2026 Women's World Cycling Championships Preview | Saturday's big race sees Demi Vollering take on the world

Last season brought a surprise, as the relatively unknown Magdeleine Vallieres took home the victory in Rwanda. The Canadian is back again this year, but she hasn’t really been able to build on her success as world champion. So there’s a good chance we’ll have a new champion in Montreal, though surprises can still happen in the women’s race—just look at last year.

2025 Magdeleine Vallieres
2024 Lotte Kopecky
2023 Lotte Kopecky
2022 Annemiek van Vleuten
2021 Elisa Balsamo
2020 Anna van der Breggen
2019 Annemiek van Vleuten
2018 Anna van der Breggen
2017 Chantal van den Broek-Blaak
2016 Amalie Dideriksen

While the men will tackle 273 kilometers on Sunday, the women will cover 180 kilometers a day earlier. Like the men, they’ll start east of Montreal, on the other side of the mighty St. Lawrence River, in Brossard.

We can safely describe the opening phase of the race as flat, as it is primarily intended to provide some airtime for the Montérégie region. Incidentally, the women also complete a shorter loop there than the men before arriving in Montreal. We reach this eastern Canadian city via the Samuel de Champlain Bridge, then join the circuit south of Mount Royal Park.

After completing the second half of the local lap, the riders—just over 100 kilometers from the finish—prepare for the first of a total of eight laps they will have to complete on the city circuit.

All right, so we’re familiar with that 13.4-kilometer circuit from the annual Montreal Grand Prix. Aside from one small detail—the U-turn just before the finish line has been widened slightly—it’s an exact replica, so we know what to expect in terms of the track: in particular, Camillien-Houde Avenue in Mont Royal Park will be the decisive stretch, though we shouldn’t underestimate the rest of the course.

Immediately after the finish area, riders turn left onto Avenue de Parc to begin the climb through the trees on the Côte de Camillien-Houde. The statistics for this climb show a 1.6-kilometer ascent with an average gradient of 7.5 percent, with the final 400 meters climbing at a 9.1 percent gradient.

Next, we descend, then take the stretch leading to Chemin de la Polytechnique to tackle the next climb: it’s 800 meters long, with a gradient of just under 6 percent. A little further along the course, after a few turns where riders can quickly disappear from view, the incline at Avenue Pagnuelo also awaits: 500 meters at a 7.5 percent gradient.

Just as quickly, the riders will have reached the finish line. Anyone who watched the time trials in the first part of the World Championships will have noticed that this course is anything but flat. The final 550 meters do indeed climb at a steep gradient of about 4 percent. All told, the course totals 2,570 meters of elevation gain, the majority of which is in the second part.

In the days leading up to the World Championships, the riders seem to be getting lucky with the weather, but on Saturday, with temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius, there’s also a chance of rain. In addition, the wind from the northeast is picking up quite a bit, which could make the race even more tense in the opening stages.

Start: 9:00 a.m local time (2:00 p.m. GMT)

Everyone pretty much agrees: Demi Vollering is the woman to beat at the World Cycling Championships in Montreal, Canada. The winner of the Tour de France Femmes has consistently delivered this season whenever it mattered or whenever she wanted to, and Saturday, September 26, has been circled in red on her calendar for quite some time.

Puck Pieterse, who finished second behind Vollering in the Flèche Wallonne, would theoretically also be a contender, but she already stated after the Mountain Bike World Championships that she would be more than happy to help Vollering win the world title. The rest of the Dutch teams (Femke de Vries, Lieke Nooijen, Riejanne Markus, Amber Kraak, and Karlijn Swinkels) also share that sentiment as well, giving Vollering a huge advantage.

There are certainly other contenders hot on Vollering’s heels. Take, for example, the riders who have already given the Dutch rider a run for her money several times this season: Kasia Niewiadoma from Poland and Marlen Reusser from Switzerland. Reusser even managed to overtake Vollering last Sunday at the World Championships time trial, so it’s clear that she can’t be given an inch this Sunday.

After the Tour de France Femmes, where she finished second, Niewiadoma spent her time in Flagstaff training at high altitude. She had one goal in mind: this World Championship in Canada. Incidentally, with Dominika Wlodarzyck, Poland has another dark horse, just as Reusser of Switzerland still has the speedy Noemi Ruëgg backing her up.

We also consider Kim Le Court ( Mauritius) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) to be contenders for at least a medal. Le Court has been focusing on this championship for quite some time, while Longo Borghini was somewhat forced to do the same after missing the Tour.

The French women’s team, featuring Juliette Berthet, Maeva Squiban, Cedrine Kerbaol, and top prospect Celia Gery, also has a strong lineup. The same goes for Germany, with Liane Lippert, Antonia Niedermaier, and the somewhat surprising third-place finisher in the World Championship time trial, Franziska Koch. If she can maintain the form she showed that day and win races like Strade Bianche, she’ll be a contender as well.

One rider we haven’t mentioned yet is Amstel winner Paula Blasi. She’s having a great year, but even though this is barely her second season as a pro, she’s been racing for a long time: she started out Down Under and has completed a whole string of races since then. Does she still have some gas left in the tank, or will Mavi Garcia come out on top, just like last year?

Lotte Kopecky is Belgium’s hope for success and, of course, a rider we definitely need to keep an eye on, even though the Walloon-style racing seems to have become increasingly difficult for her over the past year and a half.

Then there are the Canadians, featuring home-course rider and defending champion Magdeleine Vallieres and Visma rider Sarah Van Dam. They may well offer their home country its best hope for a medal in the coming days. Just like Sygrid Ittehus Haugset (Norway), Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand), and the potential American MTB dark horse Kate Courtney, we’re counting them among the long shots.

Top favorites: Demi Vollering (Netherlands) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland)
Dark horses: Kim Le Court (Mauritius), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Marlen Reusser (Switzerland), and Franziska Koch (Germany)
Long shots: Paula Blasi (Spain), Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Celia Gery, Cédrine Kerbaol (France), Sarah Van Dam, Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada), and Noemi Ruëgg (Switzerland)