Vollering pips Niewiadoma to seal dramatic road race world title

The Tour de France Femmes champion, Demi Vollering, won the longest-ever edition of the women’s UCI world road race championship in a brutal and compelling sprint finale in Montreal.

In an enthralling and attritional race, the biggest names in the women’s peloton duelled their way over the multiple climbs, before the Dutch rider applied the coup de grace in the closing metres.

The ebb and flow saw numerous changes in the lead, until on the final lap, Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma, of Poland, definitively took control and traded blows to the uphill finish.

With less than 200 metres to go, the pair were side by side, but Vollering’s sprint finally proved too much for her longstanding rival.

“It was an amazing race and I was very proud to be part of it,” Vollering said. “I worked so hard to work towards this goal and it takes guts to truly believe. I’m so proud of everybody from the team. They rode the whole race from the front.”

But Vollering’s first attack, which came with 40 kilometres of racing remaining on the gruelling Montreal circuit, and characteristically, on the steepest climb, almost backfired when she was recaptured with less than 20 kilometres to go.

“There were so many moments when I thought I’d taken off too early,” she said. “It was so close. When they came back (to me) I was like ‘oh shit – this is still not over.’ But never give up until the finish line.”

The 29-year-old’s success climaxed a remarkable season in which she has also won a second Tour de France title, the Giro women, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Flanders.

When her initial attack came, the race looked likely to follow a familiar script. The Dutch rider was chased by a select group of eight, that included the Tour de France runner-up, Niewiadoma, the world time trial champion, Marlen Reusser, and the Italian national champion, Elisa Longo Borghini

With 20 kilometres remaining the group fractured, under the impetus of 2024 Tour de France winner Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini, with Vollering wilting after 20 kilometres spent alone in the lead.

But in a finale that encapsulated the compelling nature of women’s racing, the favourites regrouped at the start of the final lap, and Longo Borghini launched her own last-ditch attack. Vollering, however did not give up, finally mustering the energy to attack again, this time decisively, to repay the best efforts of an expertly drilled Netherlands team.