Magdeleine Vallières Mill’s rainbow jersey was the shock of Kigali and the most Canadian of cycling stories. A rider who learned to love long days in the saddle on a thousand-kilometre bikepacking trip with her dad at the age of nine, who moved across the Atlantic to chase a dream with the UCI’s World Cycling Centre, who spent much of her early pro years working for others, and who then picked the perfect day to bet on herself. At 24, the Sherbrooke native became Canada’s first-ever elite road race world champion, sealing a landmark win that has already reshaped both her career and the trajectory of her team.
Sherbrooke roots and an early love of hard roads
Vallières Mill grew up in Québec’s cycling-mad Eastern Townships and found the sport through family. That first summer odyssey with her father, roughly 1,000 kilometres in nine days from Sherbrooke to the Gaspé Peninsula, lit the fuse. A local sports-study programme opened more doors. She raced mountain bike, cyclo-cross and road as a teenager, learned how to suffer on short, punchy climbs like the Côte de Beauvoir, and by 2019, she was a double junior national champion in Canada with a top ten at the Yorkshire World Championships.
Her potential drew the attention of Cycling Canada and the UCI. Invited to a talent identification camp in Aigle that autumn, she topped the climbing tests and earned a place with the World Cycling Centre’s women’s team. The move to Switzerland in 2020 was a culture shock, then a classroom. The pandemic disrupted that first European season, but the lessons stuck: how to live away from home, how to hold position in bigger pelotons, how to train with intent and recover with purpose.
Breaking into the pros and learning the trade
A WorldTour contract followed in 2022 with the EF set-up under Linda Jackson, and Vallières Mill began the long apprenticeship that rarely shows on a results sheet. There were crashes to navigate, including the mass fall at the 2022 Tour de France Femmes that she later described as chaotic; there were team jobs to master, and there was the daily grind of getting stronger. The first clear breakthrough arrived in 2024 with victory at Trofeo Palma Femina and a Canadian criterium title, plus second at the Canadian road race. The talent had been obvious to those around her for years, even if a low UCI ranking disguised it. As Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner put it, the reason few outside the team knew her was simple: she spent most days making others look good.
Kigali 2025: a historic win, perfectly timed
The world title ride in Rwanda was a masterclass in patience, positioning and poise. On a circuit that piled up more than 3,000 metres of climbing across 165 kilometres and two stinging ascents each lap, she stayed near the front without wasting matches as the race split and re-formed. With two laps to go, a lead group of ten took shape. On the penultimate pass of the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura, three riders proved the strongest: Vallières Mill, New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black and Spain’s Mavi García.
Knowing a flat-out sprint would favour Fisher-Black, she chose the only move that made sense. At the base of the final Kimihurura, with 2.4 kilometres remaining, she attacked. Neither rival could follow. The gap yawned, the summit arrived, and the Canadian pressed on to win by 23 seconds. It was only the second road win of her career, and it made history. Canada had never produced an elite road race world champion, men or women. Now the rainbow bands will circle her sleeves for life, and for one year they will be the full jersey she wears, including when she defends the title on home soil in Montreal in 2026.
“I knew I probably would not beat Niamh in a straight sprint,” she said afterwards. “We were both committed to the break, then I saw she was fading a bit and told myself to go all in. I did not want any regrets.”
Preparation, belief and the people behind the stripes
The audacity on the cobbles in Kigali did not happen in isolation. Vallières Mill built the day into her season. She trained at altitude, sharpened on punchy climbs, and arrived with legs and lungs to match the course. Crucially, she also arrived with a plan and with a team that believed in it. In the pre-race meeting, the Canadian squad told her they wanted to ride for her. “The girls believed in me, so I believed in myself,” she said. Alison Jackson, who has mentored her since her junior days, leapt the barriers in tears at the finish. Inside EF Education-Oatly, teammates describe a rider who is selfless, hard-working and humble, the kind of quiet role model people are happy to empty themselves for.
What the rainbow changes
World titles change careers. For Vallières Mill, the immediate impact is trust and opportunity. She will see more race days where the team backs her to finish the job rather than bury herself as a domestique. There is also a wider ripple. EF Education-Oatly has submitted its documentation to step up from ProTeam to WorldTeam in 2026 and already meets the sporting criteria based on ranking across 2024 and 2025. The women’s roster for 2026 is taking shape with Vallières Mill front and centre, joined by riders such as Cédrine Kerbaol, Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner, Noemi Rüegg and the promising Dutch duo Babette van der Wolf and Mirre Knaven. A world champion at the heart of the project adds substance and swagger to a programme that prioritises attacking, enjoyable racing, which happens to be exactly how she likes to ride.
Style, strengths and what comes next
Her profile is clear. She is at her best when the road tilts up, thrives on repeated efforts, and reads a race well enough to pick the right moment. The rainbow jersey does not change that. It just paints a target on it. Expect more selective one-day races and hillier stage finishes to feature in her programme, expect more leadership roles at the Giro, the Vuelta and the Tour, and expect a long build to Montreal, where a Canadian world champion will roll down the start ramp in front of a home crowd. Between now and then, there will be the everyday life of a young pro based in Girona, the rhythm of training and travel, and the challenge of making a first seismic win the foundation rather than the peak.
If she needed perspective, she has lived it. Years of doing the hard yards for others. A bursary of $4000 from McGill University as a talented 17-year-old in Sherbrooke. The discipline of the WCC in Aigle. The experience of big crashes and small setbacks. The support of a family that once strapped bags to bikes and set off down the road just to see how far they could go.
The kid who loved that trip chose the same spirit in Kigali. Take the risk, commit fully, and see what the road gives you. This time it gave her the rainbow.
