Road World Championships 2026 elite women’s road race LIVE – Dutch rider puts in massive attack and goes solo

2026-09-26T16:59:11.615Z

Niewadoma-Phinney, Longo Borghini in the chase group along with Pieterse.

Marlen Reusser brings up another group to reinforce the chase.

2026-09-26T16:56:34.563Z

After cracking the field, Pieterse swings off, and Vollering attacks, catches Squiban briefly and continues on solo with 38km to go.

Elisa Longo-Borghini is trying to chase back.

2026-09-26T16:54:47.268Z

Puck Pieterse ramps it up on Camilien-Houde with Vollering on her wheel, dropping riders such as Backstedt, Kopecky, Faulkner, Benito and more.

2026-09-26T16:52:06.632Z

Squiban is well known for her solo raids, as she won two Tour de France Femmes stages in 2025 by taking a flyer.

The 24-year-old, who took her gloves off, has a gap of 46 seconds with three laps to go.

The Dutch team is still setting the pace at the front of the peloton, down to 35 riders.

2026-09-26T16:47:36.251Z

The French team had someone on the side of the road with a whiteboard message for Squiban. With no race radios, it’s a simple way to give information to a rider.

2026-09-26T16:46:01.393Z

Colombia’s Paula Patiño attacks from the right side of the road and gets a few metres, but that move only lasted a few minutes.

2026-09-26T16:42:07.866Z

Another crash involving a few riders: Pfeiffer Georgi (Great Britain) and Eleonora Gasparrini (Italy).

2026-09-26T16:36:30.867Z

Squiban has 21 seconds on the peloton led by Karlijn Swinkels (Netherlands).

Swinkels knows exactly what Squiban can do, and how good a descender she is, as they both race for UAE Team L’IMAD.

2026-09-26T16:33:29.024Z

French team launches another attack as Maëva Squigan hugs the barrier, while Noemi Rüegg (Switzerland) does the work to close this down, giving a respite to the Dutch team.

The Swiss team swings off, leaving the Dutch team to do the work.

2026-09-26T16:27:57.457Z

Big move by Great Britain, Koch responds immediately.

And France finally attacks with Cedrine Kerboal accelerating. She looks over her shoulder and sees the peloton on her wheel.

Ana Vitória Magalhães of Brazil tries her hand but is reeled back in.

2026-09-26T16:26:16.704Z

With 60km to go, Luxembourg’s Nina Berton attacks, and gets a quick reaction from Riejanne Markus (Netherlands).

The Dutch team want to control while other nations are starting to launch riders off the front, However, France has not tried anything yet, and continue to follow moves.

2026-09-26T16:22:44.545Z

Attack by Spain’s Mireia Benito with 61km to go. Italy’s Sara Casasola and Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier jump onto the move. But they are brought back.

2026-09-26T16:20:28.280Z

Magdeleine Vallieres Mill waves to the crowd as she crosses the line and pulls out of the race with teammate Adele Normand. Hugs her teammate, as the right side of her body is ripped out.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

2026-09-26T16:18:15.851Z

Great Britain’s team leader Zoe Bäckstedt is dropped on the Camilien-Houde climb, but chases back onto the pack on the descent.

The 22-year-old claimed the silver medal in the ITT earlier this week.

2026-09-26T16:14:35.328Z

Huge crowd is cheering on the riders on the climb

(Image credit: Getty Images)

2026-09-26T16:11:39.188Z

The Kim LeCourt group, which has swelled to 12 riders, is 1:48 down.

Canada’s Olivia Baril is 2:29 back with Courtney a further 30 seconds.

2026-09-26T16:09:21.451Z

The 47-rider peloton, still with Nooijen and the Dutch team setting the pace at the front, crosses the line and sees 5 laps to go.

Germany’s Franziska Koch is close to the front, behind Vollering.

2026-09-26T16:04:30.285Z

And the 5 riders finally join the peloton with 71km to go after a long chase. Garcia put in massive pulls to make that happen.

Gigante is a few metres off the back. The Australian returned to racing after over a year away, and only has one race in her legs this year.

2026-09-26T15:59:55.743Z

Five riders from the chase group almost connect with the peloton on the Polytechnique climb, as the attacks at the front have calmed down.

The commissaires have pulled all the cars in between all the groups.

2026-09-26T15:56:13.737Z

Last rider from the break, Edseth, is caught with 76km to go as attacks fly off the front.

Behind, a chase group with Amber Kraak, Lauren Dickson, Sarah Gigante, Monica Trinca Colonel, Mavi Garcia and more are working hard to close the gap, of around 20 seconds, to the peloton.

2026-09-26T15:53:17.147Z

Defending champion Vallieres Mill is still on her bike, crossing the line to start the third lap, nearly 7 minutes down with one teammate with her, Adele Normand.

2026-09-26T15:50:03.062Z

Edseth is pushing ahead solo.

