The women’s elite road race brings the 2026 world championships to its penultimate race on Saturday, and for us Canucks, it’s a big one. We’ve already seen some great rides by Canadian women—Oro-Medonte, Ont.’s Isabella Holmgren took a fantastic second in the U23 road race, and her sister Ava took a strong sixth in the TT. The elite women are doing 181 km from Brossard to Montreal with brutal city circuits to finish it off. Magdeleine Vallières Mill arrives as the defending world champion after her amazing dub in Kigali last year.

This time, the Sherbrooke native has (sort of) home roads, a familiar course and a strong Canadian team behind her as she tries to defend the rainbow jersey.

The elite women’s road worlds

The race begins heads into the city after around 70 km. The women will then complete eight laps of the Montreal circuit, with the climb up Camillien-Houde being the kicker, as it has been in all the road races so far.

Even in the junior women’s race, which was only 80 km, attrition kicked in fast. The first few laps are something, but the legs get sorer and sorer, stat.

A climber’s course, or a puncheur’s one?

But we’ve also seen that it’s not necessarily a proper climber’s course. USA Cycling’s Ashlin Barry, who lives in Toronto, was born in Girona, is a Canadian-American dual citizen and has been a big part of the local Canadian community (etc., etc.), isn’t exactly a climber—and he won the U23 rainbow jersey. It’s definitely attritious. The fields are decimated by the finale.

Demi Vollering is among the obvious names to watch. The Dutch rider has the climbing ability to attack on Camillien-Houde but is also dangerous if a small group reaches the finish together. She didn’t have a great TT (for a Tour de France Femmes winner) but that may not mean much.

Others to watch

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Kim Le Court, Elisa Longo Borghini and Marlen Reusser are also well suited to the course. So, given Barry’s ride, Lotte Kopecky should not be ruled out. Especially as her new father-in-law, Eddy Merckx, won the worlds on this very course back in 1974. (Imagine that headline.)

Team Canada

Vallières Mill will obviously be marked as the defending champion, so her strategy will be different than last year. But she has a great team. It’s a proper Canadian all-star team. Vallières Mill will be joined by a strong Canadian squad featuring Olivia Baril, Maggie Coles-Lyster, Nadia Gontova, Alison Jackson, Adèle Normand and Sarah Van Dam.

Gontova has had some great rides this year in the hills—but Van Dam also needs to be factored into a two-tiered approach for Team Canada. Van Dam has levelled up this year with her Visma-Lease a Bike team. She took her first pro win recently in France with her strong kick in reduced bunches of breaks, but she can also go up hills well, as we saw at the Tour de Suisse.

How to watch the 2026 road worlds

Either way, tomorrow’s race is going to be great. And as MVM said, no matter what happens, she will “always cherish this year in rainbows.” But if you’ve followed her career, you know damn well she will be doing everything she can to keep the jersey.

The race tomorrow is on CBC Gem at 9 a.m. And the whole damn crew at Canadian Cycling Magazine is running around taking snaps, talking to riders and reporting for you.