Mischa Bredewold will miss the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montréal after a crash at the Faun Tour Femmes left her with a pelvic fracture and an elbow injury that required surgery.
The Team SD Worx-Protime rider crashed with a little over 10km remaining on the opening stage from Guilherand-Granges to Boffres on Thursday. She was able to finish the stage, more than ten minutes behind winner Solène Muller, and initially went to hospital expecting treatment for cuts sustained in the accident.
Instead, further examinations revealed an ischiopubic fracture of the pelvis. Bredewold also required surgery on a wound to her elbow, turning what had first appeared to be a relatively manageable crash into an injury that is expected to end her 2026 season.
“Went to the hospital after a crash in Ardèche tour for a few stitches, went home with a ischiopubic (pelvic) fracture and surgery on my elbow wound,” Bredewold wrote on Instagram.
“Unexpected turn of events, and beyond disappointment.”
Bredewold’s World Championships plans are over
The timing is particularly difficult for Bredewold, who had been selected for both the road World Championships in Montréal and the Track World Championships in China.
“Big goals were coming with Worlds in Montreal and Worlds on the track in China, which I both felt very ready for,” she said.
The Dutch team had named Bredewold alongside Demi Vollering, Riejanne Markus, Lieke Nooijen, Puck Pieterse, Karlijn Swinkels and Femke de Vries for the elite women’s road race.
Bredewold’s absence removes an important tactical option from a Dutch squad built around Vollering. The 2026 women’s World Championships road race covers 180.4km and finishes with eight laps of the demanding Mount Royal circuit, a route which appeared well suited to Bredewold’s combination of climbing strength, resilience and finishing speed.
Amber Kraak has been called into the Dutch team as her replacement. The FDJ United-SUEZ rider provides another experienced support option and already knows Vollering well from their work together at trade-team level. Kraak is also capable of contributing from distance if the Netherlands want to put a rider into an earlier move before the final Mount Royal laps.
Crash came only hours after Dutch selection was confirmed
Bredewold’s crash came on the same day that the Netherlands announced their Montréal squad.
She went down in a larger crash during the closing kilometres of Stage 1 at the Faun Tour Femmes, the race formerly known as the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche. Teammate Mikayla Harvey was also involved and was unable to finish.
Bredewold continued to the finish despite the injuries. At that stage there was still hope that the damage was largely superficial, but the hospital examinations changed the picture completely.
There was some relief regarding the elbow. Bredewold said there had initially been concern that she had torn a tendon, but surgery established that this was not the case.
That positive news was outweighed by the pelvic fracture.
“I will need some time to process this big big big disappointment and to heal up,” she wrote.
“Luckily my good shape will come in handy with sitting on the couch.”
Injury ends one of Bredewold’s strongest seasons
The setback comes at the end of a season in which Bredewold had again shown how much her range has developed beyond being simply a fast finisher.
She won the opening stage and overall classification at Itzulia Women 2026, surviving a difficult final stage around San Sebastián to secure one of the most significant stage-race victories of her career.
Earlier in May she also took Stage 5 of La Vuelta Femenina, beating teammate Lotte Kopecky in Astorga, before adding another win at the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas later that month.
Her late-season form had remained strong. Bredewold went into Classic Lorient Agglomération looking for a fourth consecutive victory in Plouay and finished second behind Elisa Balsamo after surviving another attritional edition of the French Women’s WorldTour race.
That run made Montréal a realistic target rather than simply another support assignment. On a circuit based around repeated climbing rather than one long mountain, Bredewold had the profile to remain useful deep into the race while giving the Netherlands an alternative if Vollering became heavily marked.
Track World Championships also ruled out
Bredewold’s ambitions extended beyond Montréal.
She had also been preparing for the Track World Championships in China, making the pelvic fracture doubly costly. The recovery required from the combination of the fracture and elbow surgery means there is now little realistic prospect of returning in time.
There has been no detailed recovery timetable, but Bredewold’s own message makes clear that racing is no longer the immediate priority.
“I’m lucky to have people around me close to my heart at a time like this,” she wrote, thanking her Team SD Worx-Protime teammates for their support.
The injury therefore appears likely to close a 2026 season in which Bredewold further established herself as one of the most versatile riders in the SD Worx-Protime squad.
Her final message was considerably more definite than the circumstances surrounding her season.
“I’ll be back!!!!! Trust the process…”
