Her Polish rival Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney finished second, in the same time, while Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy was third, 4 seconds behind the winner and 4 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser, who had won her second consecutive Time Trial World Championship a week earlier.
The race was marred by a horrific crash at its midway point, with 15 riders hitting the pavement and dozens of others held up to such an extent that they lost all chances for a podium. A number of riders abandoned the race because of injuries sustained in the incident, including Spain’s Paula Blasi, who might have been part of the final battle had she not crashed, and defending champion and home favorite Magdeleine Vallieres.
At the end, Vollering was full of praise for her Dutch teammates, who worked hard for her. Very visible in their orange jerseys, they were in front of the peloton for much of the race, especially after the peloton began the first of eight 13.4km circuits, which contained three climbs, including the Voie Camillien-Houde (1.7km @ 7.3%) and the taxing 600-meter climb (at 4.6%) to the finish, which had been decisive in several of the other world title races.
A failed solo, a triumphant sprint
It was decisive again on Saturday, though for a while it looked as if Vollering would win with a solo attack. After a blistering lead-out by teammate Puck Pieterse on the Voie Camillien-Houde, Vollering burst away from the small group of title contenders with 39km left to race, quickly passed the lone breakaway rider, France’s Maeva Squiban, and slowly increased her lead.
“I think the key moment was having a team who made it so hard lap after lap, and then Puck, who did an amazing lead-out for me to set up an attack,” Vollering told journalists after the race. “I think this was one of the key moments where we really killed all the others almost, and then I was out alone. It was a very crazy race from this moment, because the gap never was amazingly big, so it was always like 20, 15 seconds. I really tried to stay in the moment and to focus on my own effort.”
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Yes, Vollering’s lead always hovered around 20 seconds and never grew larger than 30 seconds over the eight-rider chase group, which was eventually whittled down to five: Pieterse, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Longo Borghini, Reusser and France’s Julie Berthet.
Though the lead was small, there was no reason to think that Vollering would be caught. But Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini broke away from the chase group 20km from the line and caught Vollering 5km later.
“The moment they came back, I was like, ‘OK, now I need to switch to Plan B as soon as possible,’ but at least I have to try to go all the way to the finish line without any regrets,” Vollering said. “It really helped also to have a team who worked so hard the whole day for you. Then it’s a bit easier to finish it off because you have all the weight on your shoulders to finish it off as well.”
From here on, it got dramatic as the three riders headed for the line while behind them Berthet struggled to catch up and Reusser tried to overcome a flagrant error: “In the crucial moment, I was out of position,” she explained. “I was busy with my feeding. Incredibly stupid.”
A thrilling finale
After the lead group was joined by Berthet, Longo Borghini attacked 13km from the line, as the title contenders began the last of the eight loops, eventually building a lead of 10 seconds. But a sustained burst of speed by Vollering dropped Berthet out of contention and eventually caught the Italian champion. Another attack by the Dutch rider, 11.3km from the line, dropped Longo Borghini, as Vollering raced for the finish line with Niewiadoma-Phinney glued to her wheel.
After an attack by the Polish rider at 4km was unsuccessful, the two continued riding together while Longo Borghini and, just seconds behind her, Reusser slowly drew closer. That’s how they hit the final climb, the lead duo playing cat-and-mouse while Longo Borghini loomed behind them with one of her typical never-say-die efforts.
Finally, 160 meters from the line, Niewiadoma-Phinney launched her sprint, followed immediately by Vollering, who was riding away as her Polish rival cramped up in the final meters.
A team-based winning strategy
“It’s crazy; I still cannot believe it,” an emotional Vollering said immediately after finally securing, in her eighth attempt, the only major title that had eluded her throughout her career. “We worked so hard for this today. The whole team was riding so strong from the start to the finish. . . . So it was really every single team member was part of this whole journey and this jersey.”
At her post-race press conference, she explained that the strategy was devised at the start, at her request, and then executed brilliantly on the road. “It’s incredible to see it finally work out after the race we have shown today,” Vollering said. “Because in the past I have said it more often: if we want to win a race with me, then we need to do it like this way, to set a team in front of me and really sacrifice every team member to also make the race very hard and to stay in control.
“That’s what we did today, and then directly we have like this beautiful jersey in our pocket. So it really took all the effort from every single team member to get to this point, and I’m very proud of all the girls I had around me today… It takes guts to ask this from a team. I take a lot of strong Dutch girls with me, they all sacrifice their own chances for me, and then I will finish it off for you. But you don’t know if you can finish it off.”
Shed a tear for the valiant Niewiadoma-Phinney, whose misfortune it is to ride in the era of Vollering. The Polish rider rode a splendid race and was beaten by a narrow margin. “It’s not, like, ‘Oh yay, silver’,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said afterwards. “But I knew that I gave my best. On the other hand, you accept the fact that somebody was faster, stronger than you, and you gave your absolute best. There are no what-ifs, and then it’s kind of easier to move on.”
Longo Borghini won her first-ever world championship gold medal in this year’s mixed team relay on September 22 and, with her bronze in the road race, now has a collection of eight world championship medals. Asked if her late attack had been a risk, she said, “If you don’t risk, you don’t win the race, so you have to [take a] risk; otherwise, you never know. If you never try, you lose anyway. So it’s better to try than to be third like a loser. I don’t like to stay passive. I like to hurt the others and to make them suffer. They have to deserve the win.”
That Vollering surely did.
Results 2026 Elite Women’s Road Race World Championship: Brossard to Montréal (180 km)
| Pos. | Rider | Nation | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Demi Vollering | Netherlands | 4:45:09 |
| 2 | Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney | Poland | same time |
| 3 | Elisa Longo Borghini | Italy | +0:04 |
| 4 | Marlen Reusser | Switzerland | +0:08 |
| 5 | Juliette Berthet | France | +0:39 |
| 6 | Puck Pieterse | Netherlands | +1:36 |
| 7 | Célia Gery | France | +2:55 |
| 8 | Dominika Włodarczyk | Poland | +4:16 |
| 9 | Maeva Squiban | France | +5:48 |
| 10 | Franziska Koch | Germany | +5:51 |