Demi Vollering (Netherlands) outsprinted Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney to win the elite women’s road race at the UCI World Championships, emerging victorious after a failed solo attack and a gripping final lap duel with the Polish rider.

Vollering went away on her own 38km to go, and looked set to take victory from a long-range move, but the unrelenting efforts of Niewiadoma-Phinney and third-place Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) from a chase group saw her reeled back in before the final 15km.

The Italian tried to go solo, but Vollering showed off her mental resilience as she got back on the front, worked tirelessly to reel back Longo Borghini, then dropped her on the final ascent of the Camillien-Houde to make it a lead duo.

Niewiadoma-Phinney made Vollering do the lion’s share of the work on the final lap, before trying to drop her on one of the final kickers, putting the Dutch rider into difficulty, but failing to distance her before the final run to the line.

Longo Borghini and Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) were chasing hard behind, but the victory was going to go to one of the top two riders from the Tour de France Femmes. Niewiadoma-Phinney went first with 200 metres to go, but Vollering just kept sprinting, having led things out, with the Polish rider running out of steam first before the line and seeing the victory go to her big rival.

“I think I can still not believe it. I worked so hard towards this goal, and it takes guts to truly believe in it with your whole heart, and together a team around you with such strong girls, and they all sacrifice for you,” said an emotional Vollering after the finish.

“I mean, they maybe also have a chance, and they all go for it – only for you, it’s a lot to ask from them. But I’m so proud of everybody from the team. They did the whole race. We took it in hand, and they rode the whole race on the front, then Puck [Pieterse] did an amazing lead-out, and I could just not… not finish the job, you know?

“Oh yeah, there were so many moments I thought I went too early. I mean, it stayed so close the whole time, and I didn’t dare to turn around and look back because I was like, I feel like they’re almost in my wheel already. And then it was 20 seconds, 22, 15, and at one point they came back, and I was like, oh shit! But it’s still not over. I have to believe in it, like from my little toe. I just dared and then tried again, and never gave up till the finish line.

“I was not planning to give it away anymore from that moment. I was like, no, now it’s mine,” she said, recalling the final sprint. “I think it was an amazing race to watch. I’m very proud to be part of that, and I cannot wait to watch it back.”

Vollering adds this maiden world title to an already incredible season, in which she has won the Tour de France Femmes, Giro d’Italia Women, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, the Tour of Flanders, and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

How it unfolded

Not long after the riders rolled out of Brossard with the tension building for the elite women’s road race, the first attacks were launched out of the peloton by Rotem Gafinovitz (Israel) and Argiro Milaki (Greece), but it wasn’t until 20km of the 180-kilometre route had been completed that the early breakaway formed.

With the two initial attackers brought back and the Dutch team showing they were going to control things, Gergana Stoyanova (Bulgaria), Beatriz Roxo (Portugal), Marte Berg Edseth (Norway), and Natalie Quinn (USA) got up the road and were allowed to build a lead.

Racing settled down with the Netherlands pacing behind and the break kicking on towards Montreal and the eight laps of the Mount Royal circuit and Voie Camilien-Houde climb, where the rainbow jersey winner would be decided.

Quinn and Edseth emerged as the strongest from the break, with their two other companions getting dropped, and they entered the first circuit with a three-minute lead over the chasing peloton. It was calm in the bunch, but some of the corners had caused crashes, with Paula Blasi (Spain) and Anna Henderson (Great Britain) coming down, but quickly remounting their bikes.

Racing began to heat up into the final 100km and the second of eight laps around the main circuit, but as the pace was upped, a major crash rippled through the bunch with 95km to go, forcing Blasi to abandon and the likes of defending champion Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada) and Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mauritius) into a long chase.

The horror incident saw the peloton almost halved, with several riders requiring medical attention and abandoning, including Caroline Andersson (Sweden) and Lauretta Hanson (Australia).

With the race continuing on, the Dutch team resumed their control on the front through the indefatigable Lieke Nooijen, whose efforts in the bunch saw the two remaining breakaways both caught with 76km to go.

Without one of their leaders, Spain looked for a new path to success with Mireia Benito attacking with 61.3km to go, upsetting the rhythm being set by the Dutch team for most of the day. While this move was brought back, it encouraged the likes of Nina Berton (Luxembourg), Pfeiffer Georgi (Great Britain, and Cédrine Kerbaol (France) to make brief accelerations of their own.

The next attacker was the one who went away, though, with Kerbaol’s teammate and two-time Tour de France Femmes stage winner Maeva Squiban attacking with 52km to go. Entering the final 50km, there were just 38 riders remaining in the peloton, with the French riders 22 seconds up the road.

The final 50km

Pieterse’s efforts were so explosive that Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) was dropped, Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) was dropped, as were all of the other top contenders. When Vollering finally went, with a violent surge 38.5km from the finish, Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) was the closest to being able to follow, but she too started to fade under the pressure.

Vollering reached Squiban in no time, who tried valiantly to hang onto the Dutch rider’s wheel, but also quickly got burned as the favourite reaccelerated and went solo into the final 38km.

With a long way to go, Vollering didn’t completely scorch away, with her lead stabilising around the 23-second mark, and an eight-rider chasing group forming behind her: Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, Squiban, Célia Gery, Juliette Berthet (France), Dominika Włodarczyk (Poland), Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) and Pieterse. The race was far from done yet.

Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini worked away with full effort, and after the gap fluctuated between 30 seconds and 20 seconds, the Dutch rider began to be reeled back in with 17km to go. Suddenly, the Polish and Italian riders had the lone leader in their sights.

Contact was made with 15.3km to go, turning it into a leading trio, but Berthet was also close to coming back to make it a group of four heading into a thrilling final lap.

As they took the bell, rung by the winner of Worlds the last time it was in Montreal in 1974, Geneviève Gambillon, the pace started to come out of the lead quartet, prompting Longo Borghini to attack over the line with 13km to go.

Niewiadoma looked to Vollering to do the work, and the gap quickly went out to 10 seconds. The Dutch rider found another gear, though, as they went up the main climb for the final time, dropping Berthet and grinding away to catch Longo Borghini 200 metres from the top.

Paying for her efforts on the attack, Longo Borghini soon started to struggle under the pressure, leaving the top two from the Tour de France Femmes to battle it out for the victory in the final 11km.

With Vollering doing most of the work, an attack from Niewiadoma was inevitable, and she chose a kicker 4km from the line as her moment, grimacing as she accelerated in a final bid for glory.

Vollering weathered the storm, and it became clear that a two-up sprint was going to be needed to decide the new rainbow jersey. Arriving at the final corner with 750 metres to go, the Dutch rider led out from the front, with Niewiadoma sprinting 200 metres from the line.

Even after 180km of racing and 23 kilometres out in front on her own, Vollering still had enough in the tank to overhaul her great rival, with the emotions flowing out as soon as she crossed the line victorious.

Results

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