Road World Championships: Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres conquers final climb to win elite women's road race

Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada) fended off the favourites to clinch a stunning solo surprise victory in the elite women's road race of Kigali's Road World Championships, blasting up the Côte de Kimihurara alone for an unexpected but utterly well-deserved gold medal.

Vallieres attacked at the foot of the daunting Kimihurara ascent from a three-rider break to claim the victory by 20 seconds over Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) and 27 seconds on Mavi García (Spain).

Vallieres' huge effort saw her virtually collapse after the line, while the trio's success constituting a major upset for the top favourites like France, Italy and the Netherlands.

However, after García inched her way clear on the Côte de Kigali with 22 kilometres to go and was then joined by Fisher-Black and Vallieres, the chasing groups never managed to organise themselves sufficiently to bring back the leading trio.

Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) and Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) briefly regained contact on the final lap, but were dropped again five kilometres again, leaving it up to the three late breakaways to fight for the medals.

Vallieres, 24, had only one pro victory in her palmares, a race in the 2024 Challenge Mallorca, prior to Saturday. But once she opened up the throttle at the foot of the Kimihurara, neither García nor Fisher-Black were able to stop her from claiming the biggest one-day win of them all.

"The girls believed in me so I believed in myself," Vallieres said afterwards. "I really committed to going for it, I prepared well, I knew I was on good form, so I tried. I told myself I didn't want to have any regrets. And I don't."

Magdeleine Vallieres wins the elite road race, claiming the first rainbow jersey for Canada (Image credit: Getty Images)