Summary
- 180.4 km from Brossard with 2,570 m of climbing and eight laps of the 13.4 km Mont Royal circuit, Saturday 26 September, per the UCI.
- Demi Vollering won the Giro d'Italia Women by 30" over Antonia Niedermaier in June and the Tour de France Femmes by 1'18" over Kasia Niewiadoma in August.
- Paula Blasi won La Vuelta Femenina on the Angliru in May, the first Spanish winner, and the Amstel Gold Race.
- Marlen Reusser kept her time trial title on 20 September in 50'24"44, 40"11 ahead of Zoe Bäckstedt. Elisa Longo Borghini was fourth, about five seconds from bronze.
- Lotte Kopecky, champion in 2023 and 2024, and the defending champion Magdeleine Vallières, racing at home, complete the shortlist.
The course: the same mountain, eight times
The women use the same approach from Quartier DIX30 in Brossard and the same finishing circuit as the men, with eight laps instead of twelve. The UCI lists 180.4 km and 2,570 m of climbing; at about 269 m per lap, the circuit accounts for roughly 2,150 m of it.
Each lap has four rises. Camillien-Houde is 2.3 km at 6.2 per cent on the organiser's numbers, with a steeper core the GP Montréal route data puts at 1.8 km at 8 per cent. Then the Côte de la Polytechnique, 780 m at 6 per cent with ramps above 11, and the Pagnuelo kicker, 534 m at 7.5 per cent. The finish on Avenue du Parc is a 560 m false flat at 4 per cent.
For scale, Kigali in 2025 was 164.6 km and Vallières won it by 23" from Niamh Fisher-Black. Montréal is 16 km longer with climbs that are shorter but come round more often. ProCyclingUK's reading is that the climbing is enough to hurt Vollering's rivals without removing a strong all-rounder like Kopecky from the equation. That is what makes it interesting.
Montréal's 1974 Worlds, the first held outside Europe, gave the women's title to Geneviève Gambillon of France.
Who has the form
| Rider | Nation | 2026 so far | Trade team and bike |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demi Vollering | Netherlands | Giro d'Italia Women, Tour de France Femmes, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège. 8th in the Worlds TT at 1'50" | FDJ United-Suez, Specialized Tarmac SL8 / SL9 |
| Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney | Poland | 2nd Tour de France Femmes, won the Mont Ventoux stage | Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto, Canyon Aeroad CFR |
| Lotte Kopecky | Belgium | Milano-Sanremo Women. 5th in the Worlds TT | SD Worx-Protime, Specialized Tarmac SL8 / SL9 |
| Elisa Longo Borghini | Italy | 3rd Tour de France Femmes, Giro stage 9, UAE Tour Women, seventh national title, 4th Worlds TT | UAE Team L'Imad, Colnago Y1Rs or V5Rs |
| Paula Blasi | Spain | La Vuelta Femenina, Amstel Gold Race, 5th Tour de France Femmes | UAE Team L'Imad, Colnago Y1Rs or V5Rs |
| Marlen Reusser | Switzerland | Worlds TT gold, Tour de Suisse, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour de France Femmes TT stage | Movistar, Canyon Aeroad CFR |
| Kim Le Court-Pienaar | Mauritius | Tour of Britain Women, Tour de France Femmes stage 6 | AG Insurance-Soudal, Specialized Tarmac SL8 |
Vollering's season is the strongest on the startlist and she became only the second woman after Annemiek van Vleuten to have won all three Grand Tours. The Netherlands back her with seven riders, including Puck Pieterse, who won the polka dot jersey at the Tour. The one question mark is the time trial: eighth at 1'50", caught on the road by Reusser. Whether that was a bad day or a deliberate choice to save the legs, Saturday will tell.
Kopecky has had what Cyclingnews called a mixed season, but she is the reason nobody will want to arrive on Avenue du Parc in a group. Niewiadoma has Dominika Włodarczyk, seventh at the Tour, as a second card. Blasi wins by attacking and climbing rather than sprinting, which is a good profile for the eighth Camillien-Houde. Reusser can attack on the flat sections between the climbs with Noemi Rüegg waiting behind.
Vallières, the defending champion, leads a seven-rider Canadian team on home roads. Spain also brings Mavi García, bronze in Kigali. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is not on the French list.
Italy: Longo Borghini and a fourth medal
Italy's seven are Elisa Longo Borghini, Francesca Barale, Sara Casasola, Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini, Erica Magnaldi, Silvia Persico and Monica Trinca Colonel. Longo Borghini has three Worlds bronzes, from 2012, 2020 and 2024, and her 2026 reads as a rider still improving at 34. She won the UAE Tour Women, a seventh national road title, stage 9 of the Giro in a sprint, and finished third at the Tour de France Femmes at 4'19".
Her fourth place in the time trial, 5" behind Franziska Koch for bronze, is the most recent data point. She was the only rider other than the three medallists inside a minute of Reusser. On a circuit this repetitive she will not need to be the fastest finisher, only the one still attacking on the last lap. Persico gives Italy a faster option if a group of twenty arrives together.
The bikes on the start line
Worlds means national jerseys on trade-team bikes. The full men's rundown is in our Montréal bikes article; the women's side has fewer suppliers and one point the brief we were given got wrong.
Longo Borghini and Blasi ride Colnago at UAE Team L'Imad, the team renamed from UAE Team ADQ on 1 August. They have the aero Y1Rs and the lighter V5Rs available, with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 2x12 and Enve wheels. Vollering's FDJ United-Suez has been on Specialized since her 2025 signing, not Wilier. BikeRadar photographed the Tarmac SL8 at the start of the season, and the SL9 team replica frameset is now sold in FDJ colours. SD Worx-Protime runs the same frame with SRAM Red AXS 2x12. Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto and Reusser's Movistar are both on the Canyon Aeroad CFR with SRAM Red AXS. Lidl-Trek rides the Trek Madone SLR.
No Campagnolo team exists in the women's WorldTour in 2026, per BikeRadar. The time trial on 20 September, covered in our Evenepoel and Ganna report, was raced on the teams' time trial platforms, a separate purchase entirely.
What it means if you are buying
Team issue frames in the smaller sizes are the ones that appear least often on the pre-owned market. If you ride a 48 or a 50, knowing your stack and reach before the rainbow jersey is decided is worth more than any post-race enthusiasm. The frames on this startlist are all in current production, which means the previous generation is where the value sits.
The Colnago Y1Rs collection covers the frame UAE has raced all year. The Specialized Tarmac SL9 is new enough that pre-owned examples are still rare, and the SL8 does most of the same job. The Canyon collection is where an Aeroad CFR appears, and the wider pre-owned road bikes category covers the rest.
If you are unsure which of these frames fits a smaller rider's position rather than a team's aero targets, talk to our concierge.
Sources: UCI, courses of the 2026 Road Worlds; ProCyclingUK, women's road race preview, 16 September 2026; Cyclinguptodate, women's startlist, 17 September 2026; Cyclingnews, women's time trial live report, 20 September 2026; Wikipedia, 2026 Tour de France Femmes; Cyclingnews, Giro d'Italia Women final GC; Cycling Weekly, Blasi wins La Vuelta Femenina; Wikipedia, 2025 UCI Road World Championships; Wikipedia, Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal; BikeRadar, 2026 Women's WorldTour bikes; Cyclingnews, Women's WorldTour bikes 2026; Cyclingnews, UAE Team ADQ renamed; Cycling Weekly, Specialized and FDJ-Suez. Cover photo: Albinfo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
