Magdeleine Vallières Mill has had a year to get used to being world champion.

Now she gets to defend the title on home roads.

The 25-year-old stunned (some) of the cycling world in Rwanda last September, riding clear in the final kilometres to win the elite women’s road race. This time, there will be no unfamiliar roads or a long trip to Africa. The finish will come on Montreal’s Mount Royal, where Vallières Mill has been riding since she was a junior.

The 2025 win in Rwanda

And it should be noted, those who knew her, weren’t shocked. Her teammates, and followers of Canadian Cycling Magazine knew that MVM was, and is, something special.

“People were calling it a huge surprise, but I wasn’t surprised. I knew she could do it,” fellow pro Émilie Fortin said. “That’s why I put my name forward to ride those worlds. I wanted to be there to help a Canadian make history. We knew she was capable, and we were ready to give our races for her.”

And now, in a month’s time, Vallières Mill will head home to try and do it again. The elite, U23 and junior men’s and women’s teams have been announced, but the full women’s team will be announced shortly.

Cycling Canada had to factor in the recent Tour de France Femmes in its decision. But, yeah, it’s kinda a fait accompli that she’ll be on the squad.

Racing for it all at home

“Just doing the world championships at home is already a dream, but defending your title is an even bigger one,” she said Wednesday during a press conference from her home base in Andorra.

The Sherbrooke, Que. native grew up only an hour and a half away from Montreal and comes from a cycling family. Her parents even owned a bike shop at one point.

She remembers racing up Camillien-Houde as a young rider at the Jeux du Québec, including one early effort with recently retired Canadian Simone Boilard.

Now she’ll tackle the climb eight times as part of the world championship course.

“It really is a chance of a lifetime to defend this title at home,” Vallières Mill said.
After her breakthrough in Kigali, Vallières Mill will have the world champion’s jersey on her back—and a home crowd watching to see whether she can do it again.

She admits that when she won, she was (in theory) an underdog, but she’s excited to return as the favourite.

On strategy at the road worlds

Vallières Mill has been in the mix in all the big races this year, especially those that have climbs, but she knows she may be more marked than last year. Even after she won, she said, “my life will never be the same.” She will have the rainbow bands on her jersey for her entire career, even if she doesn’t do the double.

But she fully intends to give it her all.

“Right after they announced the worlds would be in Montreal, it’s been in my head,” she said. A race happening at home when you’re world champion, she says, is something that happens once in a lifetime—if you’re a world champion.

It’s truly a rare occurrence to have someone in the rainbow jersey come home to try and win it back again.

In terms of strategy, she knows things might be different, but the attritional course suits her. Still, she thinks getting in an early move would be good, if possible. Either way, when things get tough, she intends to be in the mix.

Ready for the race

The home roads will also bring a different kind of pressure—well, maybe not pressure. If anything, the EF Education-Oatly rider is excited, not stressed.

“I am really trying to take it more as energy than pressure. I just want to go with it. I feel a lot more excitement than pressure right now,” she said.

The Montreal road worlds run from Sept. 20 to 27, and it’s gonna be a banger. Canadian Cycling Magazine will be there, but you should try too, if you’re able. The last time we Canucks got to see the worlds was in Hamilton in 2003, and before that, way back in 1974.