Mary Joyce Monton is set to make Philippine cycling history when she lines up against the world’s best in the Women Elite road race of the 2026 UCI Road World Championships on Sunday, September 27, in Montreal, Canada.
The 29-year-old Los Angeles-based cyclist will become one of the few Filipinas to compete in the elite road race at the World Championships, marking another major milestone for Philippine cycling.
Monton is the reigning PhilCycling National Championships road race champion and also captured gold in the individual time trial and criterium events two years ago.
Now, she takes that national success to the biggest stage of her career.
“I’m excited about racing in the world championships, but it would be a difficult race with the world’s elite racing,” Monton said.
Waiting for her is a grueling 180.10-kilometer course featuring some of the biggest names in women’s cycling, including Demi Vollering of the Netherlands, Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland, Marlen Reusser of Switzerland, Paula Blasi of Spain, Franziska Koch of Germany, Kim Le Court of Mauritius and Lotte Kopecky of Belgium.
A total of 141 riders from 56 countries are on the start list, putting Monton in a field packed with established international stars.
Philippine Olympic Committee president and PhilCycling chief Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino acknowledged the difficulty of the assignment but emphasized the importance of simply seeing a Filipino cyclist on the world championship start line.
“We wish her good luck, but her participation alone is already a milestone in itself,” Tolentino said from Nagoya, Japan, where he is attending the 20th Asian Games.
Monton’s participation is supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission, giving her the opportunity to compete on one of cycling’s biggest international platforms.
For Monton, however, Sunday is not simply about making history.
It is an opportunity to test herself against the best riders in the world, carry the Philippine flag onto the world championship course and show how far Philippine cycling can reach.
The road will be long, the field will be elite, and the challenge will be immense—but before the race even begins, Monton has already secured her place in Philippine cycling history. (Jesus Nathaniel Valdez)