The LeCourt and Courtney group with Evita Muzic (France), Alison Jackson, Grace Arlandson (USA) is around 1:30 from the peloton.

2026-09-26T15:46:14.361Z

More riders have pulled out: Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Norway), Christina Schweinberger (Austria), Lauretta Hanson (Australia), and Caroline Andersson (Sweden).

All the best to the riders that may be injured in that hard crash.

2026-09-26T15:31:29.866Z

Kim LeCourt-Pienaar and Kate Courtney are in a small chasing group but they are over one minute behind the pack.

Blasi, also involved in the crash, pulls out.

2026-09-26T15:28:19.241Z

Starting the 2nd lap, break of Quinn and Edseth see their gap reduced by half, down to 1:56.

The peloton, first whittled down by the tough circuit and then decimated by the crash, was down to around 40 riders, with a large chase group of around 40 riders behind.

Defending champion Vallieres, covered in road rash, is also trying to chase back with a teammate.

USA’s Kate Courtney is asking for her team to get a new bike.

Will provide more updates on which rider was impacted.

2026-09-26T15:20:19.966Z

Great Britain’s Flora Perkins accelerates at the front, but the Dutch come back to the fore on the Polytechnique climb.

2026-09-26T15:17:35.485Z

Puncture for Spain’s Sara Martin, who gets assistance from her team car.

As the start, leader Paula Blasi said that there was an illness going around the team.

2026-09-26T15:16:32.256Z

Still the Dutch at the front, with Vollering only a few riders back. French and Italian team also present to prepare for the descent off the Polytechnique climb.

Quite a few riders had trouble on the bottom right-hand turn onto Blvd Edouard-Montpetit in previous races.

2026-09-26T15:10:01.762Z

Lieke Nooijen (Netherlands) is putting the hurt on the peloton on the climb, as more riders drop from the back.

As we have seen in the previous races – juniors and U23s – this circuit is tough, and not many will survive at the front.

2026-09-26T15:05:35.472Z

Correction: Faulkner was not dropped; she is still in the peloton.

But Baker did pull out of the race, and that leaves the Australian team down to 3 riders.

2026-09-26T15:04:13.658Z

Poland’s Kaja Rusz is one of the riders dropped, which could impact team leader Kasia Niewadoma-Phinney who is one of the top contenders.

Poland started the race with 5 riders.

2026-09-26T15:01:27.624Z

Peloton is racing to position themselves before the first time up Voie Camillien-Houde

(Image credit: UCI)

2026-09-26T14:54:06.222Z

Crash. Paula Blasi (Spain) and Anna Hendersen (Great Britain) involved but get quicky back up.

2026-09-26T14:48:22.393Z

Pace has increased at the front of the peloton as riders being dropped include Georgia Baker (Australia), Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (USA)

2026-09-26T14:41:32.151Z

Break now down to 2 riders: Quinn and Edseth have 4:26 with 117.8km to go.

2026-09-26T14:40:32.024Z

The women are heading towards the 13.4km circuit, which features four key climbs. The first comes soon after the finish line with the Voie Camilien-Houde, a 1.67km ascent averaging 7.4% and reaching a maximum gradient of 10%.

Next is Chemin de la Polytechnique, 790 metres at 6%, including a punishing 200-metre section at 11%. The riders then face Avenue Pagnuelo, a 534-metre climb averaging 7%, topping out around the 9km mark.

The final challenge is a 600-metre drag at 4% up Avenue du Parc to the finish.

It is the same circuit that the previous categories faced on Thursday and Friday. The elite women will tackle the circuit eight times.

(Image credit: UCI)

2026-09-26T14:39:55.350Z

Stoyanova is falling of the pace in the break while Rosso also seems to be in trouble.

2026-09-26T14:37:33.240Z

The peloton is using the wide road on the bridge, happy to keep the pace steady, for now.

The four riders in the break – Natalie Quinn (USA), Marte Berg Edseth (Norway), Gergana Stoyanova (Bulgaria) and Beatriz Rosso (Portugal) – have 4:26 on the peloton as they exit the bridge onto the island of Montréal.

2026-09-26T14:33:35.908Z

Opened in 2015, the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge is 3.2km long, and replaced the old Champlain Bridge which was opened to traffic in 1962.

The new bridge provides a multi-use pathway to pedestrians and cyclists, and three nesting boxes for peregrine falcons are installed along the bridge

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk – back to racing.

2026-09-26T14:28:25.959Z

2026-09-26T14:24:17.498Z

News from the Cyclingnews team on the ground in Montréal:

Tereza Kurnická of Slovakia is actually a substitute for an injured rider, Nora Jenčušová – she’s the team’s soigneur and hasn’t raced since 2022, except for fun on MTB.

Tereza was apparently terrified of riding in a bunch this big, but she did race Worlds in 2021 as a junior so she’s not a complete novice.

But the countries need to enter riders to keep their qualifications for the coming years.

The same will happen in the men’s field tomorrow. Slovakia is putting a rider in who hasn’t raced in years.

