{"id":166691,"date":"2025-09-24T18:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/166691\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T18:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:49:07","slug":"isabella-holmgren-leads-canada-into-historic-under-23-womens-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/166691\/","title":{"rendered":"Isabella Holmgren leads Canada into historic under-23 women\u2019s worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday is going to be a doozy at the worlds for Canadian cycling fans. On the under-23 women\u2019s side, Isabella Holmgren is Canada\u2019s top hope. The 19-year-old Lidl\u2013Trek rider dominated the Tour de l\u2019Avenir Femmes in France and arrives in Rwanda as a favourite. With the road worlds being held in Africa for the first time, the hilly circuit suits her climbing strengths. And we all know about her closet of rainbow jerseys. Maybe it\u2019s time to add another?<\/p>\n

Strong team for under-23 team<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll be supported by her sister Ava, along with Jenaya Francis, Anabelle Thomas, Jazmin Lavergne, Mathilde Huot and Coralie Houde. Kiara Lylyk, who impressed at l\u2019Avenir before illness cut her race short, declined selection due to health, school and travel commitments.<\/p>\n

Ava Holmgren, the under-23 national time trial champion, also posted a top-ten finish in the worlds TT a few days ago.<\/a><\/p>\n

The women\u2019s road race covers eight laps for a total of 119.3 km. The 2025 worlds mark the first stand-alone under-23 women\u2019s race, with riders chasing their own rainbow jersey instead of racing within the elite field. Nations can enter up to five riders, though travel costs have meant not all have filled their. Canada is among those sending a full squad to target the historic title. Isabella Holmgren is the clear leader, but the rest of the team, including Ava, will be in the mix.<\/p>\n

Other favourites<\/p>\n

France brings a strong trio led by Marion Bunel, who recently won young rider classifications at the Tour de Suisse and Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina and finished second at the Tour de l\u2019Avenir Femmes. She is joined by C\u00e9lia Gery, fresh from two stage wins at l\u2019Avenir, and Julie Bego, a former junior world champion and recent Tour de France Femmes youth podium finisher.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s squad is well balanced, with Lore De Schepper the standout after finishing fourth at the Tour de l\u2019Avenir Femmes, while Xaydee Van Sinaey adds another podium threat, including third at the Tour de Feminin in Belgium this season.<\/p>\n

Great Britain fields a deep team with Millie Couzens, as the nominal leader. Cat Ferguson \u2014 already making waves in her first WorldTour season with wins and podiums across Europe \u2014 is another rider to watch.<\/p>\n

You can catch the action on Flobikes.com<\/a>, starting at 6:55 a.m. EDT. Canadian Cycling Magazine will have a full report after the race, and plenty of photos. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Affiliate links present. Canadian Cycling Magazine may receive commissions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday is going to be a doozy at the worlds for Canadian cycling fans. On the under-23 women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[52521,79221,49,48,84556,635,44560,82],"class_list":["post-166691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2025-uci-road-worlds","tag-ava-holmgren","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cat-ferguson","tag-cycling","tag-isabella-holmgren","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}