Africa-Press – Rwanda. The non-elite categories at the UCI Road World Championships are notoriously difficult to predict, and over the past few years, it has been a dark horse claiming the rainbow bands in the under-23 men’s time trial.
After British rider Zoe Bäckstedt struck gold in the U23 Women title trial, eyes now turn to the U23 ITT men’s event starting at 1:35pm.
Few expected Iván Romeo (Spain) to defeat favourites Alec Segaert (Belgium) and Jan Christen (Switzerland) in Zurich in 2024.
The previous year, Lorenzo Milesi (Italy) had also surprised Segaert, too. The Belgian was second in 2022 and the outright favourite for Glasgow, but he fell 11 seconds short of victory.
This year, it’s Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) who is the rider to beat. The 22-year-old, who races for Lidl-Trek’s development team, was 32 seconds off Romeo’s pace in Zürich, winning the silver medal.
With a thinner field in Rwanda, the 31.2km course in Kigali is his to dominate, and he has the form to do so.
In the Tour of Denmark, Söderqvist won the time trial stage, beating riders like Mads Pedersen, and finished second overall.
The Swedish champion was second in the European Championships Under-23 time trial in addition to getting silver at Worlds last year, so he is able to perform under pressure.
There are few other riders of his calibre on the start list, too. Jarno Widar (Belgium) is more of a climber than a time trialist, but is a strong rider and can’t be counted out even if it’s not his speciality.
Maxime Decomble (France), who races with Groupama-FDJ’s development team, second at the French under-23 TT championships, is probably the top rival. The Frenchman led the Tour de l’Avenir until the final time trial, where he lost 1:49 to teammate Paul Seixas.
Lorenzo Finn (Italy), part of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s pipeline, won the title in the Junior Men’s road race at Worlds in Zürich and was fourth in the Tour de l’Avenir final time trial, but that was only 10.3km compared with the 31.2km he’ll face in Kigali.
Dark horse contenders include Mateo Kalejman (Argentina), who beat his closest competitor by over two minutes at the Pan-Am championships this year, and Callum Thornley, the British under-23 time trial champion.
Keep an eye out for African time trial champion and Olympian Charles Kagimu(Uganda), and Asian under-23 TT champion Mohammad Al Mutaiwei (UAE), who races for UAE Emirates Gen Z.
But, after all, it is Rwanda Etienne Tuyizere who starts the race with Samuel Niyonkuru, currently with Team Amani, also looking to making history on home soil.
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