Forty-eight hours after her first professional victory, a period interrupted by a university exam, Magdeleine Vallières Mill wondered if she had not been dreaming.
All this was, however, very real: the cyclist from Sherbrooke won the Trofeo Palma Femina, a one-day event which is part of the Challenge de Mallorca, the opening triptych of the Spanish season, which inaugurated its women’s iteration last weekend.
“In my head, it seems like it’s not true yet!” », laughed the representative of the new EF Education-Cannondale training, sitting on the steps of her Majorcan hotel on Tuesday.
On Sunday, the 22-year-old athlete won solo after an impressive performance in the climbs and descents which punctuated the final kilometers of this 1.1 event (third category), which included 138 in total. The Quebecer was 16 seconds ahead of two seasoned runners: the South African Ashleigh Moolman (AG Insurance–Soudal), in her 15th place.e season at the highest level, and Mavi Garcia, adopted Majorcan and four-time reigning Spanish champion.
While waiting for the podium ceremony, Garcia, 40, told her young rival that she was going down very, very quickly…
“I’m a bit of a fan of these girls! Vallières Mill smiled shyly. It’s motivating to see them perform, be so strong and have been running for a long time. It was just really weird to be next to them and to think that on Sunday, I had the level to compete with them. »
The day after the victory of her Swiss teammate and roommate Noemi Rügg at the Trofeo Felanitx-Colònia de Sant Jordi, the first part of the triptych, Vallières Mill seemed surprised to be designated a protected rider. Since her debut in the European peloton in 2022, she has been more accustomed to putting herself at the service of others.
“This time, the girls worked for me. The team believed in me more than I believed in myself. They controlled everything during the first 90 kilometers before arriving at the first bump. They did a perfect job; I was still fresh there. It was my turn to be aggressive and follow my gut. »
From there, the ex-cyclocross and mountain bike specialist was at the forefront until the end of the race, putting pressure on the climbs and provoking the selections on the twisty and slippery descents . Only Italian puncher Silvia Persico (UAE), bronze medalist at the 2022 Worlds, managed to accompany her to the bottom of the penultimate descent.
As Persico was waiting for two teammates to return, Vallières Mill was forced to ride alone, without help, on the flat, almost to the foot of the final hill, the Coll de Sa Creu (6.7 km at 3.6 %). She kept her composure despite the presence of three UAE, who were unable to take advantage of their numerical superiority.
At three, technically, they should have won, but they played it badly. They didn’t really want to work together.
Magdeleine Vallières Mill
1 km from the summit, a group of pursuers were breathing down their necks, so much so that Vallières Mill and Garcia, record holder for this climb on the social network Strava, hit the gas, condemning Persico’s two teammates.
On the descent, the Italian fell in a tight bend, at 9 km. Making neither one nor two, Vallières Mill, who was following her, turned the accelerator handle without asking questions, his eyes on his on-board computer to anticipate the pitfalls to come.
“With the trees, the road doesn’t really dry out and there’s a sort of moss that forms. There are also a lot of olive trees, which makes the surface oily. It’s very slippery. But I think our equipment was a little better than everyone else’s. I had a few falls in the last year and I was a little more afraid on the descents. There, I was confident, in control, and I never felt that I had exceeded my abilities. »
“I didn’t really believe it”
At the finish, Vallières Mill lay down on her handlebars to catch her breath and realize (partly) what she had just accomplished.
“I didn’t really believe it. I wasn’t sure it was true because it’s never happened to me before! The moment was very special. I was so happy. »
After the emotional congratulations of her teammates, she received those of Quebecer Simone Boilard, solid eighth in this event after her fifth place the day before, a great way to break the ice with her new Norwegian team Uno-X.
PHOTO PROVIDED EF EDUCATION-CANNONDALE
Magdeleine Vallières Mill
Vallières Mill herself competed in her first races under the colors of EF Education-Cannondale (EFC), the new women’s counterpart of EF Education-EasyPost. Apart from the same sponsor, this team has no link with EF Education-Tibco-SVB, the World Tour team for which it played in 2022 and 2023 and which disbanded at the end of the year.
Even if EFC, whose CEO is the former American racer Jonathan Vaughters, only holds a continental license for the moment, Magdeleine Vallières Mill believes she has lost nothing in the change, quite the contrary.
“We have access to all the same things as if we were in the WorldTour and even more,” noted the woman who finished 10e at the 2019 Junior Worlds. We are treated like men. Here, we are at the same camp, we eat at the same tables, everything is the same. It makes a big difference, honestly. Yes, women’s cycling has improved, but it’s not yet at the level of men. With EF, it’s really even. »
The difference is that for the moment, it’s 2-0 for women in terms of victories.
A scare for Olivia Baril
Olivia Baril can testify to the precariousness of the descents in Mallorca: the 26-year-old Quebecer plunged into a ditch after a puncture to her front tire at the Trofeo Palma Femina on Sunday. Fortunately, the new color bearer of Movistar, the Spanish WorldTour team, had more fear than harm. “I really fell violently,” she described. I was going 60 km/h, I couldn’t turn so I went straight. It was a really bad fall, but I got absolutely nothing. I was very lucky from that point of view. »
The cyclist from Rouyn-Noranda bounced back by finishing fourth in the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx, the last round of the Mallorca Challenge, on Monday. Grateful for the confidence shown by her training, with whom she is under contract until 2026, she blamed herself for not having been able to secure victory.
“I felt so good that I should have attacked before,” she analyzed. I think I was one of the strongest climbers today. […] The objective at this level is to win races. Everything else, you’re a loser, basically. I hope I can get back on track soon. »