Søren Waerenskjold shows future talents to win World Championships U23 time trial

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Norway's Søren Wærenskjold claimed the under-23 men's world time trial title on Monday in Wollongong, Australia, riding the 28.8km World Championship course in 34:13 to take the rainbow jersey.

The 22-year-old, who rides for Uno-X, secured the top step of the final podium with Alec Segaert (Belgium) the runner-up and Leo Hayter (Great Britain) taking third on the day.

One month after he nabbed a third career stage win at the Tour de l'Avenir, Wærenskjold put in a powerful and consistent ride out on the TT course in Wollongong, delivering a particularly solid second half of his effort to take over the provisional lead from Hayter. 

Wærenskjold then spent nearly an hour in the hot seat as rivals tried to match his mark.

Segaert, the day's penultimate starter, came closest, going faster through the first split, but he could not maintain the high pace through the remainder of his ride.

When all was said and done, Wærenskjold's mark held and he took the U23 world title. Segaert was 16 seconds slower, securing silver and bumping Hayter to third on the day.

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Waerenskjold became Norway's first U23 TT world champ in over 20 years, since Thor Hushovd won the title in 1998. Waerenskjold is also Norway's second world title winner in two days after Tobias Foss secured the victory in the elite men's race on Sunday.

The Norwegian tipped his cap to cornering skills he may garnered from his gaming console, pointing out, "I've played a lot of Formula One on the Playstation so I've been doing a lot of corners there."

How it unfolded

Simon Tesfagaber of Eritrea was the day's first starter amid sunny and breezy conditions in Wollongong. 

The course took riders a total of 28.8km over two laps on a rolling circuit around the city. Starters set out at two-minute intervals, and, as has been the case for the other time trials so far at the UCI Road World Championships due to covering two laps, they were split into multiple groupings of riders, with short breaks coming between selections.

Carl-Frederik Bevort (Denmark) was the star performer of the early group, setting a mark 34:53 that earned him some time at the top of the provisional standings and would ultimately be good enough for sixth at the end of the race. Hayter then knocked Bevort out of the hot seat and took it for himself.

Hayter, who will join the Ineos Grenadiers team in 2023, was the fastest rider through each time check at that point. The promising British rider finished 15 seconds faster than Bevort to set a new provisional best time and then began his wait. He would spend more than an hour in the lead and the hot seat – including the break between start groups – before Waerenskjold delivered his race-winning performance. He made phone calls, ate some post-race pasta and watched nervously as his rivals raced.

Waerenskjold made it known early that he would be challenging for the lead as he completed the first split only a second off of Hayter's pace, and he got stronger from there. Navigating smoothly through the many tricky corners on the course, Waerenskjold stormed to a new fastest time, 25 seconds faster than the mark set by Hayter.

From there on out, one starter after another came up short of the Norwegian, until Segaert stormed through the first intermediate with the day's new fastest time. More than seven seconds quicker than Waerenskjold at first, Segaert nonetheless began to fade as the race wore on, and his lead over Waerenskjold evaporated.

By the time Segaert hit the finishing straight, it was clear that he would not be bettering Waerenskjold's time and would instead be settling for second place. Logan Currie of New Zealand put in a valiant effort that was good enough for fourth best on the day, but no one could unseat Waerenskjold.

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