World champion Magdeleine Vallieres will continue to chase her cycling dreams with the EF Education-Oatly squad, having signed a contract extension that will keep her in the pink team through 2028.
Before the world championships in Kigali last September, few outside Canadian cycling circles had even heard of the 24-year-old Québécoise. She lined up for the race ranked 149th in the world, but by the finish, she had delivered one of the season’s biggest upsets, out-riding the favourites to claim the rainbow jersey.
Teammate and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner explained that Vallieres’ relative anonymity stemmed from her selfless role within the team. “Although she is incredibly strong and tactical, she is almost always supporting her teammates,” Faulkner said.
Going forward, Vallieres will take on more of a leadership role within the squad, EF Education-Oatly General Manager Esra Tromp revealed, calling the championship win a “just reward for her work ethic and dedication and her courage to back herself”.
“Mags has big ambitions for the coming years. Her heart is set on trying to win one of the Ardennes classics, testing her limits as a GC racer, and defending her rainbow jersey at her home world championships this fall in Montréal,” the team stated in a press release.
“I am looking forward to taking a different approach and trying to bring everything I learned to race more as a leader. I also know that I still have a lot to learn to be consistent at the top and I’m looking forward to taking this as an opportunity to continue learning in this new role and learn together with my teammates.”
Tromp echoed that sentiment, hoping that having the rainbow stripes among them will give a boost to the team as a whole and see them contest more race wins.
“Mags leads by example,” she said.”For the other girls now, seeing her rainbow jersey there in the group when they are out training or at dinner will make them think, ‘Okay, now we need to step up, because we have the world champion in our team and we need to show that in the races. We need to be able to help her.'”
Vallieres will make her 2026 debut in her fresh rainbow jersey at the Tour Down Under. From there, she will shift her focus to the Ardennes classics, the Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de France, before travelling home to Québec to defend her world title.
“Racing such events in the rainbow jersey will be a huge honour. Mags is still getting used to all of the attention that comes from being world champion, but is confident that she can handle the pressure,” the team stated. “She has already beaten the best bike racers in the world once and knows exactly what she will need to do to ride into the form that will give her opportunities to beat them again and again.”
Learn more about the new world champion here: “7 things you didn’t know about Magdeleine Vallieres, Canada’s first-ever Elite Road Race World Champion.”
