Magdeleine Vallieres extends with EF Education-Oatly

EF Education-Oatly has secured a shared future with Magdeleine Vallieres. The 24-year-old Canadian surprisingly became the elite women's world champion in Kigali. It was only her second professional victory. The American team, led by Dutch team manager Esra Tromp, has now signed Vallières through 2027.

Mags – as she is nicknamed within the team – has clear ambitions for the coming year. Hailing from Québec, Vallieres aims to try to win one of the three Ardennes classics and explore her potential as a GC contender. In addition, she will attempt to defend her world title, notably on home soil in Canada next year. From 2026 onward, she will be the team leader within the American formation. "Mags will draw a lot of confidence from the jersey and will get more confidence from the team to go out and race a lot of finales and find more wins."

The biggest surprise of 2025: Vallieres became world champion – photo: fotopersburo Cor Vos

“Daring to race and have confidence in herself and finally get that world championship win was really inspirational for all of our riders,” Tromp says about extending Vallieres' contract. “Mags leads by example. 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.’ That is going to give a big push to all of the riders.”

Vallières will debut next month in 2026 at the Tour Down Under. After that, she targets the Ardennes classics, the Giro d'Italia Donne, the Tour de France Femmes, and the World Championships in Canada. “I learned a lot from helping others. I won the worlds because of it. Now, 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. We’re a young team, but I think we can really develop all together.”