'Weren't willing' - Why big hitters Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini fell short in UCI Road World Championships women's road race
Published 29/09/2025 at 10:43 GMT+1
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Canadian rider Magdeleine Vallieres stunned the field in the UCI World Championships women's road race. Her unexpected victory meant several big names and pre-race favourites, such as Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini, left Rwanda empty-handed. TNT Sports' Breakaway crew - Dani Rowe, Dani Christmas and Orla Chennaoui - discussed why so many big names failed to make their mark.
Highlights: Vallieres upsets the odds to storm to victory in Kigali
Video credit: TNT Sports
The Women's UCI Road World Championships women's road race witnessed a shock result as 24-year-old Magdeleine Vallieres made history with a stunning breakaway victory in Rwanda.
The pre-race favourites and big names were outwitted by the Canadian, who captured her second professional victory.
Elisa Longo Borghini admitted that herself and other favourites suffered from overconfidence and "underestimated" the strength of the breakaway that included Vallieres.
Dani Rowe and Dani Christmas joined Orla Chennaoui on TNT Sports' The Breakaway to dissect why the big hitters failed to live up to their potential.
"The brutality of that course, we talked about it every single day in the lead-up to this race," Rowe said.
"And that was probably in the back of the minds of all those big riders at the start of the day: 'Don't do too much too early.' So actually they didn't risk it.
"Because they had this big chance to win the biggest bike race in the world, they actually weren't willing to put their heart on the line and go for it, willing to lose the race to win it.
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"And we didn't see that from the big names we mentioned before the race even began, and it opened a massive door for the riders in the front group to take a victory."
Longo Borghini eventually finished 15th behind the main group of favourites that included Demi Vollering, Kim Le Court and Kasia Niewiadoma Phinney.
The group were unable to work together and the trio of Vallieres, New Zealand's Niamh Fisher-Black and Spain's Mavi Garcia were able to go clear with 20km to go.
"That was also part of the problem in that group behind," Rowe added. "Elisa Longo Borghini was isolated, a lot of them there.
"There wasn't that strength in depth in that group behind, so they were cancelling each other out because they were not going to do that work themselves and tow each other to the line.
"That is what gave that front group that huge opportunity with a lot of strong riders in there. It wasn't like it was an early move that had been away all day.
"It was a strong group who took their opportunity late in the race within the last 30-40 kilometres. Rode cohesively together. It is unpredictable but that's the World Championships, it's amazing."
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'I don't believe it yet!' - Vallieres reflects on stunning road race victory
Video credit: TNT Sports
Christmas also noted how the group of favourites continuously cancelled each other out, and were eventually unable to catch Vallieres.
"They just keep cancelling each other out, they're just always looking at each other," she explained.
"As soon as one of them gets out of the saddle then they're all on it, none of them can move. That's why we're seeing one or two riders go up, then another two would go then another two.
"You form a really handy front group of very, very good bike riders, and when you've got multiple strong riders up the road they're going to be very difficult to bring back.
"Especially when they're without team-mates, they're trying to attack from the peloton and as soon as another rider jumps they look at each other and think, 'Well I'm not going to take you to the finish.' It just cancels each other out."
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