"Swedish Ganna" Söderqvist fully lives up to favorite status and claims U23 World Championship Time Trial title

In 2025, the world championship for U23 riders would look very different from previous years. Last year, we saw two WorldTour pros on the podium with winner Iván Romeo and third-place finisher Jan Christen, and in the road race, Martin Svrcek (Soudal Quick-Step) and Alec Segaert (Lotto) took two medals as two accomplished pros. That had to change: the talents looking for a pro contract had to take center stage.

This meant that riders with a professional contract were not allowed to start in Kigali, at least not in the youth categories. No Paul Seixas, no Alec Segaert, and no Romeo, all of whom would normally have been allowed to start, given their age. This meant that all eyes were on riders from development teams, such as Jakob Söderqvist from Lidl-Trek, Lorenzo Finn from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and Mathias Schwarzbacher from UAE Team Emirates - XRG. The Netherlands did not send any U23 riders to Rwanda.

Jarno Widar was also absent: he withdrew as a precaution due to a buttock injury, with the road race in mind. Rwandan Etienne Tuyizere was given the honor of starting and, unsurprisingly, recorded the first time, but he was quickly removed from the top spot by China's You Li. It took a little longer for the first real target time to appear. That came from Poland's Mateusz Gajdulewicz, who set an excellent time.

He was almost 2.30 minutes faster than Jaka Marolt, the Slovenian man in the hot seat at the time. Along the way, Gajdulewicz saw several strong men bite their teeth out on his time, including Spain's Hector Álvarez. However, Canada's Jonas Walton beat it by just 1.5 seconds. His time did not last long, though, due to the strong New Zealander Nate Pringle.

He had set a very fast time and was hoping for a medal. Finn, Maxime Decomble, and Callum Thornley also still had a chance at a medal, but at the first intermediate point, Söderqvist was by far the fastest. The top favorite, whose physique is reminiscent of Filippo Ganna, was already 23 seconds faster than Decomble and seemed to be taking a lead on the gold. At the second intermediate point, he had already extended his lead to 30 seconds.

At the finish, Finn, one of the outsiders, just failed to beat Pringle's time. Decomble was consistently slower, but after the cobbled climb, he was only 17 hundredths of a second behind the New Zealander. It was enough for a medal: the Frenchman took bronze, Pringle silver. However, Söderqvist rode confidently to victory, following his second-place finish in Zurich.