The sixth day of competition at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, featured the Men Under 23 and Men Junior road races.
A year after claiming the rainbow jersey in the Junior category, Italy’s Lorenzo Mark Finn conquered the Under 23 title with a strong performance on the local circuit of Kigali. Three months before his 19th birthday, he becomes the youngest winner of the Men Under 23 road race and is only the second to take consecutive victories in both categories, after Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič in 2012 and 2013. Switzerland’s Jan Huber took silver and Austria’s Marco Schrettl rounded out the podium.
Earlier in the day, Harry Hudson made a solo effort to the Men Junior rainbow jersey. The British rider covered the last 36 kilometres on his own to claim gold ahead of France’s Johan Blanc and Poland’s Jan Michal Jackowiak. He is the first rider from Team GB to win the Men Junior road race, held since 1975, while his countrywomen top the historical Women Junior road race standings with seven titles, including Cat Ferguson’s in 2024.
Finn’s brilliant step up
The Under 23 action got rolling at noon precisely, with a 118-man peloton (representing 56 nations) taking on eleven laps of the local circuit for a total of 164.6 kilometres. Moves started from the gun but attackers struggled to make it stick at the front as Belgians set a strong pace in the bunch, trying to make the most of the massive elevation gain - 3,350 metres in total - to favour the ambitions of their climber Jarno Widar.
Attackers were rapidly reeled in, and a race of survival ensued. Italian and French riders also showed their ambition to shake up the race, thinning out the peloton as stragglers went off the back. Spain got in the mix with Héctor Álvarez powering to the front 62km from the finish. Norway’s Halvor Dolven joined him as they entered the last 50 kilometres before Lorenzo Mark Finn made the jump with three more attackers ahead of the final three laps.
Finn accelerated again on the cobbles of the Côte de Kimihurura, with 32km to go. Jan Huber was the only rider to follow him while Widar failed to bring the main group back to the attackers.
In the final lap, Finn attacked at the bottom of the Côte de Kigali Golf, immediately distancing his Swiss rival just under 7km away from glory and eventually taking victory with a gap of 31 seconds. In their wake, Austria’s Marco Schrettl punched away from the rest of the chasers to take bronze (+1’13’’).
“It’s like last year, it’s just unreal,” Finn said moments after claiming his second rainbow jersey. “Just the crowds here… In the last 500 metres, my ears were hurting because there were so many people cheering me on from different nations. The people here in Kigali are fantastic. It’s been a wonderful week obviously with the result, but it’s a life experience. I’ll remember forever.”
Youngest in the field, first across the line 🥇
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) September 26, 2025
Lorenzo Finn 🇮🇹 takes the Men Under-23 Road title 🌈
📸 SWPix #Kigali2025 pic.twitter.com/0TWrMBuebM
Hudson’s crowning
The contenders in the Men Junior road race faced eight laps on the 15.1km local circuit, for a total of 119.3 kilometres, with 2,435 metres of elevation.
On the first lap, Austria’s Heimo Fugger launched the first move of the day, and was joined at the front by Switzerland’s Loïc Schertenleib to make the early break of the day. They were joined on the second lap by the USA’s Beckam Drake then Bulgaria’s Nicholas van der Merwe: the pair distanced their companions on the third lap while attacks kept flying from the bunch.
The main contenders got back together as Drake pulled away from Van der Merwe into the last 42km. The American attacker was eventually caught on the slopes of Kigali Golf, with 36km to go… and Harry Hudson immediately attacked.
The young Brit entered the final lap with a lead of 34’’ on his closest rivals, Spain’s Javier Cubillas and Italy’s Roberto Capello, with the rest of the chasers in their wake. Another Spanish talent, Benjamín Noval, put the hammer down on the final ascent of Kigali Golf, but hit the deck with 3.5km to go.
Hudson eventually held on all the way to the line, taking gold 16 seconds ahead of France’s Johan Blanc and Poland’s Jan Michal Jackowiak.
“To take the first one in Africa is crazy,” Hudson celebrated. “But just winning a [UCI] world title is amazing. I saw in the moment that people were sitting up and it had been quite hard up that climb so I just went. I thought I was gonna get caught with, like, a lap to go or something, because there were people quite close. I was really suffering on the final climb… But I just managed to stay away.”