Few outside of Canadian cycling circles, and perhaps the EF Education–Oatly team, saw it coming. When 24-year-old Magdeleine Vallieres lined up in Kigali, Rwanda, for the elite women’s road race at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, she was ranked 149th in the world and far from a household name. But by the end of the gruelling course, she had pulled off one of this year's biggest upsets, outriding decorated champions to seize the rainbow jersey.
Until last week, the biggest wins on her palmarès had been a Canadian criterium title and a victory at the UCI 1.1 Trofeo Palma Femina in Spain. Modest results on paper, but as her teammate Kristen Faulkner, herself the surprise Olympic champion of 2024, explained, that ranking said little about her true talent.
