Isabella Holmgren and Magdeleine Vallières Mill both raced into the top 10 of Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. For a while, Holmgren was in the podium fight. She finished sixth while the world champion was eighth. Demi Vollering soloed 35 km to her third Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory.
Preliminaries
Last April Mauritian rider Kim Le Court Pienaar earned the biggest win of her career, beating Vollering, Puck Pieterse and Cédrine Kerbaol in a sprint. Le Court Pienaar was out with a broken wrist, but the three other women were on the start line.
Vallières Mills, 65th last year, headed up the Canadian contingent. Sarah van Dam was also in Bastogne with Alison Jackson, Clara Émond, Holmgren and Mara Roldan.
The Course
Ten climbs across 156 km would tax and challenge the field. The final three of these would be springboards for attacks. The Côte de La Redoute, 1.6 km of 8.8 percent, crested at the 122.5-km mark. Next came Côte des Forges, 1.3 km of 7.6 percent. The last ascent was Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, a nasty challenge at 1.3 km of 10 percent, peaking 13 km from the finish line in Liège.
A couple of solo breakaways failed in the opening half of the course. With 50 km remaining on the Côte de Desnié, Holmgren tore loose with five other riders but they were swooped up before Côte de la Redoute.
Vollering went ballistic on Redoute. Vallieres Mills was dropped. Holmgren was part of the closest chase with Pieterse and Kasia Niewiadoma. Over the Côte des Forges the gaps between Vollering and the Holmgren chase stablized, as did the Holmgren Trio back to Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, van Dam and Vallières Mills. Holmgren stayed with the Dutch and Polish riders on Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, covering their surges.
Unfortunately, Anna van der Breggen bridged over and replaced Holmgren. Pieterse was runner-up again.
2026 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes
1) Demi Vollering (The Netherlands/FDJ United-Suez) 4:10
2) Puck Pieterse (The Netherlands/Fenix-Premier Tech) +1:29
3) Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland/Canyon-Sram) s.t.
6) Isabella Holmgren (Canada/Lidl-Trek) +1:48
8) Magdeleine Vallières Mills (Canada/EF Education-Oatly) +1:56
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…