{"id":130488,"date":"2026-09-20T10:03:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/20\/vollering-and-her-rivals-rev-up-for-road-worlds-rainbows\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:03:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:03:46","slug":"vollering-and-her-rivals-rev-up-for-road-worlds-rainbows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/20\/vollering-and-her-rivals-rev-up-for-road-worlds-rainbows\/","title":{"rendered":"Vollering and Her Rivals Rev up for Road Worlds Rainbows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"justify-start\">\n<nav class=\"align-left col-span-full mb-base\" data-pom-e2e-test-id=\"breadcrumbs\"\/>\n<p>Starting Sunday, Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser, Kasia Niewiadoma and more go head to head in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--$?--><template id=\"B:1\"\/><!--\/$--><\/p>\n<div><\/p>\n<p class=\"fp-leadCaption py-tight text-left font-utility text-utility3-size leading-utility3-line-height text-secondary\">Demi Vollering won the European road championships last Autumn but is yet to win a world title (Photo: Billy Ceusters\/Getty Images)<!-- --> (Photo: Billy Ceusters)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>Published September 20, 2026 04:03AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s already been a dream season for <a target=\"_self\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/demi-vollering\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Demi Vollering<\/a> but it could become even better if everything goes to plan for her in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch star won her second Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift title in early August, adding to wins in the Giro d\u2019Italia Women, the Tour of Flanders, Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge and others this year. She\u2019s the clear favorite for the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/uci-road-world-championships\/\" rel=\"noopener\">road world championships<\/a>, although she\u2019s never won a world title before and has competed just once since her Tour success.<\/p>\n<p>Can she do it? She\u2019ll try, for sure, but is up against a host of big rivals in her worlds campaign.<\/p>\n<p>First off is the elite women\u2019s time trial on Sunday which, in a rare occurrence, is run off over exactly the same distance as the elite men.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a 39.2km course in and around the city and is mainly flat and very fast. There is just 220 meters of elevation over the distance, widening the list of contenders and perhaps making Vollering\u2019s task a little more complicated.<\/p>\n<p>Her key rival will almost certainly be to be <a target=\"_self\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/marlen-reusser\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Marlen Reusser<\/a>, the Swiss rider who won last year\u2019s title and who also picked up two silver medals and once bronze in previous editions.<\/p>\n<p>Reusser is, on paper at least, the best time trialist in cycling and could well defend her title. However much will depend on how her preparation has been after the Tour, where she crashed on the final stage and tumbled down the GC from third overall to 14th. She\u2019s raced just once since then, winning the Chrono F\u00e9minin de Gatineau earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>She won the stage 4 TT at the Tour and led the race for three days.<\/p>\n<p>Also likely to challenge for medals are Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt (Great Britain), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Kristen Faulkner (USA) and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium).<\/p>\n<p>The course is a very technical one with plenty of turns acting to test the bike handling abilities of the riders.<\/p>\n<p>See more <a target=\"_self\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/2026-uci-road-world-championships-guide\/\" rel=\"noopener\">details about the route here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Niewiadoma dreams big once more<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1006634\" class=\"pom-image-wrap photo-alignnone\"><img alt=\"Kasia Niewiadoma (l) and Anna van der Breggen (r) finished second and third to Demi Vollering in the European championships. Van der Breggen misses the worlds after some bouts of illness. (Photo: Jeff Pachoud \/ AFP)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1006634\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2238789766.jpg?width=3840&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover 1x\" src=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2238789766.jpg?width=3840&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover\"\/><figcaption class=\"pom-caption\"><span class=\"article__caption\">Kasia Niewiadoma (l) and Anna van der Breggen (r) finished second and third to Demi Vollering in the European championships. Van der Breggen misses the worlds after some bouts of illness. (Photo: Jeff Pachoud \/ AFP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>How ever the TT goes for Vollering, she should be the favorite for the road race. Her dominance has been so complete this year that she will approach the hilly course with confidence, likely thinking back to her ambush of the-then race leader <a target=\"_self\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/kasia-niewiadoma\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Kasia Niewiadoma<\/a> on the penultimate day of the Tour.<\/p>\n<p>That too was on a course with short, steep climbs and she disposed of all of her rivals. On that basis, Vollering will know that she can take any rider on.<\/p>\n<p>However Niewiadoma has defeated Vollering in the past on similar ascents, dropping her to win Fl\u00e8che Wallonne in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The Polish rider hasn\u2019t competed since the Tour but knows this year\u2019s route suits her very well. It is perhaps the ideal opportunity for her to improve on her third place of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Reusser, too, will fancy her chances. She rode strongly in the Tour until and while things unravelled slightly on Mont Ventoux, she is a strong and tactically astute rider. She was fourth in the 2023 worlds and, at 35, knows she must seize her opportunity now.<\/p>\n<p>Ditto for Elisa Longo Borghini, third overall at the Tour. She\u2019s a plucky, determined competitor with a proven climbing ability and a tactical instinct which could play off well, particularly if Vollering gets bogged down in battles with other riders.<\/p>\n<p>Kim le Court is also a big danger; she is very good on terrain which fits her explosive style and Montr\u00e9al seems perfect in that regard. Winning the GC and a stage in the Tour of Britain a boost, although crashing out of the Classic Lorient Agglom\u00e9ration was a setback.<\/p>\n<p>Attention will be paid too to double champion Lotte Kopecky, who triumphed in 2023 and 2024. She hasn\u2019t been at her best since and pulled out of the Tour of Britain due to illness, but returned to a past practice of competing against junior men as part of her buildup for Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Other big threats include Paula Blasi (Spain), defending champion Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res, who will be psyched to be racing on home soil, C\u00e9drine Kerbaol and Juliette Berthet (France), Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), Liane Lippert and Antonia Niedermaier (Germany).<\/p>\n<h2>A tough course awaits<\/h2>\n<p>The women\u2019s race is 180.4km and will rack up 2,570 meters of altitude gain. This climbing is concentrated into the second half of the race, with the opening 64km largely flat. From there the riders will tackle eight laps of the difficult Mont Real circuit, which includes ascents of the steep 1.7km Voie Camillien-Houde climb.<\/p>\n<p>The final ascent comes 11km from the finish line, with it plus the subsequent descent making for a thrilling finale.<\/p>\n<p>See <a target=\"_self\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/2026-uci-road-world-championships-guide\/\" rel=\"noopener\">more on the course here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span hidden=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vollering-rivals-rev-up-road-worlds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting Sunday, Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser, Kasia Niewiadoma and more go head to head in Montr\u00e9al. Demi Vollering won the European road championships last Autumn but is yet to win a world title (Photo: Billy Ceusters\/Getty Images) (Photo: Billy Ceusters) Published September 20, 2026 04:03AM It\u2019s already been a dream season for Demi Vollering but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}