After a pair of near-misses at the UCI Road World Championships, Héctor Álvarez (Spain) has made amends by pulling off the double at the UEC European Championships, winning Wednesday's U23 men's time trial to go with his success in the road race at the weekend.
Álvarez was the runner-up in the U23 Worlds road race in Montreal and the bronze medallist in the time trial, but he has come roaring back in Slovenia.
On Wednesday, he beat the world champion, Ryan Gal (Netherlands), who missed out on the medals in fourth place in his debut ride in the rainbow skinsuit, as well as the other rider who beat him in Montréal, Nicolas Milesi (Italy), who was fourth.
The podium was instead made up of the Belgian Matisse Van Kerckhove and the Norwegian Kasper Haugland.
The course was very different to the flat one from the World Championships, covering one lap of the 22km circuit used in the road races, including the vicious Možjanca climb (2km at 10%).
Álvarez, a Classics prospect who will join the WorldTour with Lidl-Trek next year, stormed around the course, which also included a fast descent, in a time of 28:44.
His time was just three seconds quicker than Van Kerckhove's but it was enough to secure the victory, as Gal came home 20 seconds down. Haugland rounded out the medals 13 seconds in arrears.
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Results
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Position
Rider (country)
Time
1
Héctor Álvarez (Spain)
28:44
2
Matisse Van Kerckhove (Belgium)
0:03
3
Kasper Haugland (Norway)
0:19
4
Ryan Gal (Netherlands)
0:20
5
Nicolas Milesi (Italy)
0:24
6
Kristian Egholm (Denmark)
0:41
7
Jonas Kind Høydahl (Norway)
0:48
8
Bogdan Zabelinskiy (Cyprus)
0:58
9
Roberto Capello (Italy)
1:06
10
Aldo Taillieu (Belgium)
1:11
11
Louis Leidert (Germany)
1:23
12
Jaka Marolt (Slovenia)
1:28
13
Ben Wiggins (Great Britain)
1:28
14
Paul Fietzke (Germany)
1:29
15
Eñaut Urkaregi (Spain)
1:38
16
Simon Wirz (Switzerland)
1:55
17
Jan Michal Jackowiak (Poland)
2:03
18
Dawid Lewandowski (Poland)
2:12
19
Valentin Poschacher (Austria)
2:14
20
Michiel Mouris (Netherlands)
2:29
21
Ferhat Emişci (Türkiye)
2:30
22
Davíð Jónsson (Iceland)
2:34
23
Maksim Mishankov (Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente)
2:44
24
Pavel Šumpík (Czech Republic)
3:01
25
Mikita Babovich (Belarus)
3:02
26
Nicholas Van Der Merwe (Bulgaria)
3:23
27
Miko Pirinen (Finland)
3:34
28
Danylo Kozoriz (Ukraine)
3:37
29
Mads Landbo (Denmark)
3:43
30
Rastko Nikačević (Serbia)
3:51
31
Pavlo Antonenko (Ukraine)
4:06
32
Radostin Zlatev (Bulgaria)
4:18
33
Olivers Jēkabs Skrapcis (Latvia)
4:21
34
Ilia Novicov (Moldova)
5:17
35
Arda Tekirdağ (Türkiye)
6:44
36
Kenan Hadžić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
8:04
37
Visar Nuhaj (Kosovo)
8:26
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Patrick is an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish) and a decade’s experience in digital sports media, largely within the world of cycling. He re-joined Cyclingnews as Deputy Editor in February 2026, having previously spent eight years on staff between 2015 and 2023. In between, he was Deputy Editor at GCN and spent 18 months working across the sports portfolio at Future before returning to the cycling press pack. Patrick works across Cyclingnews’ wide-ranging output, assisting the Editor in global content strategy, with a particular focus on shaping CN's news operation.
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