Maeva Squiban wins 2026 Chrono des Nations with dominant Les Herbiers time trial

Maeva Squiban closed her 2026 season with victory at the Chrono des Nations, producing the fastest ride by a clear margin over the 27.2km course around Les Herbiers.

The UAE Team L’IMAD rider finished in 35:36.12, beating Nadia Gontova by 23.89 seconds and Juliette Berthet by 38.83. French time trial champion Célia Le Mouël was fourth at 45.04 seconds, with recent Giro dell’Emilia Donne winner Alessia Vigilia fifth.

For Squiban, the result also completed a neat return to a race she first won as a junior in 2019. Seven years later she became the first French winner of the elite women’s Chrono des Nations since Audrey Cordon-Ragot in 2017.

How it unfolded

The women’s elite race covered 27.2km around Les Herbiers, on the familiar rolling roads that make the Chrono des Nations a very different test from a flat, rhythm-based championship time trial. The course rewards sustained power, but also punishes riders who go too hard across the opening kilometres and fade on the return.

Gontova set the strongest early benchmark, putting herself into the hot seat before Squiban rolled down the start ramp at 14:15 local time. Berthet, Le Mouël and several of the other expected contenders were still to come, so Squiban had no guarantee that even a strong ride would survive to the end.

The first intermediate split quickly showed that she was operating at a different level. At 10.5km, Squiban was already eight seconds faster than Berthet’s mark and was the only rider averaging around 46kph through the opening section.

From there the gap continued to grow. Squiban crossed the finish in 35:36.12, taking almost 24 seconds out of Gontova’s previous best and moving straight into the lead with several of the strongest starters still on the road.

None could get close enough to threaten her.

Berthet and Le Mouël cannot close the gap

Berthet produced the strongest ride of the late starters behind Squiban but still finished 38.83 seconds down. Le Mouël, the French national time trial champion, was another six seconds back in fourth.

Vigilia took fifth at 52.56 seconds, continuing a strong late-season run after her victory at the Giro dell’Emilia Donne. Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini was sixth for UAE Team L’IMAD at 56.75 seconds, giving the team two riders inside the top six.

Lotte Claes finished seventh at 1:11.77, while Noémie Abgrall, Lauren Dickson and Gwen Nothum completed the top 10.

A return to the race where Squiban first made her mark

The result carried extra significance because Squiban’s connection with the Chrono des Nations stretches back to the start of her career. She won the junior event in 2019, before taking European junior time trial silver the following year.

Her senior career has developed in a less straightforward way. Squiban established herself as one of the breakthrough riders of the 2025 season with consecutive solo stage victories at the Tour de France Femmes, then entered 2026 with greater expectations and a much more established role at UAE Team L’IMAD.

This season brought another step forward against the clock. She finished third in the opening time trial at the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina, seventh in the Tour de Suisse Women time trial and second at the French national championships before helping France win the mixed relay European title earlier this month.

Her road season had already begun with victory at the Trofeo Marratxí-Felanitx in January. The Chrono des Nations therefore bookended the year with a second individual win, something Squiban herself highlighted afterwards when she said she was particularly pleased to finish the season by winning after also starting it with a victory.

Squiban joins a strong recent list of winners

The Chrono des Nations has remained one of the few standalone late-season time trials capable of attracting top-level specialists. Recent winners include Marlen Reusser, Ellen van Dijk, Anna Kiesenhofer and Grace Brown.

Van Dijk won the 2025 edition in the final race of her career, edging Vigilia by a single second. This time the margins were much wider, with Squiban building enough of an advantage in the opening half that the later starters never managed to bring the contest back into range.

It also adds another important result to a career that UAE Team L’IMAD has already committed to long term. Squiban extended her contract through 2029 in September, and she ends 2026 having shown again that her value is not limited to attacking road races and climbing stages.

Chrono des Nations women 2026 result