Slovakia claim the U23 rainbow jersey with Viktória Chladoňová

Viktória Chladoňová is the new U23 road world champion. The Slovakian triumphed over Canadian Isabella Holmgren in a head-to-head battle that decided the rainbow jersey in Montreal, while Belgian Fleur Moors completed the podium.

Chladoňová wins the U23 World Championship after resolving the duel with Holmgren

The U23 women's race opened the road events of the World Championship in Montreal with 134 kilometers spread over ten laps of the Canadian circuit. A demanding course featuring repeated climbs of Côti Camillien-Houde, Côti de Polytechnique, and the ascent of Pagnuelo before a finish that was also uphill.

The first part of the race was marked by several breakaway attempts and some falls that took important names out of the race. Megan Arens had to abandon after crashing, and Febe Jooris also could not finish.

The race began to be decided in the final laps. Viktória Chladoňová launched several attacks and one of them ended up forming the decisive move alongside Isabella Holmgren and Fleur Moors.

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The three managed to open a sufficient gap over the chasing group, but the final selection came in the last lap. Holmgren accelerated on the Côti Camillien-Houde and Moors could not keep up with the pace of the Canadian and Chladoňová.

From that moment on, the World Championship was reduced to a duel between Canada and Slovakia.

Holmgren tried again on the final slopes, but could not shake off Chladoňová. The Canadian launched the sprint for the title first, but the Slovak responded, clearly surpassed her, and crossed the finish line as U23 world champion with a time of 3:49:10.

Holmgren finished with the same time and had to settle for silver in front of her home crowd. 33 seconds later, Fleur Moors won the sprint for bronze, ahead of Mara Winter and Talia Appleton. Belgian Lore De Schepper finished sixth after playing an important role in the chase to protect Moors' chances.

Results Women's Junior Road World Championship 2026