{"id":520543,"date":"2026-03-07T14:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520543\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:19:10","slug":"vallieres-mill-scores-canadas-best-ever-strade-bianche-donne-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520543\/","title":{"rendered":"Valli\u00e8res Mill scores Canada’s best-ever Strade Bianche Donne result"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res Mill scored Canada\u2019s best-ever Strade Bianche Donne result on Saturday, taking fifth in Siena after an engrossing race. Karol-Ann Canuel was ninth in 2020 and Leah Kirchmann placed tenth in 2016. Swiss rider Elise Chabbey earned the biggest win of her career, beating a trio of rivals on the final cobbled climb to the line. Canadian world champion<\/a> Valli\u00e8res Mill was in the thick of the action all day.<\/p>\n

Preliminaries<\/p>\n

In last year\u2019s race, two Dutch ex-teammates, Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen, threw down, with Vollering triumphing in Siena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Strade Bianche Donne 2025 was a big early-season result for Vollering.<\/p>\n

The Course<\/p>\n

The women received 12 sectors of gravel over 133 km adding up to 31.7 km. Sector 5 was the most epic: 9.5-km San Martino is characterized by constant ups and downs in the first part and a twisting climb at the end. Two finishing circuits each contained four-star Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe sectors. In Siena, with 900 metres to the finish line, the race route passed beneath Fontebranda Gate where the road surface turned to cobbles. The gradient kicked up to 10 percent until 500 metres from the line, with a maximum gradient of 16 percent along Via Santa Caterina.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The women\u2019s route. Image by La FlammeRouge<\/p>\n

Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res Mill brought her rainbow jersey to Tuscany. The Canadian champion, Alison Jackson (St Michel\u2013Preference Home\u2013Auber93) and Visma\u2019s Sarah Van Dam made up the Canadian contingent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The world champion at the start in Siena.<\/p>\n

The five-star sector San Martino in Grania streamlined the peloton to 24 elite riders, Valli\u00e8res Mill in the mix with Vollering, Lotte Kopecky, Puck Pieterse, Lucinda Brand and Tour de France champion Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot. Vollering\u2019s FDJ-Suez mob pulled.<\/p>\n

On the first passage of Colle Pinzuto, Chabbey attacked with last year\u2019s Tour de France fourth place Dominika W\u0142odarczyk. Vallieres-Mill led the chase for a while, but the duo had 30 seconds by 1.1-km Le Tolfe. Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot punctured and Vollering had a mechanical as well. Letizia Borghesi couldn\u2019t make a curve and rolled into the crowd. Chabbey and W\u0142odarczyk were contained.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Vallieres-Mill in the decanted peloton.<\/p>\n

Could Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Vollering come back? They had Brand and Kopecky in their chase group, which followed a moto down the wrong road. W\u0142odarczyk powered the 13-strong front group.<\/p>\n

Who else was with Valli\u00e8res Mill, Chabbey and W\u0142odarczyk? Marianne Vos, Pieterse, Elisa Longo Borghini, Shirin van Anrooij and Kasia Niewiadoma. W\u0142odarczyk kept up the pace on Montichiaro, where Valli\u00e8res Mill took a turn too fast and got into the trees.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Valli\u00e8res-Mill gets loose, meets the blossoming trees.<\/p>\n

A strong quintet shuffled off the front before Pinzuto II. Pieterse faded on the sterrato. Longo Borghini and Chabbey then sallied forth, the Canadian hauling along the chase. With only Le Tolfe II remaining, the duo\u2019s gap was 20 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Longo Borghini and Chabbey in the dust.<\/p>\n

The leaders were yanked back before Le Tolfe II. Nine riders were left, Pieterse, Chabbey and Niewiadoma at the front in the final piece of gravel. The Pole and Longo Borghini pushed clear. Puck joined in. Eleven kilometers remained, but the new leading trio started throwing haymakers heading to Siena. Chabbey, Vos and Valli\u00e8res Mill were the closest chasers.<\/p>\n

The group re-formed, now whittled down to eight. German champion Franziska Koch kept stirring the pot for teammate Chabbey. The Canadian led under Fontebranda Gate. Vos cracked. Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma scrapped up Via Santa Caterina, Koch and Chabbey staying with them. In a crucial corner, Chabbey cut on the inside of the others, fought to the front and kept her place over the line. The Swiss rider couldn\u2019t believe her achievement. \u201cWhat the f**k?\u201d she asked once she got her breath. Teammate Koch came third.<\/p>\n

2026 Strade Bianche Donne
1) Elise Chabbey (Switzerland\/FDJ-Suez) 3:35:42
2) Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland\/Canyon-SRAM) s.t.
3) Franziska Koch (Germany\/FDJ-Suez) s.t.
5) Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res Mill (Canada\/EF Education-Oatly) +0:06<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res Mill scored Canada\u2019s best-ever Strade Bianche Donne result on Saturday, taking fifth in Siena after an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[205411,174337,92133,49,48,46180,7573,89330,44,48387,11588],"class_list":["post-520543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-2026-strade-bianche-donne","tag-2026-uci-womens-worldtour","tag-alison-jackson","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elise-chabbey","tag-feature","tag-magdeleine-vallieres-mill","tag-news","tag-sarah-van-dam","tag-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520543","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=520543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}