UCI Road World Championships: Benjamín Noval makes up for 2025 heartbreak with dominant gold in junior men's road race

After crashing while in pursuit of the gold medal in Kigali last year, Benjamín Noval of Spain made no mistakes en route to victory in the 2026 UCI Road World Championships junior men's road race in Montreal on Thursday.

Noval soloed away from the breakaway on the penultimate lap of the 134-kilometre race, holding off Simon Defrance (France) to claim his second straight rainbow jersey of the week.

In the chasing group, Sweden's Elias Wandel out-sprinted his rivals to bring home the bronze.

"First of all, I want to thank all my teammates," Noval said. "The truth is that from the very beginning they did an incredible job - Raúl [Lopez], Luca [Martinez], as well as Aitor [Martinez] - thanks to them."

In a stunning show of power, Noval blasted out of the peloton with 45 kilometres to go, caught an earlier breakaway, and then soloed for 19 kilometres later to victory.

Before making his move, Noval bided his time, watching attacks fly and chase groups form and then get caught behind a three-rider breakaway. He then put in a massive accelerations to bridge a 1:45 gap in 15 kilometres to reach the front group with 30 kilometres to go.

After trying to shed the others on the climbs, Noval powered away on the start/finish line with two laps to go.

Although Noval extended his lead to 30 seconds at the start of the final lap, the toll of the hard racing could be seen on his face and body.

"From the start I felt really good, I had very good sensations," Noval said. "Once I saw that the race was progressing and the moment was approaching, when I decided to attack, I didn't look back until the finish line."

Simon Defrance jumped on Noval's wheel when he bridged up to the front group, and never gave up even after losing contact, pushing on to take the silver medal for France, crossing the line 42 seconds behind the winner.

Wandel was fastest in the sprint for bronze from the chase group ahead of Owen Kinds (Germany) and Michael Hettegger (Austria).

“The truth is that the plan went perfectly. I think the four of us understood each other perfectly from the beginning. We knew very clearly what we had to do, so well, the plan was perfect and we also had the legs and thanks to that we are going to continue.”

The last rider to win both the junior time trial and road race title was Remco Evenepoel in 2018: a fact that Noval knew perfectly well.

“We're going to enjoy today, assimilate it - it's been an incredible four days that I think until a few days pass, I'm not going to believe it, so well, let's celebrate it and think about it, absorb it.”

How it unfolded

The race played out across ten laps of the punishing 13.4km Mont Royal course, each circuit adding roughly 269 metres of elevation gain. Riders faced the toughest tests on Voie Camillien-Houde and Chemin de la Polytechnique, where gradients topped 11% in places, and the finish on Avenue du Parc that looked gentle but ground riders down with its long, steady drag.

Lots of chatter and nerves on display on the start line as the 157 riders, representing 64 nations, lined up on Avenue du Parc on a beautiful sunny day in Montréal.

Mikołaj Legieć of Poland made the first attack but he was reeled back in a few kilometres later. Solo attacks continued but no one could break clear as riders continued to be shed off the back of the peloton, whittling down in relentless attrition.

On the second lap, Murat Kuitenov (Kazakhstan) went off the front solo, while in the back silver medallist in the ITT, Victor de Smets (Belgium) suffered a mechanical, and after a quick bike change, had to mount a chase.

On lap 3 of 10, Lancelot Gayant (France) countered after Kuitenov was reeled in with 97km to go, bringing three riders with him in Carter Deveer (Canada), Sindre Orholm-Lønseth (Norway) and Luca Martinez (Spain). The quartet held a slim 15-second lead by the end of the third lap with De Smets finally back in the peloton.

Martinez was refusing to pull in the break after Deveer dropped out a few kilometres later. With 76km remaining, Sander Willems (Belgium) bridged the 50-second gap to the leading duo while Martinez attacked again, and was joined by teammate Raul Lopez and then Maksym Shcherbatskyi (Ukraine) to form a chase group.

Halfway in the race, Gayant, Orholm-Lønseth and Willems had 1:07 on the chase trio, with another group surging up, only a further eight seconds back. The second chase group included  Dean Woolley (South Africa), Jop van den Biggelaar (Netherlands), Elsasso and the USA duo of Enzo Hincapie and Rowan Nistal. The peloton, reduced by half, was also closing in on the chase groups.

A massive acceleration on the climb by newly crowned TT champion Benjamin Noval (Spain) not only shut down the chase groups but also reduced the gap to the lead trio to 32 seconds.

The attacks continued, with Brandon Davide Fedrizzi (Italy) initiating another chase group that included Noval, while another duo of Noel Goijert (Netherlands) and Tobias Gren (Denmark) followed 20 seconds further back. The peloton, of around 50 riders, trailed the break by 1:32.

Noval and Patrik Pezzo Rosola (Italy) bridged to the second chase group with 44km to go, and immediately went to the front, upping the pace to 57km/hr, to connect with the first chase group four kilometres later as they saw three laps to go. Up front, the lead trio kept a consistent pace throughout and held a 1:06 lead.

Taking advantage of the climb, Noval accelerated to briefly shed riders, but Birkedal caught back on after the flatter roads and immediately attacked. The Spaniard tried again and again and finally powered away with Defrance on his wheel as the Frenchman refused to work with his teammate in the break.

Noval and Defrance made it to the front of the race with 30 km to go, with 14 seconds to the revamped chase group with Fedrizzi burying himself for his teammate Pezzo Rosola, Birkedal and Kings.

Noval put in a massive acceleration as the front group crossed the finish line with two laps to go, as the chase group was a slim six seconds back. Gayant and Defrance regrouped quickly to give chase, as his manager screamed encouragement from the car.

Noval had 30 seconds with one lap to a solo Defrance who was not giving up as his teammate Payant was fading. Behind, Gal Stare (Slovenia), Michael Hettegger (Sweden) and Elias Wandel (Sweden) made their way to the chase group in a battle for bronze.

Gap had 30 seconds on Defrance with one lap to go, as Gayant was paying for his time in the break and was caught by the chase group inside eight kilometres to go.

In the battle for bronze, Wandel was able to pass Kings in the finish straight to finish third, 2:12 behind the winner.

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