The Canadian Magdeleine Vallieres sacred to everyone's surprise, disappointment for Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt

The Canadian EF Education team was extracted from the peloton with a small group 35 kilometers from the finish and took advantage of the fact that the favorites are observed in the back to win on Saturday in Rwanda.

What a huge sensation in Kigali! No one had imagined the victory of Magdeleine Vallieres, the 24-year-old Canadian, who had won only a race in her career until then, the Trofeo Palma in 2024. But the EF Education team's runner took advantage of an attack by the French Evita Muzic 35 kilometers from the finish, Saturday September 27, to slip into a group and go to the front. Meanwhile, the favorites, including the Frenchman Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt, observed themselves in the back, and reacted only too late to fill their delay. The New Zealander Niamh Fisher-Black (+0''23) and the Spanish Mavi Garcia (+0''27) complete the podium.

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The disappointment is obviously great for the French team, which aimed for victory with Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt. And for a long time, the Bleues achieved a large collective race, with Marie Le Net which organized the pursuit of runs escaped like the Dutch Shirin Van Anrooij, the Netherlands also having a very strong team intended to win. Then Cédrine Kerbaol placed some accelerations to make the other teams work. But the fate of Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt (16th, +1'50 '') may have been unfortunately sealed by an attack on her teammate Evita Muzic, 35 kilometers from the finish.

The Frenchwoman was followed by solid runners representing many nations, which disorganized their prosecution. This small group therefore took the lead, almost two minutes before the last loop of the circuit, and all Juliette Labous's efforts to reduce the gap and bring Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt to the front were in vain. And as the French champion was feared and marked by her half -vollering competitors, Elisa Longo Borghini or Kim Le Court, these are all favorites who said goodbye to their chances of victory.

“We had come for the title so we can really be disappointed. We make a few small mistakes, when the Evita group leaves, we know that Evita is not very good, we should not have left so much gap”regretted Juliette Labous, best Frenchwoman with her 13th place (+1'39 ''), three positions ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt. On the contrary, Magdeleine Vallieres was a big smile, incredulous. “I can't believe it again, it will take a long time to realize. There are so many strong girls, I was in good movements, luck was with me, legs too”.

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The legs actually, since it was in the last ascent of the Kimihurura coast that the Canadian made the difference on her escaped companions. While she had not climbed on a single podium this season, she became the first Canadian in history to be crowned world champion, and therefore put on the rainbow jersey a year before the World Worlds, in Montreal.