History! Dominant Hudson becomes first British Junior World Champion after stunning solo, as favorite Noval crashes in final lap
CyclingFriday, 26 September 2025 at 11:21
Harry Hudson has been crowned world champion in cycling in the junior men's category. With a strong attack, the Brit broke away and, with a fantastic solo effort, ultimately stayed ahead of the rest of the favorites. Favorite Benjamin Noval also looked very strong, but crashed in the final lap.
The top talents of the future started early in the morning for a 119.3-kilometer race, consisting of eight laps on the now familiar circuit around Kigali. Just like the junior women on Thursday, the men didn't waste any time. There were attacks right from the start, which immediately caused riders to drop at the back of the peloton.
France, Italy, Belgium, Austria... The big countries immediately took control, hoping to bring some structure to the race. However, it was Beckham Drake who really managed to create a gap on behalf of America. The number four in the Junior World Time Trial Championships eventually built up a lead of more than a minute.
Continue reading below the photo!
Big favorite Noval makes his move
With Frenchman Johan Blanc and Austrian Heimo Fugger among others, more men showed themselves, but with four laps to go, everything came back together, except for Drake. He still had half a minute left on the peloton, where the big names slowly but surely started to attack. Spanish favorite Benjamin Noval and Italian Mattia Agostinacchio, for example, attacked.
For a brief moment, we had an elite group riding between Drake and the peloton, but it came back together, and that was the moment for Britain's Harry Hudson to go. He also built up a nice lead, with Daan Dijkman now taking control on behalf of the Netherlands. Italy also contributed.
Read on below the video!
Hudson can dream of a World Championship title in the final lap
Everything fell into place, so we headed into the final lap with all scenarios still wide open. Hudson made the most of his lead and entered the final lap with a 40-second advantage. Italy's Roberto Capello and Spain's Javier Cubillas set off in pursuit, but the peloton was closing in.
On the penultimate and steepest climb, Hudson was still ahead, but behind him, Noval, Cubrillas, and Blanc had closed the gap to about twenty seconds. Noval and Blanc then left Cubrillas behind, all in pursuit of the tough Brit who was still pushing hard.
And then suddenly the situation changed dramatically, as Noval crashed out of nowhere. The Spaniard appeared to be in a lot of pain, and his chase was over. With a ten-second lead over Blanc alone, the British leader began the final climb. That would ultimately be enough for victory, and so no one saw him again.
Hudson thus became the first Briton to be crowned world junior champion in spectacular fashion. Behind him, Blanc finished second in a sprint against Jan Michal Jackowiak, the Pole who came third. Édouard Claisse finished sixth for Belgium, while the first Dutchman was Daan Dijkman in eighth place.
Results World cycling championship 2025 - junior men's road race
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
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Latest Comments
- 👏👏Bea24-09-2025
- Agreed! As we all know now, Juan Ayuso will be on another team. But it was sweet to see him win the stages at La Vuelta. I do love the drama of cycling admittedly but its clear to see the talent of winners of stages in a Grand Tourryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Pogacar has no competition he has won everything, I cant imagine even being him in that position!! Crazy. I am sure he has some back up plan for how he wants to spend his retirement years at age 30 onward. Does he like beer? Plenty of innovation in brewing. And you don't have to be super social. Chapeau/Cheers whatever you like Tadej you will do.ryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Plus its confirmed that the Philadelphia Cycling Classic up the Manayunk Wall is back for 2026! hooray for thatryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- This is a dumb question but still why doesn't the UCI consider a grand tour in the USA in the future. We have the desolate/scary back roads in Pennsylvania and Virginia, just like in France with loads of rural land and hills. Plus the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Cascade/Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I'm sure it'll never happen but honestly people in PA/NJ/NY/VT/NH would love it. We are already sports fans, what is another sport to learn. I am forever optimistic about cycling in the US.ryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- Zonneveld makes some excellent points.The sponsorship model is broken and companies like Verizon who have multi billion dollar with a B ad budgets need to be involved again.
Brucegel17-09-2025 - Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
- All they learned is that at the end of a 3 week race, Wout can beat him on a slightly bumpy stage. Obviously, this is very much thanks to Wout not racing for GC every day. This doesn't teach them a thing for Jonas beating Pogi. Not saying Jonas will never beat him again. But this absolutely won't have anything to do with it if he does beat him.Veganpotter28-07-2025
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