Magdeleine Vallieres secured a shock gold medal for Canada in the women’s road race at the 2025 World Championships, the 24-year-old attacking in the final two kilometres to win by 23 seconds.
Vallieres had only won one race before in her career – the 2024 Trofeo Palma Femina – but she was the strongest rider in Kigali, taking advantage of a strange race in which none of the pre-race favourites featured at the front of the race.
Niamh Fisher-Black of New Zealand finished second, with Mavi García of Spain rolling home in third.
A lead group of 10 riders featuring most of the main countries went clear with a lap-and-a-half to go, but none of the big favourites were present.
Onto the final climb of the Côte de Kimihurara, only Vallieres, Fisher-Black and García were left, and Vallieres attacked right at the base. Neither of her fellow escapees were able to respond, ensuring that the EF Education-Oatly rider would go onto win the rainbow jersey.
She is the first ever Canadian to win gold in the UCI World Championships Road Race, men's or women's.
How it unfolded
Packing in more than 3,350m of climbing in 165km, it was expected that a big breakaway would go clear, as is custom at the World Championships. But surprisingly, there was only one rider who escaped – and that wasn’t until the second lap of 11. Austria’s Carina Schrempf went solo, and by the fourth lap she had almost four minutes on the peloton.
With 100km to go, Schrempf’s lead started to be cut, and ambitious attacks that were designed to test the water more than anything began to appear: Hungary’s Blanka Vas was one, as was Netherland's Yara Kastelijn and Belgium’s Julie Van de Velde.
Van Velde caught Schrempf, and the pair were then joined by the Netherlands’ Shirin van Anrooij, a smart tactic by the Dutch. With 55km remaining, though, none of the three were the leaders; a new breakaway group had formed of Noemi Ruëgg of Switzerland and Mireia Benito of Spain.
From there, the race really sprang into life, with the Dutch, French and Australians regular animators. But Ruëgg and Benito remained out front, holding an advantage of 50 seconds with two-and-a-half laps to go.
As the bell went to signal the penultimate lap, the leaders’ gap was down to just 15 seconds, and behind a strong chase group had formed, containing most of the favourites. It was then that Elisa Longo Borghini attacked, bringing with her Kasia Niewiadoma, Kim Le Court, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and others, but it came to very little, and they all sat up.
The reduction in speed played into the hands of the lead group which now numbered 10, including many of the big nations: France was represented through Évita Muzic; Netherlands with Riejanne Markus; Italy thanks to Barbara Malcotti; Spain through Benito and Mavi García; and Switzerland via Rüeff and Ginia Caluori. Fisher-Black (New Zealand), Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) and Vallieres (Canada) were also up the road.
Within just a few kilometres it became obvious the winner would come from the lead group, with the peloton almost two minutes adrift. With 22km remaining on the Côte de Kigali Golf, García, Fisher-Black and Vallieres attacked and built a small gap. On the cobbled climb of the Côte de Kimihururathe trio were joined by Niedermaier, and then by Markus. With one lap to go, the peloton had cut the gap by half, but it was the five leaders who looked set to battle it out for the medals.
Ferrand-Prévot attacked from the peloton with 11km remaining, bringing with her Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini and Elisa Chabbey, but it was too late. On the final ascent of the Kigali Wall, Fisher Black broke clear with Vallieres, and though García originally struggled to keep pace, the Spanish veteran caught the duo by the top.
With 2.4km to go on the final climb of Côte de Kimihurara Vallieres was the first to attack, and neither Fisher Black nor García were able to respond to the Canadian who soloed to the biggest victory of her career. Fisher Black finished second, and García, at the age of 41, finished third.
Results: Road Race World Championships: Kigali > Kigali, 165km
1. Magdeleine Vallieres, Canada, in 4:34.48
2. Niamh Fisher-Black, New Zealand, at 23s
3. Mavi García, Spain, at 27s
4. Elise Chabbey, Switzerland, at 41s
5. Riejanne Markus, Netherlands, at 57s
6. Antonia Niedermaier, Germany, at 1:17
7. Demi Vollering, Netherlands, at 1:34
8. Kim Le Court, Mauritius
9. Marlen Reusser, Switzerland
10. Kasia Niewiadoma, Poland, at the same time.
