Magdeleine Vallieres made history with a brutally stunning breakaway victory to claim Canada's first elite road race rainbow jersey at the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda.
The 24-year-old Québécoise from Sherbrooke believes that her determination to take a risk led to a dream-come-true moment in her professional cycling career.
“It was my dream to win it, and it's true now! It's crazy!" she told the assembled media at the Kigali Convention Centre following her victory.
"It's really shocking. I'm really happy. I still don't believe it. We have had a lot of success as Canadians, but this is the first elite women's win, and that is super special.
"I don't know if we were the strongest, but I think we made the right moves and played it, risked something by going away and committed to it. In the end, it turned out really good."
Canadians have had much success at the Road World Championships in the elite category, with Karol-Ann Canuel and Leah Kirchmann winning world titles in the former trade team time trial, along with Steve Bauer, Alyson Sydor and Michael Woods securing medals in the elite road races, and Anne Samplonius, Clara Hughes and Svein Tuft winning medals in the elite time trials over the years.
Vallieres formed part of a three-rider breakaway that pulled away from a reshuffling larger move on the last lap. While the field split apart behind the trio, they were roughly a minute ahead of the group, which included major favourites: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), and Demi Vollering (Netherlands), among others.
While the favourites marked one another behind, Vallieres, along with Mavi Garcia (Spain) and Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand), pushed on ahead, grinding over the two major climbs: Côte de Kigali Golf and the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura on the challenging 15.1km city circuit.
"I knew this was a good course for me. My coach told me that it was as if they made the course for me. I have a lot of people who believe in me, so I knew if I wanted to do well, I needed to take a risk," Vallieres said.
"My team believed in me, and they said they would commit to me for today. They positioned me for the first half of the race, coming into the climbs. I could save enough and didn't have to do so much in the first half of the race."
When it became clear that the group of favourites would not catch the trio, Vallieres attacked on the last cobbled climb, distancing herself from her rivals in what Fisher-Black called "another level".
Valllieres said she trained specifically for the altitude so that she could arrive in Kigali in the best possible shape for the Worlds, the same strategy as many of her rivals, who have said the altitude, climbs, and air quality have all played a factor in their performances this week.
"I took a big step in my training over the last few months, and I knew I was in good shape. The other girls were also super strong. I didn't know if I could go on the last climb, but I decided that I didn't want to have any regrets, so I committed and went all in for it."
Vallieres currently races with trade EF Education-Oatly, a contract that she signed through to the end of 2027. However, she came through the World Cycling Centre, a programme that develops athletes worldwide, in 2020 and 2021.
"I did an ID camp after my last year of junior, and did some testing, and they signed me the next year. It was a good opportunity to get to Europe because Canada is far, and it is quite expensive to get to the races. I was able to get to Europe to the harder races to try and develop," she said.
Asked what it has been like to compete in these landmark Road World Championships that are held in Africa for the first time, Vallieres said, "It's incredible. I have had such a great welcome. The crowds were screaming so loud that it gave me the extra power that I needed to give today. I was hurting a lot, so the sounds, cheering and screaming on the roads were incredible."
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