Elsy Jacobs won the first women’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships in 1958.
The inaugural women’s world road race was held on 31 August 1958 in Reims, France. Jacobs, representing Luxembourg, won the race and became the first woman to wear the rainbow jersey in the road-racing world championship.
Jacobs was one of Luxembourg’s most important cyclists. Her world title was the country’s first major women’s cycling success, and she later set the women’s world hour record in 1958 at the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan. Her record distance was 41.347 kilometres.
The women’s championship was introduced decades after the men’s road world championship, which began in 1927. The event has since become one of the sport’s major annual races, with the winner receiving the rainbow jersey for the following year.