It was billed in some quarters as a race between the pre-eminent seven, but in the end the winner of the women's road race World Championships was a rider very, very few people even expected would feature in the top-10.
It's understandable therefore that the victor, Canada's Magdeleine Vallieres, was in shock after winning the mountainous 165km race by 23 seconds from New Zealand's Niamh Fisher-Black. Spain's 41-year-old Mavi García was third.
Vallieres, who had only won one pro race before, attacked at the foot of the final climb and soloed to victory in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
"No, I don't believe it yet, no. For sure not!" the emotional 24-year-old said minutes after the race.
"It's great to win here and with the Worlds next year in Montreal, it's perfect. It was my dream to win, and now it's come true – it's crazy."
Though Vallieres was not predicted to win the race, her result was no fluke. She raced ambitiously but cleverly throughout. As was one of 10 riders in the lead group in the final two laps, she was always at the front looking for an opportunity to break clear.
Her winning move, too, was borne out of intelligence. "I knew I probably wouldn't win in a sprint against Niamh because she is strong," the EF Education-Oatly rider said.
"We were both committed to this break, working really hard, and then I saw that she was fading a little bit so I told myself I just have to go all-in now and, yeah, it all worked out in the end."
Vallieres had only ridden twice since the Tour de France Femmes, a race where her best result was eighth on stage six. Since the French race, her preparation has been fixated on the Rwandan Worlds.
"I've been dreaming about it for a while now – it was a big goal of mine for this year so I prepared well and at altitude," she revealed.
"With my coach we knew this would be a big goal so with the team we focused on it.
"The girls believed in me so I believed in myself and I really committed to going for it. I prepared well, knew I was on good form, so I tried. I told myself I didn't want to have any regrets and I don't."
Vallieres, whose trade team EF aren't even a WorldTour team, also becomes the first ever Canadian to win a gold medal at the road race World Championships.
Linda Jackson, Michael Woods and Steve Bauer have all finished third in previous years, but never before has a rider from the North American country earned the rainbow stripes in the most prestigious race. But little-known Vallieres has changed all that.
