{"id":777922,"date":"2026-09-21T15:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777922\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T15:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:30:15","slug":"road-world-champions-junior-mens-time-trial-contenders-who-will-take-rainbow-on-a-course-for-the-specialists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777922\/","title":{"rendered":"Road World Champions: Junior men’s time trial contenders \u2013 who will take rainbow on a course for the specialists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 UCI Road World Championships<\/a> are well underway with the first medals and jerseys already handed out in Montreal, Canada as the age-group time trials kicked off the competition over the weekend.<\/p>\n

For this year’s junior men’s time trial, taking place on Tuesday, the riders will take on a 20.3km version of the course the elites covered on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Starting with the same technical opening descent, the race runs south, alongside the St Lawrence River, before turning 180 degrees and retracing its wheel tracks. This final includes the uphill closing 5km all the TTs are covering, including the steep uphill kick to the line, making a course which suits the all-round time trial specialist.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromCyclingnews<\/p>\n

\n

\"UCI\n<\/p>\n

The route of the junior men’s TT (Image credit: UCI Road World Championship 2026 – Junior Men’s Time Trial)<\/p>\n

With last year’s winner Michiel Mouris (Netherlands) and second-placed Ashlin Barry (United States) both moving up to the under-23 ranks in 2026, third-placed Seff Van Kerckhove would have started as one of the favourites. However, the Belgian is out of both the TT and road race after being hit by a driver while out training<\/a>, making the race more open.<\/p>\n

\n

\"UCI\n<\/p>\n

The junior men’s TT profile (Image credit: UCI Road World Championship 2026 – Junior Men’s Time Trial)Vic De Smet (Belgium)<\/p>\n

\n

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

(Image credit: Soudal-QuickStep)<\/p>\n

With Van Kerckhove out of this year’s championships after being hit by a driver while training in Montreal, Belgium’s hopes fall on Vic De Smet.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

De Smet joined the Soudal-QuickStep Under 19 team for this year and has already tasted success with a consistent stream of top 10 finishes in what has been a busy season for the 17-year-old.<\/p>\n

Importantly, some of that success has been against the clock, with victory at stage 2a of the Boucles de l\u2019Oise over a pan flat 15km course and a number stop five places. He was second behind Van Kerckhove at the Junior Nationals in May as well, so is well equipped for Montreal.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

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

\n

\"Patrik\n<\/p>\n

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

Multi-discipline rider Patrik Pezzo Rosola already has a championship medal to his name, taking silver at the European Cyclo-cross Championships last autumn, but since then he\u2019s been going well on the road.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s worked hard on his time trialing skills, starting the year with a national level race victory, but more importantly tasting success in the Nations Cup, winning stage 2a of Lago Le Bandie-Pieve Del Grappa. Decent uphill, he\u2019ll cope well with the finish.<\/p>\n

Julius L\u00f8vstrup Birkedal (Denmark)<\/p>\n

\n

\"Julius\n<\/p>\n

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

The current Danish junior time trial champion, Julius L\u00f8vstrup Birkedal is a specialist against the clock and lines up for Tuesday’s race after some solid preparation.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

Denmark didn’t send a junior men’s team to the Road World Championships last year, but at the Europeans Birkedal finished third, just 27 seconds behind rainbow jersey winner Michiel Mouris.<\/p>\n

This year he’s kicked on with a series of top performances against the clock including in the Junior Nations Cup.<\/p>\n

He completed his Worlds prep at the Green Mountains Stage Race in the US, winning the opening day TT as well as the final road stage.<\/p>\n

Ones to watchNiklas Wiesmayr (Austria) \u2013 The national champion has been flying against the clock but is yet to take a win of any kind outside AustriaAlex Botha (New Zealand) \u2013 Another national champion, Botha is a regular top 5 finisher recently taking 4th in a US raceVanja Kuntari\u010d (Slovenia) \u2013 Has built his TT form throughout the season, with a win and second place in the last six weeksKash Adamski (United States) \u2013 Questionable recent form, but has European TT wins to his name this year, as well as the US titleLeon Atkins (Great Britain) \u2013 Much more than a TT specialist, though he has four wins against the clock this year<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for comprehensive race coverage of both the UCI Road and Gravel World Championships, alongside the final monument of the season, Il Lombardia. Subscribers get unlimited access to exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 UCI Road World Championships are well underway with the first medals and jerseys already handed out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}