What a race! Demi Vollering took her first rainbow jersey in an absolutely thrilling road race.
On Saturday, the penultimate race of the 2026 road worlds went down with a series of twists and turns that made for some amazing racing.
The 180-km race began in Brossard before heading 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.
American Natalie Quinn and Norwegian Marte Berg Edseth were the early escapees, getting 3 minutes before things heated up.
Enter Montreal and the massive crash
As they approached the city circuits, the field continued to dwindle. Maggie Coles-Lyster and Alison Jackson packed it in, along with Olivia Baril, but then with 94 km to go, disaster struck for defending champ Magdeleine Vallières Mill as she crashed with 15 other riders.
The crash also brought down Femke De Vries, Daniela Campos, Julia Borgström, Carina Schrempf, Claudette Nyirarukundo, Flora Perkins, Kate Courtney, Grace Arlandson, Marta Jaskulska and Sigrid Ytterhus.
Vallières Mill, was held up for several minutes and managed to get back on her bike, but the gap was simply too big.
Vallières Mill abandons
Adèle Normand tried to pace Vallières Mill back towards the front, but the pair were more than 10 minutes behind the reduced lead group. They both eventually abandoned with 60 km to go.
“I was close to her when she crashed as I had just been dropped,” she explained. “But then when I saw the opportunity to help her I immediately did.” MVM and Normand saluted the crowd with big smiles before pulling off the course.
The race gets harder and harder
Meanwhile, Nadia Gontova was dropped but fought her way back to the front group, with Sarah Van Dam sitting comfortably in the reduced bunch. Eventually Gontova would fall off the pace again.
Maeva Squiban then went solo and opened a small gap. Then, things really got spicy.
With 35 km to go, three laps remaining on Camillien-Houde, a group of eight went clear before Demi Vollering launched with just 38 km to go.
Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn
She immediately opened a huge gap on the field.
Behind her, a group containing several of the big favourites was around 30 seconds back.
There were 9 riders in full pursuit of the Tour de France Femmes champion: fellow Dutch rider, Puck Pieterse, Elisa Longo Borghini, Marlen Reusser, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Dominika Włodarczyk, Juliette Labous, Célia Gery and Maeva Squiban.
Time trial world champion Reusser put in some massive turns with Pieterse monitoring the chase for her teammate Vollering.
Attack after attack after attack
The chase kept Vollering close, however, with her lead never getting more than just over 20 seconds. But what was left of the peloton wasn’t too far behind the chase.
The chase group alternated between pulls and attacks as all of the favourites tried to bridge to Vollering.
With two laps to go, the race was hardly over as the chase was just 20 seconds behind Vollering who was in full flight. With two more times left up Camillien-Houde, her lead grew to just over half a minute. Niewiadoma-
Phinney went to the front along with Borghini and Włodarczyk and Gery were popped. The gap to Vollering began dropping with the Pole and Italian coming within 19 seconds. However, the duo was quickly caught by the remainder of the break–as the gap continued to drop–barely. Vollering hammered up the Cote de Polytechnique just as Niewiadoma-Phinney took a flyer, and took Borghini with her, getting within breathing room of Vollering.
With over one lap to go, the trio of Niewiadoma-Phinney, Borghini and Berthet were just seven seconds behind.
Lead continues to change
Then with 16 km to go, Niewiadoma-Phinney made a huge effort, dragging Borghini with her and finally making the catch of Vollering. With 15 km left, they made the catch. Berthet did everything she could and caught the trio.
As the four pros came to the final lap, it was clear the winner would come from the trio, and that Camillien-Houde would most likely be the decider.
But that wasn’t what Borghini was thinking–she powered ahead with a brilliant surprise attak through the finish line, quickly getting a 10 second gap.
The trio then sat up, briefly playing chat et souris until Vollering took over again.
Final climb up Mont Royal
The last time up Camilien Houde, Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney distanced Berthet and were within breathing room of the Italian. With just 200 m to go on the climb, it was game on with the trio forming. Vollering took to the front and rode tempo, but couldn’t drop her breakaway companions.
And then it was clear–once again the Pole and the Dutch ace were away in similar scenes as the duels we saw at the 2026 Tour de France Femmes.
For Niewiadoma-Phinney, she was running out of spots to try and make a move on Vollering, however. The Dutch rider has always been faster in the sprints, so the Polish superstar had to find a place to try and drop her–no tall order.
But then another twist in a simply bonkers race–Borghini came achingly close to the duo but Vollering attacked, with Niewiadoma-Phinney countering with 3.8 km to go.
That seemed to seal Borghini’s chances to join them and it was clear she was now racing for bronze–the only problem was now, Reusser had her in her sights.
The crazy finale
But still, the question as to the rainbow jersey was still up in the air.
They couldn’t mess around too much with the Italian not giving up, and they both took a few more pulls in the final kilometre. Borghini was right there as the lead duo began their sprint-a-deux.
Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn
With 500 m to go, Vollering was in the lead, when Niewiadoma-Phinney went for it with 150m to go. It looked like the Pole might just pull it off, but Vollering ended up taking the sprint after an absolutely incredible day of racing.
Van Dam was the top Canadian finisher, coming in a very respectable 17th after a brutal day of racing. Gontova was the only other Canuck, finishing 41st.
Sunday is the final race of the worlds, the elite men’s road race.