{"id":901629,"date":"2026-09-22T19:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T19:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:28:17","slug":"road-world-championships-benjamin-noval-delivers-gold-medal-for-spain-in-junior-mens-time-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901629\/","title":{"rendered":"Road World Championships: Benjam\u00edn Noval delivers gold medal for Spain in junior men’s time trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain\u2019s Benjamin Noval paced his rhythm perfectly on the twisty course in Montreal to take the victory in the junior men time trial at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships<\/a>, beating Belgium\u2019s Vic de Smet by six seconds.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old, already one of the top junior prospects in the world, controlled his pace in the first section, three seconds off the fastest time at the first split, but then upped the pace on the flat middle section and was able to get out of the saddle to sprint on the final wall to the finish line that had flummoxed multiple riders before him. Noval averaged 48.2kph on the 20.3km course.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Faster after six kilometres, De Smet lost time to Noval, 10 seconds down by the second check after 14.5km, and though he was able to gain some time back, the 17-year-old stayed in his aero position all the way to the finish line, to stop the clock at 25:23 for the silver medal.<\/p>\n

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Denmark\u2019s Malthe Risbjerg, 18, also gained time in the second half of the course, finishing with a time of 25:34, 16 seconds from the winning time, and claimed the bronze medal.<\/p>\n

The 40th rider to start, Julius L\u00f8vstrup Birkedal, the current Danish junior time trial champion, sat in the hot seat for some time, but ultimately finished off the podium in fourth place, with a time of 25:38, five hundredths of a second faster than fifth-place Patrik Pezzo Rosola (Italy).<\/p>\n

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“I think it was a goal from the start of the season, but, well, I wasn’t entirely sure I had a real shot at it; I knew it was possible, but I still can’t quite believe it. I\u2019m still processing it all,” Noval said.<\/p>\n

Noval embraced his family, including his father, former professional cyclist Benjam\u00edn Noval, after winning the rainbow jersey.<\/p>\n

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“We\u2019ve been working on this all season, especially for this final part of the season, so I prepared much better for the time trial and these World Championships; after last year, I felt it was time to get it done, and well, in the end, it was possible.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"Gold\n<\/p>\n

Gold medalist Benjamin Noval and Team Spain (C), Silver medalist Vic de Smet and Team Belgium (L) and Bronze medalist Malthe Risbjerg and Team Denmark (R) pose on the podium during the 99th UCI Road World Championships Montreal 2026, Men Junior Individual Time Trial (Image credit: Getty Images)How it unfolded<\/p>\n

The riders tackled the same twisty 20.3km course with 29 turns that the U23 women covered on Monday. After a technical opening descent, the race ran south alongside the St Lawrence River before turning 180 degrees and retracing its path to finish with the 400-metre, 6.1% uphill drag to the line.<\/p>\n

The race was wide open, with last year\u2019s winner Michiel Mouris (Netherlands) and runner-up Ashlin Barry (United States) both moving up to the under-23 ranks, while third-placed Seff Van Kerckhove (Belgium) was ruled out after being hit by a driver while training.<\/p>\n

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In slightly overcast conditions and a cool 13\u00b0C, Zimbabwe\u2019s Rohnan Nicholson was the first rider to leave the start ramp, setting the quickest time of the early starters with a time of 27:52.
His time in the hot seat would be short, as the seventh rider out of 68 riders, Vanja Kuntari\u010d (Slovenia), blitzed his way to the hot seat, averaging 46.1km\/hr, to stop the clock at 26:25.<\/p>\n

For the next 40 minutes, Kuntari\u010d watched as riders came close but were not able to beat his time, such as Jose Rodriguez (Mexico) who finished six seconds off the pace and New Zealand junior national champion Alex Botha, who came close in the two time checks but ultimately finished with the sixth-fastest time so far. Australia\u2019s Lachlan Stewart started off strong, clocking only one second down on the first time check, but could not hold the pace and finished with a time of 26:51.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Vic\n<\/p>\n

Vic de Smet (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

To the delight of the fans, Zachari Moreau put in an impressive ride. After a fast start, the Canadian lost some time through the flat middle section but finished strongly in 26:49, briefly moving into third place.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Raul Lopez followed a different pacing strategy, increasing his pace at both splits before crossing the finish line with a time of 26:30, four seconds off the pace of Kuntari\u010d.<\/p>\n

