Junior World Champion Noval neutralised in Slovenia as Norwegian talent takes gold

The European Cycling Championships continued on Saturday with the junior men’s race, before the women took to the course later that day alongside the elite riders. The U23 riders had kicked off the action on Friday, with Nienke Vinke winning silver in the women’s race. Spain’s Héctor Álvarez took gold in the men’s race.

The junior race took place entirely on the local circuit, which made it much more of a climbers’ race. It was also much better suited for an early breakaway, which formed after the climb. One of the breakaway riders was Dutchman Finn Bastiaansen, who was joined by Italian Marco Zoco, Dane Marius Linde, and Spaniard Dario Gimeno.

The latter proved to be the strongest on the climb, but there were still well over eighty kilometers to go at that point. He also proved to be the strongest on the descent, which got him into trouble with the motor bikes. He was eventually caught by the peloton, but there was no real coordination there. And so the local hero, Gal Stare, was able to break away.

The Slovenian was joined by Enrico Balliana (Italy) and Hugo Muñoz (Spain), but Stare pushed hard on the climb and broke away solo. He clearly knew the roads like the back of his hand, as he plunged down the descent like a falcon. That’s how he crossed the finish line alone with a one-minute lead, with two laps to go. There were still 44 kilometers to go—but could he hold on?

The peloton was still quite large, but there was no teamwork. In the end, it was up to Spain, since they had world champion Benjamin Noval in their ranks. He started pushing the pace hard on the penultimate lap of the climb. He thinned out the group considerably, but couldn’t break away. At the summit, the Slovenian leader had a 15-second gap, but he was able to rejoin the pack on the descent.

On the flat section, however, a small group of outsiders managed to break away, including the Dutch riders Sven Wisse and Jop van den Biggelaar, as well as the Belgian Stan Van Hissenhoven. The top favorites followed thirty seconds behind as they entered the final lap. There, world champion Noval seemed to be caught in a pincer movement. It was a golden opportunity, and the Dutch and Slovenian riders saw it.

That gave them a lead of nearly three-quarters of a minute as they began the climb. There, the Dutch riders were immediately dropped by the pace set by the Spaniard Aitor Martinez, who had no intention of waiting for his team leader, Noval. However, Norwegian Elias Dybing’s counterattack was fierce. He reached the top of the final climb solo.

Martinez was joined by the rest of the chasers, so it wasn’t game over just yet. The Dutch riders Van den Biggelaar and Wisse also rejoined the pack, but Dybing only pulled further ahead due to infighting within that group. Van den Biggelaar broke away with Martinez, closing the gap once again. Was it still possible for the Dutch rider?

They closed in, very close. The teamwork was good and the front-runner was spent, but it turned out to be just too late. Dybing held on and took the win. In the battle for silver, Martinez was too strong, so Van den Biggelaar took bronze.

1. Elias Dybing
2. Aitor Martinez + 0.10
3. Jop van den Biggelaar "
4. Brandon Fedrizzi + 0.15
5. Vic De Smet "
6. Sander Willems "
7. Tobias Gren "
8. Michael Hettegger "
9. Elias Wändel "
10. Sindre Orholm-Lonseth "