Jakob Söderqvist has ended his under-23 career in the best possible way - in the rainbow jersey, having won the category's individual time trial at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali on Monday.
At 22 years old, the Swedish rider will move up to the top-tier of racing with Lidl-Trek's WorldTour team, and while he may be a specialist in the race against the clock, he is also hoping for a chance to compete in a range of major Spring Classics.
"Personally, I don't put too much energy into expectations because of what I could be good at, and I don't want to build a box around me for what rider I am," Söderqvist said in a post-race press conference at the Kigali Convention Centre.
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Söderqvist has spent the previous two seasons developing with the Lidl-Trek Future Racing team with much success. He finished second to his teammate Albert Withen Philipsen at the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs this spring, won the time trial stage and finished second overall to his teammate Mads Pedersen at the Tour of Denmark.
He also secured elite titles in the time trial national title, for the second time in a row, and the gravel national title at the Swedish Championships.
His focus will now be on planning his first season on the World Tour and getting to know himself better as a rider across various types of road races, from one-day races to major stage races.
"For sure, we will try to find a good strategy with how I approach my career in the coming years, and in the coming years, and what the focus will be," he said.
"The time trial is my biggest specialty at the moment, which I find the most natural, but in the coming years, I would really like to have projects around the bigger Spring Classics, in a similar fashion to this, and it could also be that some stage races suit me with my time trial capabilities.
"We will see how I develop year after year without trying to box myself in with expectations."
As for the individual time trial in Kigali, Söderqvist said he knew he had what it would take to win the world title, especially after finishing second place to Spain's Iván Romeo in Zürich last year.
"I think that at points I thought I could pull off a performance like this, but, for sure, it was not something that I expected to do in that way. I know that some stars have to align and you really have to have good preparations," he said, covering the hilly 32.1km course in a winning time of 38:24, over a minute faster than silver medallist Nate Pringle from New Zealand.
"I needed to be honest with myself about race pacing, but I think that I really put out the right key focuses throughout the course to make up as much time as possible in the most important race. I'm super, super proud of my race, but I knew that I had it in me."
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