Célia Gery became the winner of the first U23 women’s World Championships road race held separately from the elite women’s field, with a little help from her friends.
Cor Vos
Niamh Fisher-Black, Blanka Vas, and Puck Pieterse are all U23 Road World Champions, but for the first time ever, a young rider has been crowned World Champion in a standalone U23 race.
France’s Célia Gery, who rides for FDJ-Suez in the WorldTour races, outsprinted Viktória Chladaňová of Slovakia to take a historic win; in the chase group, Paula Blasi (Spain) jumped ahead of lone Italian rider Eleonora Ciabocco for bronze. Since 1996, a men’s U23 road race has allowed breakthrough young stars to win a world title, for teams to scout new talent, and for future stars to shine. Now, the women will have those opportunities as well.
[race_result id=24931 stage_id=0 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
The race was attritional, with most of the action coming in the final 35 km. A strong field of 82 riders started Thursday’s 119.3 km race. The favourites were Isabella Holmgren of Canada, Imogen Wolff of Great Britain, Blasi, and Chladaňová. As in the elite race, some nations qualified a full team of five riders, some two, and some only one. France, which will start the elite race as one of the top teams to watch with Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, qualified only three. But as the race progressed, the small but mighty team had the exact makeup to make the race theirs.
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