2026-09-26T14:20:11.676Z

Another crash but the riders went up and riding away very quickly with 131.7km to go.

2026-09-26T14:09:03.071Z

Meanwhile, the gap to the four riders in the break is now at 2:19 with 140km to go, and the Dutch team is still controlling the front, followed by France.

Tas moved through the team cars and is back in the pack.

2026-09-26T14:06:37.241Z

After going to her team car, Normand stops to quickly switch one shoe that the mechanic brought to her from the car.

Nicely done. With no team radios, she calmly went to the car to let them, and give time for the mechanic to get her shoe out of her bag in the car.

2026-09-26T14:03:20.723Z

As the peloton seems happy with the break composition, let’s hear what defending Magdeleine Vallieres Mill had to say at the start this morning.

“It [having the rainbow jersey] changed a lot. I mean, it’s been such an honour this year to be able to wear the jersey and to be able to come back here at home and with the number one with a really good team. So yeah, it’s been super special.

“We’re gonna try [to keep the title]. I think we have, yeah, a super strong team, so we’re gonna give it a go.”

2026-09-26T14:01:45.192Z

A crash takes down riders on the left side of the road. Riders going down included Adèle Normand (Canada) and Sandrine Tas (Belgium).

Normand gets up quickly and is back on her bike, while Tas had to wait for her mechanic to sort out her bike.

2026-09-26T13:59:23.849Z

The Dutch team is lined up at the front of the peloton, with some wind impacting the riders, controlling the gap, now up 1:40 to the break.

2026-09-26T13:54:48.003Z

Another rider tries to jump to the break but the Dutch team reels her back in. They don’t want to let any other rider to join the move.

2026-09-26T13:47:13.560Z

Campbell is not giving up, as she attacks once again, and more riders jump on her wheel. But the peloton doesn’t want more riders to join the four riders in the break and Campbell can’t escape.

2026-09-26T13:44:31.709Z

Tallest rider in the peloton, Teniel Campbell (Trinidad & Tobago) attacks to bridge across and that gets an immediate reaction from Alison Jackson.

Jackson seems to be trying to get into a break and the peloton, led by the Dutch team, shuts that down immediately.

2026-09-26T13:41:21.909Z

More riders jump from the peloton and make it across the 15-second gap to Rosso. The move includes Natalie Quinn (USA), Marte Berg Edseth (Norway), and Gergana Stoyanova (Bulgaria)

2026-09-26T13:36:38.245Z

Another attack by Gafinovitz with Antri Christoforou (Cyprus) jumps on, but once again, the move is shut down.

Portugal’s Beatriz Rosso counters solo, and there is no immediate reaction from the peloton

2026-09-26T13:34:28.007Z

One of the riders trying to come across to the duo was Canada’s Alison Jackson, and the move is nullified.

2026-09-26T13:33:05.465Z

Greece’s Argyro Milaki and Israel’s Rotem Gafinovitz attack out of a right-hand turn and get a small gap with 166km to go.

Six riders try to come across to the head of the race.

2026-09-26T13:22:25.894Z

Canada’s Maggie Coles-Lyster and Alison Jackson are at the front and in the middle of the peloton, controlling things for now for their teammate, defending champion Vallieres Mill.

2026-09-26T13:19:38.124Z

Lots of chatter in the peloton as they roll by fans on the side of the road.

2026-09-26T12:59:43.905Z

The 140 riders representing 57 nations, including new countries of Panama, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia are off.

They will face 2570 metres of elevation gain over the 180.4km course featuring the closing Mount Royal circuit.

2026-09-26T12:58:47.110Z

Three minutes until the start in Brossard – more on the route coming up.

It is sunny in Brossard, with cool temperatures around 12°C, but the day should warm up, as the forecast calls for a high of 23°C in Montréal.

2026-09-26T12:55:37.274Z

Along with Vallieres, Belgian leader Lotte Kopecky is the only previous World Champion lining up at the start. She won twice before, in Glasgow in 2023 and Zurich in 2024.

Speaking on Friday, Kopecky acknowledged that Demi Vollering stands out as the favourite, but said plenty of other contenders are in the mix.

2026-09-26T12:52:44.088Z

More on Vollering from Laurens ten Dam, the Dutch team coach:

“She is incredibly focused, that’s true. Two days after the Tour de France, I got the first message already from her, ‘OK, job’s not finished’. I was like, ‘OK, she’s on’,” Ten Dam told Cyclingnews on Thursday evening.

2026-09-26T12:42:44.067Z

Will Dutch racer Demi Vollering finally win a world title today? She lines up as the top favourite, having swept almost all before her this season.

2026-09-26T12:37:50.718Z

Reigning champion Magdeleine Vallieres of Canada shared her thoughts on social media on the eve of the road race.

Hi. Bonjour. Welcome to our live report on Cyclingnews for the elite women’s road race on the final weekend of the 2026 UCI World Road Championships in Montréal, Canada.