Race Recap: 2025 Elite Women’s Road World Championships
Under the blazing African sun and raucous Rwandan crowds, the 2025 UCI Elite Women’s Road Race delivered a high‑drama spectacle. Raced over 164 km and 3,350 m of climbing, the eleven lap race of a punishing Kigali circuit thinned the field early.
The cobbled slopes of Côte de Kimihurura proved a repeated shredder of legs. By lap six, many smaller breakaways forced hesitation among race favorites like Demi Vollering and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. With 20 km to go, a few groups had slipped off the front of what was left of the main peloton. Of them, the trio containing Vallieres, Fisher‑Black and García were strongest and the most co-operative. Behind them, many race favourites were unable or unwilling to respond in any sustained or co-ordinated effort.
It all came to a head on the final climb. As the breakaway trio rolled onto the final cobbled climb, Vallieres kicked off the front, dropping Fisher‑Black and García at the base of the climb, in what would be the decisive move of the race. She quickly forged a gap and rode the final kilometres solo to take an emphatic win. Fisher‑Black claimed silver after a dogged chase, while García held off the chasers to grab the final podium slot.
Meanwhile, behind them, the chasing pack splintered further. Vollering, Longo Borghini, and other top names had left it too late and were unable to mount any meaningful counterattack. In the end, Vallieres crossed 23 seconds clear, writing her name into history as Canada’s first Elite Women’s road world champion in a race brimming with tactical chess and raw, relentless power.
South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio was active all race long, always at or near the front of the main group and in her 15th World Championship race, placed 29th. The ‘half-Saffa’, (actual Mauritian) Kim Le Court also battled against the six and seven rider strong European teams, to finish a credible 8th. //