Magdeleine Vallières Mill (EF Education-Oatly) has signed a three-year contract extension through 2028, three months after her historic victory at the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali made her Canada's first Elite Women's Road World Champion.
The 24-year-old from Sherbrooke, Quebec, attacked on the final climb of the Kigali circuit on 27 September, holding off the chase to win by 23 seconds over Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) and Mavi García (Liv-AlUla-Jayco). The 164.6-kilometre course, with 3,350 metres of elevation gain across 11 laps, suited the puncheur profile that has defined much of Vallières Mill's career.
Pre-race favourites Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering marked each other through the closing circuits, allowing Vallières Mill to slip away while the peloton's attention was elsewhere.
"I’ve been with the team forever and it is like my family now," Vallières Mill said in the official statement on her contract extension. “I grew up on this team and I think I can continue to develop here."
The extension, announced on Monday, marks a strategic shift for EF Education-Oatly, who will pivot from using Vallières Mill as a super domestique to building their 2026 campaign around attack opportunities. General manager Esra Tromp confirmed the team's Ardennes Classics programme will be shaped around the rainbow jersey, with the Ardennes classics as her primary target.
"Mags leads by example," Tromp 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."
Vallières Mill will debut the world champion's kit at the Santos Women's Tour Down Under in January before targeting the spring Ardennes trilogy. The season will culminate at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, where she will defend her title on home soil.
The team has not announced its full 2026 roster or additional spring classics targets beyond the Ardennes trilogy.
Cover image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
