World Championships: Lorenzo Milesi surprises with U23 men's time trial victory

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Italy’s Lorenzo Milesi took a close victory in the under-23 men's individual time trial at the UCI World Championships held in Stirling, just north-east of Glasgow.

Silver for a second year running went to Belgium’s Alec Segaert, 11 seconds back, with Australian Hamish McKenzie claiming the bronze medal, at 50 seconds back, on the 36.2-kilometre course in Stirling.

Spain’s Raúl García Pierna claimed fourth, and Darren Rafferty of Ireland finished fifth. Britain’s Josh Charlton looked on track for the medals, but a late mechanical incident pushed him out of the running.

Fastest in the two first checkpoints and a pre-race favourite, Segaert faded in the second half of the course to cede the title to early starter Milesi, tenth in the same event last year.

“It was crazy, so painful to watch Segaert as he was so close,”·Milesi, a first-year pro with WorldTour squad DSM-Firmenich, said afterwards.

“I went full from the start to the end, I didn’t measure the power so much because there was a headwind in the first part, I just pushed all the time.”

“During the TT, I just thought about Segaert all the time and that I had to stay ahead of him because I knew he was the favourite. And now - it’s done.”

How it unfolded

First of the 76 riders to start was Australia’s Alastair MacKellar, who ground his way up the punishing 800-metre-long, partly cobbled final climb near Stirling Castle to clock a time of 44:42.

The sunny weather and dry road surfaces saw some fast times recorded on a rolling, exposed course, nearly eight kilometres longer than for the equivalent 2022 event in Australia last year.

Canada’s Michael Leonard finally ousted the Australian from the hot seat with a time 12 seconds quicker. But Leonard’s lead was then almost immediately felled by Jan Christen (Switzerland), and next, the new Jayco-AIUI stagiaire, Hamish McKenzie (Australia), punched a 30-second hole in Christen's time to put a target of 43:51 at the top of the board.

McKenzie’s achievement ultimately proved sufficient enough for the bronze medal to head Down Under, yet the Australian was quickly eclipsed by Lorenzo Milesi. The fastest in all the intermediate checkpoints yet, the Italian became the first rider to go over an average speed of 50 km/h, and his finish time, just a few hundredths of a second over 43:00, was a full 51 seconds better than his nearest rival.

For a lengthy spell, nobody could come close to Milesi, tenth in the same U-23 TT last year and ninth in the senior Italian TT Nationals this May. Darren Rafferty (Ireland) briefly claimed the bronze spot, 56 seconds down, only to be squeezed out of third by Raul García Pierna (Spain), but Milesi remained out well of reach.

Now into the final starters, British U-23 champion Josh Charlton was delivered a warning shot at the first checkpoint, speeding through only seven seconds slower than Milesi. Meanwhile, the sight of Segaert already catching his 1:15 man, Italy’s Bryan Olivo, at the same checkpoint also gave Belgium a lot of reasons to cheer - and Milesi more reasons to worry. 

10 seconds faster than Milesi at checkpoint 1, initially, it certainly looked as if Segaert, a silver medallist in Belgium’s senior Road Nationals in both the TT and road race this June, could go one better in Glasgow. Yet instead, times at the second checkpoint suggested that Miles would not be easy to beat as all that as Charlton dropped to 15 seconds behind, while Segaert’s advantage plummeted to just four seconds ahead of the Italian.

Come to the third checkpoint at km 32, Charlton remained almost out of the picture for gold but still in the fight for medals with a time loss of 42 seconds, just slower than Hamilton. But in the battle for the top spot, Segaert's slumping to six seconds behind Milesi's best time made it impossible to call a winner.

The key question became how much the Belgian, perfectly adapted to his TT position and beating out a relentlessly steady pace, had left in the tank for the toughest last part of the course.

As Segaert came into the final kilometre with just over a minute left to beat his Italian rival, the thrilling ding-dong battle for the top spot continued all the way up the long, cobbled grind to the finishing line. However, within 100 metres of the line, Segaert had passed Milesi’s time, finally finishing eleven seconds down. The Belgian thus had to settle for silver behind this year’s unexpected but deservedly tenacious winner, while Charlton's late mechanical left Hamilton's path to bronze much clearer than perhaps, mid-course, could have been expected.

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