At 25, Vallieres Mill Defends Her Rainbow Jersey on the Mont Royal Climb She Raced as a Kid
Canada's first ever elite road world champion goes into Montreal wearing number one, on a climb she has known since she was a junior.
Training
Ride the Exact 2026 Worlds Circuit on Zwift Tonight. Here Is What 269 Metres a Lap Really Costs
September 3, 2026
The pros race it on September 27. You can ride it on your smart trainer tonight. Here is what one lap, five laps, and twelve laps actually demand in watts, cadence, and heart rate.
The UCI did something quietly generous six months before the 2026 Worlds. It released the Mont Royal final circuit on Zwift, free, and left it there for anyone with a smart trainer to try.
That is not a small thing. It means every amateur rider on the planet can benchmark themselves against the exact 13.4 km loop that decides the rainbow jersey on September 27.
Most riders will not bother. That is a shame.
Because one lap of Camillien-Houde on your trainer tonight tells you more about your current form than any FTP test.
So let's be precise. Here is what the pros will do 12 times (women eight), what it costs them in watts, and what a fair amateur target looks like at 1 lap, 5 laps, and the full distance.
What the Circuit Actually Is
The Mont Royal loop is 13.4 km with 269 metres of elevation gain. Ninety percent of that climbing is stacked into two ramps: Cote Camillien-Houde and the Polytechnique kicker, split by a short false flat over the top of the mountain.
Camillien-Houde is the main event. 2.3 km at 6.2% average on the UCI's measurement.
Some race previews cite the harder inner section as 1.8 km at 8%. Both are correct depending on where you drop the pin.
The gradient is not the story. The repetition is.
Twelve laps for the men, eight for the women. Which means Camillien-Houde gets ridden in anger 12 or 8 times, always as part of a race that has been going hard for hours.
The Finish That Also Deserves Practice
Every lap finishes on the same stretch: an uphill false flat on Avenue du Parc, roughly 1.5 km of drag between 1 and 2 percent. It looks flat on TV.
It is not.
On Zwift, this section shows as a gentle green gradient. On tired legs, it shows as an anaerobic ceiling you cannot break through.
Learning where it starts and how it accelerates is worth a full training session by itself.
What the Pros Actually Do on Camillien-Houde
Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal power data over recent editions gives a fair reference. On the harder inner section of Camillien-Houde (roughly 1.8 km at 8%), the front group typically climbs at 6.5 to 7.0 W/kg for 4 to 5 minutes, with the final selective attack often pushing 7.5 W/kg for 90 seconds.
Pogacar's 2022 winning surge on this climb was estimated at around 7.4 W/kg sustained for the decisive move. Vallieres Mill told Canadian Cycling Magazine she has ridden Camillien-Houde since her Jeux du Quebec days as a junior; her Kigali winning attack sat in a similar physiological zone, 6.8 to 7.2 W/kg for 3 to 4 minutes.
For a 65 kg rider, 7 W/kg is 455 watts for four minutes. For a 75 kg rider, 525 watts.
Those are the reference points.
Nobody expects an amateur to sustain those numbers. But knowing them lets you set a target that means something.
The Amateur Translation
The honest amateur target on Camillien-Houde depends entirely on what you want to prove to yourself.
One lap, riding tempo. Aim for 65 to 75% of FTP on the climb, cadence 75 to 85, heart rate below your second threshold. This is Zone 3 work.
You should finish the lap breathing hard but able to speak in short sentences. Total lap time roughly 22 to 26 minutes.
This is the target for a rider who wants to know they could survive the circuit at all.
Five Laps: The Honest Middle-Distance Test
Five laps of the Mont Royal circuit is 67 km with roughly 1,345 m of climbing. This is the test that separates riders who can go long from riders who cannot.
Target power on Camillien-Houde: 75 to 85% of FTP for the first two efforts, dropping to 70% by the fifth. Cadence stays consistent (78 to 85).
Heart rate will drift up 5 to 10 bpm across the five efforts even at the same power (that is normal aerobic decoupling on a session this long).
Total time: 110 to 130 minutes. Total kilojoules for a 70 kg rider at around 65% average intensity: roughly 1,800 to 2,100.
Fuel with 60 to 80 g of carbohydrate per hour on the bike.
The Full Twelve: A Legitimate Season Goal
Twelve laps of the Mont Royal circuit is 161 km with 3,228 m of climbing. Even at zone 2 pace with the Camillien-Houde efforts capped at 75% of FTP, this is a 5-to-6 hour ride that will empty most amateurs completely.
The prescription: only attempt this once you can comfortably complete a five-lap session at the numbers above without cratering. Fuel is not optional.
90 g of carbohydrate per hour minimum, hydration matched to sweat rate, and expect the last two laps to feel disproportionately hard as glycogen runs low.
Riders who train specifically for the twelve-lap effort are essentially preparing for a self-selected Gran Fondo. That is a legitimate 12-week goal.
Where the Zwift Version Falls Short
The virtual Mont Royal circuit gets the gradient right. It cannot get the descent right.
The real course drops off Mont Royal on a technical, twisting descent that riders like Van der Poel and Pogacar will use to conserve watts. On a smart trainer, that descent is a five-minute soft-pedal at 100 watts.
On the road, it is a chance to eat, drink, and mentally reset for the next climb.
So the virtual version overstates the workload slightly. Riders who nail a five-lap session on Zwift are probably capable of a five-lap outdoor equivalent at slightly lower absolute effort.
The other thing Zwift cannot simulate: the Avenue du Parc false-flat finish in the context of a real race, with 200 riders around you fighting for position. But as a raw physiological benchmark, the Zwift version does the job.
The Interval Sessions to Build Toward It
You do not have to ride the whole loop to train for it. Three specific interval drills already cover most of the demand.
Two specific sessions map directly to the demands of Camillien-Houde.
Session 1: 4 x 4 minutes at 105 to 110% of FTP, 4-minute recoveries. This targets the pVO2max zone the pros hit on their decisive attacks.
Do this once a week for six weeks and Camillien-Houde will feel measurably shorter.
Session 2: 3 x 12 minutes at 88 to 92% of FTP, 6-minute recoveries. This builds the aerobic durability to hold power on the climb late in a long ride, not just on lap one.
The Race-Simulation Session
The best race-specific session is deceptively simple. Ride 3 laps of the Zwift Mont Royal circuit continuously, holding Camillien-Houde at 90 to 95% of FTP each time, riding the descent and false flat at Zone 2.
Total time roughly 75 minutes.
This session teaches your legs the exact rhythm of hard-climb, soft-descent, tempo-finish, hard-climb-again. That rhythm is what the pros are actually training for.
One Ride, One Reference Point
You will never be as strong as Pogacar or Vollering or Vallieres Mill on the Camillien-Houde ascent. That is fine.
Neither will 99.99% of riders reading this.
But if you ride even one lap of the Mont Royal circuit on Zwift this week, you will watch the Worlds on September 27 with a body-level understanding of what the pros are doing on the road. That is worth more than any preview article can give you.
The trainer is warm. The course is loaded.
Twenty-two minutes is all it takes.
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