Olivia Baril has retired from professional cycling after the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montréal, bringing her career to an end after a season disrupted by a herniated disc.
The Canadian started the elite women’s road race in front of a home crowd but did not finish, having already decided that Montréal would be her final week as a professional. Baril said the back problem had affected her throughout the season and admitted she may have pushed on longer than was wise.
“I’ve had some health problems this year,” Baril said after the race. “I have like a herniated disc in my back that I’ve been struggling with a lot and maybe I shouldn’t even have been racing the second part of the season.”
The 28-year-old said the decision was ultimately about protecting her health beyond cycling rather than trying to force another comeback.
“I know it would be very hard to come back from this,” she said. “I don’t want to strain my body so much that it impacts the rest of my life.”
Montréal gave Baril a final race at home
Baril had already described the World Championships as the closing point of her career before Sunday’s road race. Six days earlier she finished 23rd in the elite women’s time trial, 4:46 behind Movistar teammate Marlen Reusser, who won the world title in Montréal.
Baril had originally been a reserve for the time trial after her back problem reduced her race programme during 2026. Her final ride against the clock therefore became an unexpected opportunity to compete at a home World Championships before retirement.
Reusser’s victory is covered in our report on the 2026 women’s World Championships time trial.
The road race produced a more emotional farewell. Baril said the size of the Montréal crowd surprised her from the start and that her final lap gave her time to take in the moment.
“I didn’t think that at 9:00 a.m. it would be so packed,” she said. “The last lap I did here, I knew it was going to be my last lap and so I enjoyed every second of it.”
Friends she had not seen for years were among those lining the circuit, giving Baril a final reminder of the connection she had built with Canadian cycling supporters during her career.
Back injury made retirement the right decision
Baril’s decision follows a difficult 2026 season in which back pain repeatedly limited her ability to race and train normally.
She said cycling’s relatively short career span made it important to consider what continuing through the injury could mean later in life. Rather than commit to a long rehabilitation with no guarantee of returning at the same level, Baril chose to stop after racing on home roads.
“Cycling is short-lived also,” she said. “We need to think about the future and your health, and so for me this was the right time.”
Baril had been with Movistar since 2024 after joining from UAE Team ADQ. Her move to the Spanish squad is covered in our earlier piece on Baril joining Movistar, while she remained part of the team’s 2026 Women’s WorldTour roster.
Baril’s career included national titles and wins in Spain
Baril only began her professional road career in 2020 but quickly established herself on hilly terrain, particularly in Spain.
She won the Gran Premio Ciudad de Eibar in both 2022 and 2023, and later added victories including the Women Cycling Pro Costa de Almería and a stage of the Vuelta a Extremadura. Our report on the latter covers Baril’s opening-stage win at the 2024 Vuelta a Extremadura.
Her biggest results at home came in the Canadian championships. Baril won the national road race title in 2024 and followed it with the individual time trial title in 2025.
She also represented Canada at major championships and built much of her professional life in Europe, eventually settling in Spain.
Baril plans to remain in cycling as a riders’ agent
Retirement will not take Baril away from professional cycling entirely.
She has already passed the qualification process to become a UCI riders’ agent and plans to work with athletes as they develop their careers, choose teams and make the move from North America to Europe.
Baril also wants to help riders with financial planning, drawing on her own experience of a career that moved quickly from North American racing into the European peloton.
“I think that the North Americans are becoming really incredible riders,” she said. “And it’s different being a Canadian living in Europe.”
Looking back after her final race, Baril said the memories she expects to keep are less about individual results than the places cycling took her and the people she met through the sport.
Her final World Championships on home roads gave that career an unusually personal ending. Baril did not reach the finish of the Montréal road race, but she left the circuit knowing the decision had already been made on her own terms.
