Inspiring Road Cycling World Championships: Racing thriller in Montreal

One has tears of happiness on her face, the other clutches her right leg, which is plagued by cramps, with an expression of pain. The third throws her whole fighter's heart into the balance and after a courageous attack she only comes third. And that hasn't even mentioned the faces of the fallen athletes, blank with disappointment.

The women's road race at the World Cycling Championships in Montreal, Canada, offered a huge range of emotions. There was the disappointment of local hero Magdeleine Vallières Mill. She competed as the defending champion in her home country. Well, last year's surprise world champion wasn't the top favorite. But the Canadian wanted to shine on her home course. A crash 95 kilometers from the finish robbed her of all chances.

Rather, Demi Vollering grabbed her happiness with both hands. The Dutchwoman had her entire team prepared to attack. "I've often said in the past: If we want to win a race with me, we have to approach it like this: We have to put together a team that gives everything for me and really push every team member to the extreme to make the race extremely difficult and to keep control. That's exactly what we did today," she later told the Dutch industry outlet Wielerflits.

And the Orange women actually dominated. They set the pace in the field and reduced it lap by lap. With 38 km to go they prepared their captain's attack. Vollering pulled away irresistibly. The favorite group burst. The Italian Elisa Longo Borghini tried to hold on, but quickly gave up. Several mini-groups formed within a few seconds of each other. Franziska Koch, the best German in the end in 10th place, took her place in the fourth season.

"Unfortunately the mountain was a bit too long for me. I was in no man's land," she said, describing the situation. “But I fought to the line and I can be proud of that,” she said, taking something positive away from the race. With bronze in the time trial, Koch secured the only medal for German Cycling at this World Cup and can at least individually return from overseas happy.

But she had nothing to do with the awarding of medals in the road race. There Longo Borghini and the Pole Kasia Niewiadoma came close to Vollering again. This is perhaps the biggest difference between men's and women's road cycling. When the best of the guys, Tadej Pogačar, says goodbye to the front of the peloton, the rest of the guys just look at it resignedly and then start their own race for second place behind the Slovenian. If the best woman in cycling today, Vollering, the current double winner of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, creates a gap, the others follow suit.

After catching up with Vollering at the beginning of the last lap, Longo Borghini even launched his own attack. Plagued by cramps, she had to let the duo Vollering and Niewiadoma get closer to her again and even pass her by. The Dutchwoman then won the two-man sprint ahead of the Pole, who held onto her sore thigh in the last few meters and, shortly after the finish line, took her foot completely off the pedal and stretched her leg.

Vollering also attributed the victory to increased mental strength. “With each passing year, you understand yourself better, and you also find it easier to communicate your needs to the people around you,” she said. So she was able to convince the Dutch team and didn't break down mentally when Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma caught up.

Little went right for the German women in this battle between the giants of their sport. That also corresponds to the overall impression of this World Cup. The world elite has currently eluded the Germans among men and women and also in the junior classes. Before the end of the men's race, Koch only had one bronze medal.