New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black, read the race and team tactics perfectly, joining the decisive three-rider breakaway that would battle it out to take second in the elite women’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships. The 25-year-old couldn’t match the sharp acceleration of Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres on the final steep ascent of Côte de Kimihurara, but was satisfied to come away with the silver medal.
“I'm not sure I ever expected that,” Fisher-Black, the under-23 road race winner at 2022 Wollongong Worlds, said about winning the silver medal, “I knew it would have to come down to a scenario like this for me to compete in this race because I'm not naturally a comfortable punchy rider.”
Though she called the Kigali course “brutal”, Fisher-Black admits that the first half of the 164.6km race wasn’t “so hard”, allowing her to take advantage of team tactics.
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“These big nations sort of played the game, I guess. [At that point] I’m feeling good because a lot of the good riders maybe raced too conservatively because they were afraid of the altitude, the heat, and this course.”
Fisher-Black made her way into a 10-rider break, which was whittled down to three when Spain’s Mavi García attacked with 22km to go, also drawing Vallieres out. The trio pushed clear while the main contenders behind marked each other.
“I knew I felt really good actually, and then when I quickly realised that I was in position to go for the win in the last lap and a half, and to be honest, I had to think about my strengths, and for sure, that was that steep climb that was paved and then even the final.”
“So, I tried on the last final climb - on the last steep climb - but I couldn’t stay with her. She was strong, and to be honest, I didn't even anticipate so much her attack on the cobbles.” Fisher-Black said. “I hoped that maybe if I had kept it in my own pace, I could come back, because I knew that maybe the cobblestones suit me so well but she was on another level.”
As a top 10 finisher at the one-day races Strade Bianche, Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège as well as at the three Grand Tours this year, Fisher-Black came to Kigali 2025 as something of an outsider favourite, with only one teammate to support her against powerhouse squads fielding five riders each.
“It's always a funny scenario with the world championships. It can be a blessing in disguise to be on a smaller team because especially with the difficulties with communication and everything, and the strange scenario that we all come from different teams, trade teams normally, I think, it can make an uncomfortable scenario with team dynamics.”
“I slipped into the right move, and they looked at each other, and that can happen at any world championships. It’s the game.”
History was made again on Saturday in Kigali, as the 25-year-old became the first New Zealander, female or male, to step onto the podium in the elite road race at the UCI World Championships.
“I think it's something special for the sport,” Fisher-Black said of the first world championships held in Africa. “Of course I think it caused a lot of talk in the cycling world because we're used to it being so European-based, but I think it's actually now that I think of it, it’s super cool that we leave Europe and we come to race our bikes, and then on the podium are the two non-European countries and the winner is a non-European country. So, I think that speaks up for the globalisation of the sport and I hope it does better in the future.”
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