Apeldoorn, host of the 2025 UCI Junior Track World Championships (20-24 August) has, for a long time, been a magnificent location for young riders to show their worth. The Dutch city hosted one of the very first UCI Road World Championships (1925, 5th edition), won at 22 years of age by Belgium’s Henry Hoevenars. With the opening of the Omnisport Apeldoorn in 2008, it has become a staple for international track events, crowning icons such as Australia’s Anna Meares (11 Elite UCI World Champion titles, including three at Apeldoorn 2011) and giving rise to some of the most special talents seen in recent track racing history.
The edition illuminated by Meares’ skills also saw Team GB star Laura Kenny (still known as Laura Trott at the time) take the first of her Elite rainbow jerseys at 19 years old, a year after she impressed at the UCI Junior Track Worlds. In 2018, when the UCI Track World Championships returned to Apeldoorn (also home of the Grande Partenza of the 2016 Giro d’Italia), Denmark’s Julius Johansen and Italy’s Letizia Paternoster were still aged just 18 when they stepped on the podium.
The youthful story has gone on all the way to the end of 2024, when the crowds of Apeldoorn witnessed the UCI Track Champions League and got to cheer for Colombia’s Stefany Cuadrado, who had just won three gold medals at the 2024 UCI Junior Track World Championships, and Australia’s Tayte Ryan, who had claimed two rainbow jerseys on the same occasion. The Omnisport Apeldoorn also hosted the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in 2015 and 2019, as well as the European Championships, for the Under 23 and Junior categories (2021) and the Elite (2011, 2013, 2019, 2024).
A complete programme
Riders born on 1 January 2007 or later now get their shot at rainbow glory in the Dutch venue, as the UCI Junior Track World Championships return to Europe after being held in America in 2023 (Cali, Colombia) and Asia in 2024 (Luoyang, China).
Over five days of competition, 22 UCI World Champion titles will be at stake (11 each for men and women). Rising stars will battle for medals in the six specialities on the programme of the Olympic Games - keirin, Madison, omnium, sprint, team pursuit, team sprint - as well as the elimination, individual pursuit, points race, kilometre time trial and scratch race.
The first prizes will be awarded as early as Wednesday, the first day of competition, with the finals of the team sprints (men and women) and the women’s scratch race. The action will continue thick and fast until the final day of competition on Sunday, when five titles will be up for grabs: the women’s Madison and keirin, as well as the men’s elimination, kilometre time trial and Madison.
Last year, a similar programme saw not only Cuadrado but also Great Britain’s Carys Lloyd take three gold medals each. Both born in 2006, they have now moved up a category. Lloyd misses out on the age limit for the 2025 UCI Junior Worlds by just one day (her birthday is 31 December), which means her teammate Erin Boothman (crowned with Lloyd in the team pursuit and the Madison) will need to find a new winning formula in Apeldoorn.
New talents rise
The young Brit will be accompanied in the Netherlands by her countryman Henry Hobbs, a three-time medallist last year in Luoyang (gold in the individual pursuit, silver in the kilometre time trial, bronze in the team pursuit), who is set to participate in the kilometre, team pursuit and omnium this week. Last month, he broke the Junior world record to win the pursuit (3:03.246) at the UEC Track Juniors European Championships.
Italy’s Alessia Magagnotti is also pursuing more success after his victory last year in the team pursuit. His compatriots Matilde Cenci, Siria Trevisan, Chantal Pegolo and Linda Sanarini return as well and can only dream of gold after they took bronze medals last year. Tomas Lamaszewski and Gabriela Kaczmarczyk (Poland), Taeho Choi (Korea), Heimo Fugger (Austria), Ashley Barry (USA), Alexander Hewes (Australia) and Izaro Etxarri (Spain) are the other riders who stepped onto last year’s podiums and are gearing for new battles alongside newcomers such as Ida Fialla.
Born in August 2008, the young Dane is a first-year Junior but her talent is already becoming quite apparent. Last month she was the most successful Junior at the UEC Track European Championships, with victories in the individual pursuit, scratch race and the elimination, as well as a silver medal in the omnium, and bronze in the points race. Apeldoorn will once again see special talents rise to the fore.