Isabella Holmgren captures Canada's first-ever women's U23 medal at road cycling worlds

Road cyclist Isabella Holmgren of Orillia, Ont., narrowly missed winning a world championship gold medal, falling short and grabbing silver in a photo finish in the women's under-23 race on Thursday for Canada's first podium finish this week in Montreal.

She reached the finish after 134 kilometres and 2,960 metres of climbing in three hours, 52 minutes 50 seconds, losing to Viktoria Chladonova of Slovakia.

Fleur Moors of Belgium earned the bronze medal (3:49:43).

Holmgren, 21, is Canada's first medallist at these worlds, which began on Sunday, and its first in the discipline at road worlds.

"I was happy that the race was getting harder, and when I saw that Vicky went I knew that I had to follow because she is a strong rider," said Holmgren, who competed in mountain biking at the 2024 Paris Olympics. "The three of us working together was really good, so it was a strong group and I knew I needed to be there."

Holmgren's performance capped an outstanding effort by the Canadian contingent, which displayed fantastic teamwork and used their strength to protect Holmgren and culling the peloton down to a select group early on.  

Sidney Swierenga of Vancouver was eighth of 64 finishers (3:50:26) while Ava Holmgren, Isabella’s twin sister, was 15th (3:52:50). Also representing Canada were Alexandra Volstad of Calgary (52nd, 4:00:08) and Kiara Lylyk of Guelph, Ont. (63rd, 4:06:26).

The UCI Road Cycling World Championships is one of the only professional road cycling races outside of the Olympic Games where athletes line up for their nations instead of their professional teams.

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The event features 1,000 athletes from more than 75 countries. CBC Sports and