France's next prodigy and Brazil's best chance at a rainbow jersey – World Championships under-23 men's road race contenders

The road racing continues at the UCI Road World Championships on Friday, September 25, as the under-23 men take the start line to compete for the prestigious rainbow jersey in Montreal.

This category will race 13 laps of a 13.4km circuit for a total of 174.2km and 3,497m of elevation. The circuit will start on Avenue du Parc and include two main climbs: Camillien-Houde to the top of Mount Royal, Côte de la Polytechnique, and then tackle the uphill drag to the finish back on Avenue du Parc.

The course will be well suited to the all-rounder riders that excel in challenging parcours, technical city circuits, races of attrition and in tactical battles in pursuit of victory.

Lorenzo Finn will not defend his title in the under-23 men's road race and will instead compete in the elite men's event on Sunday.

The race is therefore open to a new world champion, and Cyclingnews highlights the riders to watch on Friday.

Jan Huber (Switzerland)

Jan Huber, 21, will represent Switzerland at the World Championships, lining up as one of the favourites to win the rainbow jersey. He finished with a silver medal at last year's Worlds in Kigali, and he brings the strength needed for Montreal's hilly, technical city circuits.

He finished third in the under-23 men's road race at the Swiss National Championships, but spent most of his season competing with Tudor Pro Cycling in the international calendar. He finished 13th overall at the Tour de l'Avenir.

He will line up with five riders on the Swiss team, including national champion Nicolas Ginter.

Niels Driesen (Belgium)

Niels Driesen, 21, competes with Lotto-Groupe Wanty this season but has just landed a three-year deal with Pinarello Q36.5 for the next three years through 2029. He finished fifth in the road race at the Belgian National Championships this year, behind his teammate and national champion Duarte Marivoet.

He will line up as part of a team of six for the under-23 men's race in Montreal, and he stands a good chance of racing into the medals, especially after his second overall performance behind Lorenzo Finn at the Tour de l'Avenir, where he won the opening stage and finished on the podium in two other stages.

It was not a one-off performance, as the Belgian talent won the overall title at the Ronde de l'Isard, finished fourth overall at the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc, won by Henrique Bravo, and 15th overall at the Giro d'Italia Next Gen, also won by Finn, and stood on the podium in multiple one-day races.

Henrique Bravo (Brazil)

Henrique Bravo, 20, will represent Brazil in Montreal after a successful season with the Team Soudal Quick-Step Devo squad.

He kicked off his season with a sixth-place overall finish at the Tour du Rwanda and an overall victory at the Tour of Antalya, and then travelled to Europe, where he continued his progress in the week-long racing scene.

He was seventh overall at the Circuit des Ardennes and won the overall title at the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt, and in a test against his under-23 peers, he finished third overall at the Giro d'Italia Next Gen and secured a major overall victory at the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc.

He went on to finish fourth overall at the Tour de l'Ain, fifth overall at the Tour de l'Avenir and recently finished second overall at the Tour of Slovakia.

Ashlin Barry (United States)

Many of the top performers in the under-23 men's time trial held on Monday will be in the running for a medal in the road race as well, and that includes new time trial world champion Ryan Gal (Netherlands), silver medallist Nicolas Milesi (Italy), bronze medallist Héctor Álvarez (Spain) and fourth-placed Ashlin Barry (United States).

Barry, now 18, capped off a successful junior racing campaign by securing the silver medal in the individual time trial at the Worlds in Kigali last year, before embarking on a new chapter with Visma-Lease a Bike Development on the international calendar.

Born in Spain, he is the son of retired professional cyclists, Canadian Michael Barry and American Dede Barry. Barry swapped his official nationality from Canada to the US two years ago, in what he said was a strategic sporting move ahead of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

He is the reigning under-23 men's road race national champion and excels in one-day races and time trials. He may also have some insider knowledge of the route, his mother having won the Montreal World Cup on a version of this course in 2002.

Aubin Sparfel (France)

As French talent Paul Seixas is scheduled to compete in the elite men's road race on Sunday, his compatriot Aubin Sparfel is the favourite in the under-23 men's road race on Friday.

At 20, Sparfel is one racing year older than Seixas and one of his nation's promising riders competing on the international calendar with the Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team.

He has had another successful season, kicking off this year with the overall victory at Le Tour de Bretagne Cycliste, and sixth overall at Boucles de la Mayenne - Crédit Mutuel, fourth overall at Giro d'Italia Next Gen, and a stage win at the Tour de l'Avenir. He has capped off his season with a victory at the one-day Lotto Grand Prix de Wallonie, showing top form coming into these Worlds.

If the stage racing performances at races like the Tour de l'Avenir, Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc. and Giro d'Italia Next Gen are an indicator of how the dynamics at the World Championships might go during the under-23 race, watch for Sparfel, Bravo, and Driesen among the riders in the running for the rainbow jersey.

Ones to watch

• Elliot Rowe (Great Britain) – recently sixth overall at the Tour of Britain Men
• Héctor Álvarez (Spain) – third in the TT on Monday
• Matteo Vanhuffel (Belgium) – third on GC at the Tour de l'Avenir this summer
• Jack Ward (Australia) – runner-up at Liège-Bastogne-Liège U23 this spring
• Jérôme Gauthier (Canada) – current Canadian elite road race champion
• David Gaffney (Ireland) – coming off the back of his debut with the Jayco AlUla WorldTour squad
• Max Bock (Germany) – stage winner at second overall at the recent Sauerlandrundfahrt
• Michiel Mouris (Netherlands) – last year's junior TT world champion

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