Elite women’s World Championship turns into bizarre script no one could have written: Canadian World Title, favorites left stunned
CyclingSunday, 28 September 2025 at 08:03
Magdeleine Vallieres won the World Championship in the elite women's category in a bizarre way. The 24-year-old Canadian had only one race to her name before Saturday, but had a superb day in Rwanda on a grueling course. None of the favorites we had picked for the rainbow jersey were in contention, mainly because they were watching each other and not pushing hard enough.
The elite women's road race started just after noon, with a total of 164.6 kilometers ahead. The race consisted of eleven laps, with the climbs of the Côte de Kigali and Côte de Kimihurura taking center stage. The first was on asphalt, 800 meters long and with an average gradient of 8.1 percent. The second was on the famous cobblestones, 1.3 kilometers long with an average gradient of 5.9 percent.
Just like in the previous road races at this World Championship, it was mainly a matter of waiting for someone who dared to attack. Austria's Carina Schrempf was up for it, but no one followed her. In the spirit of Olympic champion and compatriot Anna Kiesenhofer in 2021, Schrempf continued. She gained a maximum of three minutes.
The peloton remained calm for the first few laps, but the Netherlands—which had indicated before the start that it did not want to control the race—eventually took the initiative. Femke de Vries, Shirin van Anrooij, and Yara Kastelijn were the three who clearly had to create a breakaway. Road captain Riejanne Markus also did her part when necessary.
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Van Anrooij joining group of three after hundred thousand attempts
Problem: The other countries did not want to let someone with an orange jersey get away. Italy, France, Switzerland, and Australia were just a few of the teams that quickly reeled everything back in. As a result, Schrempf was able to stay in the lead for almost seventy kilometers, until Julie Van de Velde made the connection on behalf of Belgium after six laps. And who was able to connect after all those attempts? Shirin van Anrooij!
Van Anrooij, Van de Velde, and Schrempf rode half a minute ahead of the peloton until we reached the Côte de Kigali for the seventh time, and an attack came from the pack. Van Anrooij therefore stood on the pedals and started a solo breakaway, which forced Italy to continue chasing. France, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's team, did not have to do so.
At the top of the Côte de Kimihurura, Van de Velde and Schrempf were done for, but Van Anrooij managed to keep up for a long time, twenty seconds ahead of the peloton. That gap was eventually closed shortly after the seventh pass through the finish line. The result for the Netherlands: the Italian team was halved by the fierce chase. And there were new attacks.
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Vas in the lead group, fierce poker in the peloton
Mireia Benito (Spain) and Noemi Ruëgg (Switzerland) reacted appropriately to the calm that descended when Van Anrooij was caught. The duo quickly rode away by half a minute, and it was poker time in the peloton. The Netherlands remained ice-cold and refused to do any work at the front; Italy had almost no women left, and France only did half turns.
And so there were counterattacks from women who saw their chance in this phase. Blanka Vas stepped on the pedals on behalf of Hungary, after she had already seen an attempt fail earlier in the race. She was joined by Jasmin Liechti, which meant that Switzerland suddenly had two women in the attack. With 35 kilometers to go, the pursuers seemed to be closing in, but that proved to be too much.
However, the final had begun, because after Vas, many more went on the offensive. This brought us to the top of Kimihurura for the ninth time, with Ruëgg and Benito in the lead, closely followed by a strong group that included Vas and Liechti, as well as Markus, Barbara Malcotti (Italy), Évita Muzic (France), and Germany's Antonia Niedermaier. The group of favorites continued to play poker for a while.
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Van der Breggen drops out, Netherlands suddenly in trouble
That poker game was by no means a luxury for the Netherlands. Markus was at the front, but leader Anna van der Breggen had to drop out on the Kimihurura, and the other leader, Demi Vollering, was not paying attention when Elisa Longo Borghini accelerated. It was rectified, but TeamNL suddenly found itself in trouble.
It was at this stage that the race not only slipped away from the Netherlands, but France, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland also had their leaders in a group that was not riding and fell almost two minutes behind the front of the group that had exploded. The Netherlands had one contender, Markus, but she was unable to keep up when three women broke away.
Mavi Garcia (Spain), Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand), and Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada) broke away from the other escapees and were joined by Niedermaier from Germany heading into the final lap. Markus wanted to go for it on the penultimate lap of Kimihurura, as did Switzerland's Ginia Caluori. The differences between those six were small as they entered the final lap!
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Everything explodes in the elite women's race heading into the final lap of the World Championships
As they entered the final lap, the balance of power shifted once again. Markus caught up, making it a leading group of five, but it was the favorites who really stepped on the gas. France threw all their cards on the table, but before Ferrand-Prévot could attack, it was Marlen Reusser who rode away at full speed. Caluori made another strong move, and for a moment, it looked like Reusser would go solo.
Elise Chabbey (also Switzerland) and Kimberley Le Court came from behind, giving Switzerland two cards to play. While three women dreamed of victory on the Côte de Kigali with Garcia, Fisher-Black, and Vallieres, it seemed impossible for the Netherlands. Markus broke away from the front, and Vollering could only keep up with the favorites on the elastic.
The peloton collapsed, with the elite group coming together behind the front three, and for a moment, it looked like they still had a chance. However, the Ferrand-Prévot group gambled on Kimihurura and threw away their chances of a medal. The win went to Garcia, Fisher-Black, and Vallieres, with Chabbey and Markus, who had broken away, behind them.
The big surprise of the day was Vallieres, not Fisher-Black or Garcia, who rode away on the cobblestones in Kigali, but the 24-year-old Canadian. She stormed away and did what no one had ever thought possible. Fisher-Black finished second, and Garcia took bronze. The favorites on paper were left empty-handed and went home without a medal. Markus finished fifth.
Results road race elite women - World cycling championship 2025
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Latest Comments
- 👏👏Bea24-09-2025
- Agreed! As we all know now, Juan Ayuso will be on another team. But it was sweet to see him win the stages at La Vuelta. I do love the drama of cycling admittedly but its clear to see the talent of winners of stages in a Grand Tourryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Pogacar has no competition he has won everything, I cant imagine even being him in that position!! Crazy. I am sure he has some back up plan for how he wants to spend his retirement years at age 30 onward. Does he like beer? Plenty of innovation in brewing. And you don't have to be super social. Chapeau/Cheers whatever you like Tadej you will do.ryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Plus its confirmed that the Philadelphia Cycling Classic up the Manayunk Wall is back for 2026! hooray for thatryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- This is a dumb question but still why doesn't the UCI consider a grand tour in the USA in the future. We have the desolate/scary back roads in Pennsylvania and Virginia, just like in France with loads of rural land and hills. Plus the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Cascade/Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I'm sure it'll never happen but honestly people in PA/NJ/NY/VT/NH would love it. We are already sports fans, what is another sport to learn. I am forever optimistic about cycling in the US.ryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- Zonneveld makes some excellent points.The sponsorship model is broken and companies like Verizon who have multi billion dollar with a B ad budgets need to be involved again.
Brucegel17-09-2025 - Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
- All they learned is that at the end of a 3 week race, Wout can beat him on a slightly bumpy stage. Obviously, this is very much thanks to Wout not racing for GC every day. This doesn't teach them a thing for Jonas beating Pogi. Not saying Jonas will never beat him again. But this absolutely won't have anything to do with it if he does beat him.Veganpotter28-07-2025
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