Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist became his country’s first ever under-23 men’s time trial world champion on Monday after a commanding performance in Kigali at the UCI Road World Championships.
The 22-year-old crossed the finish line 1:04 faster than second-place Nate Pringle of New Zealand to take victory.
Maxime Decomble (France) finished third to Pringle after laying down the second fastest time at point 1, as Callum Thornley, the only Brit in the under-23 men’s event, finished just short of the podium in fifth, 1:11 slower than Söderqvist.
“The preparations before this [race] has been extra everything because as soon as I finished second last year, the goal was for this year,” Söderqvist said at the finish.
“This is the one thing in the U23 category that I care about the most so it was preparations all year round to just make this one as good as possible. I had a good feeling coming into this and I’m really happy with how I handled the situation.
“[The pressure] is a challenge I really like to have as well. In a career, I think handling pressure is a key success factor, and for sure I want to [go on to] win some of the biggest races. At that point you have got to be the best at handling pressure.”
Speaking about the 31.2km loop of Kigali the riders took on this afternoon, involving three climbs and a cobbled finish, Söderqvist said: “It was not the easiest one to pace for sure… but I can depend on my feeling, I know that I am a TT specialist and it’s the pacing that makes it, so I just trusted myself and trusted my feeling and I knew what to make out of it.”
But before Söderqvist set off from the start gate, drums rolling, the race’s preliminary podium had already begun to shuffle. Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland) had been in the hot seat for over an hour before Jonas Walton finally toppled him with a time of 39.51. Though the Canadian national champion barely had time to catch his breath before Pringle caught him, having made 23 seconds on Walton.
In the background to the podium reshuffle, however, was Söderqvist, thundering across the course, leading the race by 14 seconds at the point 1, then by 24 seconds at the second. By the third point, Söderqvist was leading by 31 seconds and his race was already won, finishing 38.24 seconds ahead of Pringle.
Taking a swig of water at the end of his race run, Söderqvist didn’t seem to have broken a sweat compared to his competitors who, dazed, recovered at the other side of the final.
Results
Men’s Under-23 Individual Time Trial
1. Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden), in 38.24
2. Nate Pringle (New Zealand), +1.03
3. Maxime Decomble (France), +1.04
4. Lorenzo Finn (Italy), +1.08
5. Callum Thornley (Great Britain), +1.11
6. Jonal Walton (Canada), +1.26
7. Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland), +1.28
8. Jonathan Vervenne (Belgium), +1.33
9. Héctor Martínez (Spain), +1.40
10. Hamish McKenzie (Australia), +1.48
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