Road World Championships - Riders to watch in the men's under-23 road race

The under-23 men’s road race at the Road World Championships in Rwanda is upon us, and things will look a little different this year.

The peloton of 123 riders set to tackle the 164.6km course in Kigali will be run without any professional riders for the first time since 2015, after which rules were introduced to allow any WorldTour or ProTeam rider under the age of 23 to participate

This year, following another rule change, only non-professional riders will be racing, meaning that 21-year-old reigning champion and Visma-Lease A Bike pro Niklas Behrens won’t be lining up. The rule change also counts out a wealth of other well-known riders, including Isaac del Toro, Matthew Brennan, Romain Grégoire, Giulio Pelizzari, and Jan Christen.

However, several familiar names will still be taking part in the race, including a host of the next big things in road racing – riders already working their way through the development and Continental racing programmes of top-tier teams.

Here’s our pick of the top riders to watch at this year’s Road World Championships under-23 men’s road race.

Jarno Widar (Belgium)

Belgian leader, Jarno Widar, comes into the race with the biggest reputation of the riders taking the start on Friday. The 19-year-old already has one under-23 road race under his belt. He finished seventh at last year's race in Zurich, having smashed the race apart from the front before cramping late on.

He won the Alpes Isère Tour, Giro d'Italia Next Gen, and Giro della Valle d'Aosta as an 18-year-old, and this year added a swathe more titles to his palmarès. Wins at the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Ardennaise, the Ronde de l'Isard, and another Valle d'Aosta title came this season, while he finished runner-up at the Tour de l'Avenir, winning two mountain stages along the way.

The rainbow jersey is his main goal of the season, even if he recently missed the Worlds time trial after suffering a leg injury last month. His demonstrable strength in the hills and mountains makes him the top favourite in this race before he steps up to the pros next season.

Lorenzo Finn (Italy)

18-year-old Lorenzo Finn leads Italy, having won the junior men's road race in Zurich last time out. The youngest rider in the race has taken to the under-23 level with ease at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies, putting in a string of impressive results in spite of his young age.

Back in the spring, he narrowly missed out to Widar at La Flèche Ardennaise, won the Giro del Belvedere, and finished top five in the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. At his Giro Next Gen debut, he finished sixth overall and won the mountains classification, while he missed the podium by just three seconds at the Tour de l'Avenir.

He's in good form in this late-season period, too, having finished fourth in the under-23 time trial at the weekend. Finn looks set to feature among the favourites at the weekend, even if he isn't the outright tip for success.

Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden)

The newly crowned under-23 time trial champion is Sweden's only racer in the under-23 road race, one of his final races before he steps up to the WorldTour with Lidl-Trek next season.

Jakob Söderqvist already had plenty of experience with the senior team with 32 race days, including the Volta ao Algarve, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, and Scheldeprijs. He's already won the elite Swedish time trial title as well as a time trial stage win at the Tour of Denmark.

However, as his time trial prowess – and a second place at Paris-Roubaix espoirs – show, he's more of a racer for the flat lands than the 3,500 metres of climbing which fill the course in Kigali. He may not be in the mix at the finish, but he's still one to watch this week and beyond.

Maxime Decomble (France)

Frenchman Maxime Decomble, 20, made the step up from the junior ranks this season, and he's enjoyed a real breakthrough in terms of results, too.

He'll move on up to Groupama-FDJ next season, while in 2025 he's finished second at the Alpes Isère Tour, third at the recent Worlds under-23 time trial, and top five at the Tour de l'Avenir and at the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

He also raced at the Etoile de Bessèges and O Gran Camiño earlier in the year, taking 15th and 12th places. Decomble heads up a three-man France selection and looks likely to figure in the mix for the medals.

Mateo Ramírez (Ecuador)

Ecuador's Mateo Ramírez counts among the talented young UAE Team Emirates Gen Z roster, having joined mid-season from Spanish club High Level-Gsport-Grupo Tormo.

He was already on the podium of Ecuador's elite men's road race back in February, while his move to UAE has since seen him take fourth in the Giro del Medio Brenta, sixth at the Tour de l'Avenir, and second at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, where he also won the youth classification.

The 19-year-old Ramírez has shown his strength in the mountains and hills this season after finishing 61st at the junior road race last September. Like several others on this list, he'll be on his own for Ecuador on Friday.

Jakob Omrzel (Slovenia)

Also 19, Jakob Omrzel is Slovenia's great hope for the race, leading a five-rider squad which includes former pro Tadej Valjavec's son, Erazem.

Omrzel, who races for the Bahrain Victorious Development Team, is the best chance at success, however, having racked up some impressive results at under-23 level this season, including overall victory at the Giro Next Gen and ninth at the Circuit des Ardennes.

He's also already shown what he can do among a peloton of professional riders, racing to fourth overall on home roads at the 2.Pro race, the Tour of Slovenia in June. Anders Johannessen and Tao Geoghegan Hart were among his rivals then, and he should once again be right up there in this race.

Héctor Alvarez (Spain)

Héctor Alvarez is the second-youngest rider in the race, and at the age of 18, he'll head up Spain's six-man squad for the road race. He joined Lidl-Trek Future Racing this season and has impressed with a sixth place at the Giro della Regione Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and four top-10 placings on stages of the Tour of Austria and Vuelta a Burgos.

He already has an impressive string of results in various championships, including ninth in this year's under-23 time trial. Last year he was sixth in the junior road race and second at the European Championships junior road race.

The Spanish team will also be able to look to young UAE Gen Z talent Adrià Pericas for a result. The 19-year-old finished top 10 at the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Giro Next Gen this season.

Subscribe to Cyclingnews to unlock unlimited access to our coverage of the first-ever UCI Road World Championships on African soil. Our team of journalists will bring you all the major storylines, in-depth analysis, and more directly from the action in Rwanda as the next rainbow jerseys are decided. Find out more.