Then the fastest time changed hands three times, first with the Netherlands\u2019 Thijs Wiersma and then Norway\u2019s Mads Furenes. Wiersma posted the quickest times at the first two splits, but Furenes steadily closed the gap, cutting his deficit from seven seconds to three before crossing the finish line in 26:10, six seconds faster than Wiersma.<\/p>\n

But reigning Danish junior time trial champion Julius L\u00f8vstrup Birkedal was not far behind. After setting the fastest time at the 14.5km mark, Birkedal continued to increase his pace, stopping the clock at 25:38 to set a new best time, 32 seconds faster than Furenes.<\/p>\n

Like many riders on this twisty course, Gijs Winter had trouble keeping the pace, after setting the fastest time at the first split, the Dutch rider had fallen back and finished off the podium with a time of 26:12.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Spain\u2019s Benjamin Noval was three seconds off at the first split, but then blasted through the flat section to set the fastest time at the next split. Averaging 48.2km\/hr, Noval bested Birkedal\u2019s time by 21 seconds with 25:17.<\/p>\n

Noval then watched the final eight riders come through. Denmark\u2019s Malthe Risbjerg was 18 seconds down at the second time check but could only claw back two seconds, finishing in 25:34. Belgian Via de Smet was faster at the first check but had slipped 10 seconds behind eight kilometres later. De Smet rallied in the closing kilometres to finish just six seconds off the winning time, moving into second and pushing Risbjerg down to third.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Malthe\n<\/p>\n

Malthe Risbjerg (Image credit: Getty Images)Results<\/p>\n

Swipe to scroll horizontally<\/p>\n

Rank<\/p>\n

Name<\/p>\n

Time<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Benjamin Noval (Spain)<\/p>\n

25:17.35<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Vic de Smet (Belgium)<\/p>\n

0:00:06<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Malthe Risbjerg (Denmark)<\/p>\n

0:00:17<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Julius Birkedal (Denmark)<\/p>\n

0:00:21<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Patrik Pezzo Rosola (Italy)<\/p>\n

0:00:21<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Antoine Salamin (Switzerland)<\/p>\n

0:00:39<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Sindre Orholm-Lonseth (Norway)<\/p>\n

0:00:43<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Lancelot Gayant (France)<\/p>\n

