After the Elite individual time trials (ITT) on Sunday, the Men Under 23 and Men Junior riders raced against the clock on Monday, the third day of the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships.
Spain’s Iván Romeo Abad won the Men Under 23 category followed by Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist (+32’’) and Switzerland’s Jan Christen (+40’’). Earlier in the day, Paul Seixas (FRA) had dominated the Men Junior event. He was joined on the podium by Jasper Schoofs (+6’’) and Matisse van Kerckhove (+7’’) who add two more medals to Belgium’s collection after Remco Evenepoel’s historic ITT win on Sunday.
“It’s the happiest day in my life,” Romeo Abad reacted. “I worked so hard for this. Few people know how bad I wanted it, only my close ones, my friends and family. I’ve been here in Zurich with my father for ten days, seeing the parcours, and I have no words.”
“I knew [Belgium’s Alec] Segaert [4th, +54’’] was the last one on the line,” added the new UCI World Champion, already a member of UCI WorldTeam Movistar Team. “I expected him to beat me but I also knew my last 10 kilometres were amazing so if we were close in the second intermediate, I could win. At the end of the day, it was like this.”
🌈 #Zurich2024 - ¡ORO! No es un sueño @ivanromeo_03 🥹 ¡Eres Campeón del Mundo!
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) September 23, 2024
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In the Men Junior ITT, Van Kerckhove enjoyed a long stay on the hotseat before Seixas stormed to the line with a dominant finish (28’08’’ to cover 24.9km on the shores of Lake Zurich). This is France’s first rainbow jersey in an ITT since that of Séverine Eraud’s in the Women Junior ranks in 2013.
“Yes, it’s a bit of a surprise,” said the young French rider (17), already scouted by UCI WorldTeam Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team. “I was aiming to do the best TT of my life but being World Champion is a dream. I was not even dreaming of this when I came here. Maybe a bit… But it was just a dream and today it became reality. It’s insane.”
“My father is here, he was not supposed to be, so I’m super happy that he can see this today and I’m super proud for me, for my family and for everyone involved in this,” added Seixas, who can now turn to the road race: “Thursday will be a real great battle. But my Worlds are already good.”