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On the streets of Montréal, Demi Vollering finally succeeded in her quest to become World Champion, as she outsprinted Kasia Niewiadoma to claim the women’s elite road race title after a thrilling showdown between the two rivals on the final lap.
“I think I can still not believe it,” Vollering said in her post-race interview. “I worked so hard towards this goal. It takes guts to truly believe in it with your whole heart, to gather a team around you with such strong girls and they all sacrifice for you, when they maybe also have a chance. It means a lot from them, but I’m so proud of everybody from the team. They rode the whole race in the front and Puck [Pieterse] did an amazing leadout, so I couldn’t not finish the job.”
After Vollering initially went solo with an attack on the Côte de Camillien Houde with just under 40km to go, it looked as though she could go all the way to the finish, but Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini worked together and managed to bridge across to the Dutch rider on the penultimate lap.
“There were so many moments where I thought I went too early. It stayed so close the whole time, I didn’t dare to turn around and look back, because I thought they were almost in my wheel already,” Vollering continued. “At one point, they came back and I was like ‘oh sh*t’, but it was still not over. I had to believe in it from my little toe. I just dared, tried again and never gave up until the finish line.”
Longo Borghini then attacked on the uphill rise to the finish as they began the final lap of the race. However, her efforts would ultimately prove costly as she was then caught by Vollering and Niewiadoma on the Côte de Camillien Houde, before being distanced shortly afterwards.
Not wanting to take the race to a sprint, Niewiadoma attempted a final attack on the Avenue Pagnuelo with 4km to go, and though she briefly put her under pressure, it was ultimately not enough to distance her rival.
Vollering then led through the final corner before the sprint to the line, where she had still had enough in the legs to outsprint Niewiadoma in the final few hundred metres, as she took the victory that had eluded her for so long.
When asked about the final sprint, she said “I was not planning to give it away anymore from that moment. That was mine.”
Having finished runner-up in the road race in 2023, and with silver and bronze medals in the time trial, Vollering has finally added a World Championship title to her illustrious palmarès and will now have the honour of wearing the rainbow jersey for the next twelve months.
“I think it was an amazing race to watch, I’m very proud to be part of that and I cannot wait to watch it back,” she concluded.
How It Happened
The women’s elite road race saw the riders take on a 180km course around Montréal, with a 72.8km lead-in before eight laps of a 13.4km circuit, with an ascent of the Côte de Camillien Houde on each lap.
The race began with several riders from some of the less represented nations attempting to get up the road, before Marte Berg Edseth (Norway), Natalie Quinn (United States), Beatriz Roxo (Portugal) and Gergana Stoyanova (Bulgaria) formed a four-rider breakaway and established a lead over the peloton at the head of the race.
Their advantage would stretch to over four and a half minutes as they made their way towards the finishing circuit, before the group then began to fracture as Roxo and Stoyanova were both dropped on the climb up to Mont Royal.
In the peloton, there were a number of crashes in the lead-in to the circuit, as several riders hit the deck in the opening stages of the race.
However, the worst incident came on the first lap of the circuit, as a major pile-up in the peloton with 95km to go saw several of the pre-race favourites hit the deck, with Paula Blasi (Spain), Kim Le Court (Mauritius), Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) and defending champion Magdeleine Vallières (Canada) among those involved.
Those worst affected were Caroline Andersson (Sweden) and Lauretta Hanson (Australia), who were both taken to hospital immediately following the crash.
The crash also caused splits in the peloton, as many riders were also held up and forced to chase back on to the main group. Some were able to make it back on, whilst those such as Le Court were unable to regain contact and others simply abandoned the race.
Edseth then dropped Quinn from the breakaway, but both riders were caught by the bunch soon afterwards, meaning that the race was now open to attacks.
The first major move from the peloton came with 53km to go, as Maëva Squiban (France) went clear on the fifth ascent of the Côte de Camillien Houde and drew out an advantage of around forty-five seconds over the bunch.
However, on the following lap the contenders came to the fore, as Demi Vollering (Netherlands) launched an explosive attack off the front of the main group with 39km to go after a massive leadout from her Dutch teammates, immediately putting all of her rivals under pressure as the gap to Squiban vanished in an instant.
The French rider attempted to stay with Vollering as she powered past, but quickly began to slip backwards and latched onto the back of the chasing group as they went over the top of the climb.
The counterattacks then began behind, as Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) and Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) all made attempts to bridge across to Vollering over the next lap and a half, but they were unable to gain permanent separation from the rest of the group.
Niewiadoma then attacked again on the Côte de la Polytechnique with just over 20km to go, bringing Longo Borghini and Juliette Berthet (France) along with her, whilst Reusser and Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) found themselves distanced.
The chasing trio now had Vollering in their sights, as her advantage had shrunk to only a handful of seconds. They then made the junction with around 15km to go, with Berthet taking slightly longer to plug the gap, as she struggled to hold the wheel of the other two.
Going onto the final lap, Longo Borghini tried her luck from the four-rider group, as she attempted to go solo with an attack, distancing the others with a sharp acceleration on the short rise up to the finish line as they took the bell.
Her lead would be short-lived though, as Vollering put in a massive effort on the final ascent of the Côte de Camillien Houde, dropping Berthet and catching the Italian rider.
Another acceleration then saw Longo Borghini lose contact, with Niewiadoma the only rider able to follow Vollering as they went over the top of the climb.
The leading duo then worked together to extend their advantage, with those distanced continuing to chase behind.
Not wanting to go to a sprint, Niewiadoma then attacked on the short, steep rise of the Avenue Pagnuelo with 4km to go, but failed to distance her Dutch rival.
As they swung through the right-hand corner the road rose up ahead of them to the finish. Niewiadoma then launched her sprint from behind with around 150m to go, but Vollering was quick to react and would not relent until she had reached the finish.
Niewiadoma then began to cramp up in the final metres and was forced to settle for second place, as Vollering powered all the way to the line to become World Champion.
Longo Borghini then crossed the line a few seconds later to claim the bronze medal ahead of Reusser in fourth place, whilst other riders, including Berthet and Pieterse, came across the line in dribs and drabs in the minutes that followed.
Results
UCI Road World Championships 2026, Women’s Elite Road Race: Brossard > Montréal (180km)
1. Demi Vollering, Netherlands, in 4:45:09
2. Kasia Niewiadoma, Poland, +17s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini, Italy, +4s
4. Marlen Reusser, Switzerland, +8s
5. Juliette Berthet, France, +39s
6. Puck Pieterse, Netherlands, +1:36
7. Célia Gery, France, +2:55
8. Dominika Włodarczyk, Poland, +4:16
9. Maeva Squiban, France, +5:48
10. Franziska Koch, Germany, +5:51