0:00:48<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

Leon Atkins (Great Britain)<\/p>\n

0:00:49<\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

Mads Furenes (Norway)<\/p>\n

0:00:53<\/p>\n

11<\/p>\n

Gijs Winters (Netherlands)<\/p>\n

0:00:55<\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

Enzo Hincapie (United States)<\/p>\n

0:00:56<\/p>\n

13<\/p>\n

Kashus Adamski (United States)<\/p>\n

0:00:57<\/p>\n

14<\/p>\n

Niklas Wiesmayr (Austria)<\/p>\n

0:00:59<\/p>\n

15<\/p>\n

Thijs Wiersma (Netherlands)<\/p>\n

0:01:00<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

Owen Kings (Germany)<\/p>\n

0:01:04<\/p>\n

17<\/p>\n

Andre Free (New Zealand)<\/p>\n

0:01:07<\/p>\n

18<\/p>\n

Vanja Kuntari\u010d \u017dibert (Slovenia)<\/p>\n

0:01:08<\/p>\n

19<\/p>\n

Timotej Michalik (Slovakia)<\/p>\n

0:01:09<\/p>\n

20<\/p>\n

Raul Lopez (Spain)<\/p>\n

0:01:13<\/p>\n

21<\/p>\n

Alistair Forsyth (Australia)<\/p>\n

0:01:14<\/p>\n

22<\/p>\n

Jose Rodriguez (Mexico)<\/p>\n

0:01:15<\/p>\n

23<\/p>\n

Andrea Tarallo (Italy)<\/p>\n

0:01:15<\/p>\n

24<\/p>\n

Daniel Kub\u011bna (Czechia)<\/p>\n

0:01:19<\/p>\n

25<\/p>\n

Zachari Moreau (Canada)<\/p>\n

0:01:32<\/p>\n

26<\/p>\n

Lachlan Stewart (Australia)<\/p>\n

0:01:35<\/p>\n

26<\/p>\n

Gal Stare (Slovenia)<\/p>\n

0:01:35<\/p>\n

28<\/p>\n

Maximilien Outlet (Luxembourg)<\/p>\n

0:01:38<\/p>\n

29<\/p>\n

Luan Elsasser (Germany)<\/p>\n

0:01:39<\/p>\n

30<\/p>\n

Rodrigo Jesus (Portugal)<\/p>\n

0:01:44<\/p>\n

31<\/p>\n

Dean Woolley (South Africa)<\/p>\n

0:01:44<\/p>\n

32<\/p>\n

Marwan Barhoumi (Switzerland)<\/p>\n

0:01:45<\/p>\n

33<\/p>\n

Goncalo Costa (Portugal)<\/p>\n

0:01:46<\/p>\n

34<\/p>\n

Tristan Hardy (Mauritius)<\/p>\n

0:01:48<\/p>\n

35<\/p>\n

Alex Botha (New Zealand)<\/p>\n

0:01:50<\/p>\n

36<\/p>\n

Evander Wishart (Great Britain)<\/p>\n

0:01:50<\/p>\n

37<\/p>\n

Miko\u0142aj Legie\u0107 (Poland)<\/p>\n

0:01:51<\/p>\n

38<\/p>\n

Ollie Jirovec (Australia)<\/p>\n

0:01:53<\/p>\n

39<\/p>\n

Jose Manuel Posada (Colombia)<\/p>\n

0:02:00<\/p>\n

40<\/p>\n

Gleb Novikov (Kazakhstan)<\/p>\n

0:02:01<\/p>\n

41<\/p>\n

Takumi Matsumura (Japan)<\/p>\n

0:02:06<\/p>\n

42<\/p>\n

Bruno da Silva (Brazil)<\/p>\n

0:02:07<\/p>\n

43<\/p>\n

Matas Kubilius (Lithuania)<\/p>\n

0:02:08<\/p>\n

44<\/p>\n

Selmane Mansouri (Algeria)<\/p>\n

0:02:11<\/p>\n

45<\/p>\n

Igor Mitoraj (Poland)<\/p>\n

0:02:21<\/p>\n

46<\/p>\n

Freddie Winkley (Ireland)<\/p>\n

0:02:22<\/p>\n

47<\/p>\n

Pavel Podluzhnyy (Kazakhstan)<\/p>\n

0:02:23<\/p>\n

48<\/p>\n

Milan Husenica (Slovakia)<\/p>\n

0:02:29<\/p>\n

49<\/p>\n

Rohnan Nicholson (Zimbabwe)<\/p>\n

0:02:35<\/p>\n

50<\/p>\n

Carter Deveer (Canada)<\/p>\n

0:02:36<\/p>\n

51<\/p>\n

Adrian Solis (Nicaragua)<\/p>\n

0:02:41<\/p>\n

52<\/p>\n

McCRYSTAL Rian (Ireland)<\/p>\n

0:02:43<\/p>\n

53<\/p>\n

Juan Esteban Sanchez (Colombia)<\/p>\n

0:02:55<\/p>\n

54<\/p>\n

Omar Andrade (Mexico)<\/p>\n

0:02:55<\/p>\n

55<\/p>\n

Hussain Alsafr (Saudi Arabia)<\/p>\n

0:03:18<\/p>\n

56<\/p>\n

Juliano Ndriamanampy (Mauritius)<\/p>\n

0:03:45<\/p>\n

57<\/p>\n

Brian Ishimwe (Rwanda)<\/p>\n

0:03:48<\/p>\n

58<\/p>\n

Chung Ming Yau (Hong Kong)<\/p>\n

0:03:52<\/p>\n

59<\/p>\n

Ryan Thompson (Cayman Islands)<\/p>\n

0:03:56<\/p>\n

60<\/p>\n

Ege Erulku (Turkey)<\/p>\n

0:04:06<\/p>\n

61<\/p>\n

So Tanaka (Japan)<\/p>\n

0:04:12<\/p>\n

62<\/p>\n

Benjamin Perez (Chile)<\/p>\n

0:04:17<\/p>\n

63<\/p>\n

Andersson Ajpacaja (Guatemala)<\/p>\n

0:04:20<\/p>\n

64<\/p>\n

Pacifique Byusa (Rwanda)<\/p>\n

0:04:36<\/p>\n

65<\/p>\n

Gokturk Yuzerler (Turkey)<\/p>\n

0:04:44<\/p>\n

66<\/p>\n

Jaime Carreno (Chile)<\/p>\n

0:05:16<\/p>\n

67<\/p>\n

Carlos Alexander Kee-Tui (Zimbabwe)<\/p>\n

0:05:36<\/p>\n

68<\/p>\n

Jamaal Tablada (Belize)<\/p>\n

0:06:03<\/p>\n

69<\/p>\n

Keith Enwright Jr (Belize)<\/p>\n

0:06:20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s Benjamin Noval paced his rhythm perfectly on the twisty course in Montreal to take the victory in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-901629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}