped McNulty and the team to pull of the miracle in Montréal.

A pro since 2012, Warbasse was the most experienced rider on the team of America’s golden generation.

“I was the road captain and my job was to make sure everyone was in the right position and be aware of the race situation,” Warbasse told Velo.

“Earlier in the race I was speaking with some of the other teams, trying to figure what’s going to happen. The race opened up pretty far out and I tried to stay there as long as possible.”

Warbasse said Montréal’s relentless succession of climbs and descents meant it wasn’t easy to stay together on the circuit.

Everyone had a solid game plan going into the finale, and despite racing without race radios, when the moves went down, everyone had a tactical blueprint to follow.

‘A wall of noise’

With the race going off ahead of him, Warbasse dug deep to stay in the race in case something happened.

And then something magical did start to happen. Fans spotted Warbasse and started calling out his name.

It’s a phenomenon that’s been growing the past few years, with fans cheering for riders like Wout Van Aert as they roll past. Warbasse is now part of that orbit.

Warbasse — who is set to race in 2027 with Tudor Pro Cycling — called it the coolest race he had done in North America.

“There were so many people on all the climbs. It was a wall of noise every time you went up each of the climbs,” he said. “It was pretty insane, a really, really nice atmosphere.”

Writing on Instagram, he said how much the impromptu love session meant to him.

“To all of the fans who somehow spread my name up and down every single climb on the route and chanted my name each time we went past, it felt like I was the one who won in the end,” Warbasse said. “I had goosebumps the whole way, and nearly had tears in my eyes feeling all the love.”

‘Everyone was going crazy’

The fans also helped him follow what was happening up the road.

“All the people on the side of the road were giving me updates and when I came through, I could see on the jumbotron that Brandon was up the road,” Warbasse told Velo.

“Then once he won, everyone was going crazy. When I heard that he won, I was a bit speechless and I was just so excited.”

The celebration continued with dinner and a night out, a small gathering of teammates and a few friends. They celebrated the historical victory in one of the best worlds in recent years.

Back in Europe to close out the season with Tudor, Warbasse said he appreciated how rare it is for a rider to share a moment like that with his compatriots.

“Maybe that’s the only time in your life you get to be a part of such a huge victory,” he said. “I’ll definitely remember this one for a long time.”

The fans in Montréal made sure of that.

Team USA at 2026 Road Cycling World Championships