The favourites - Men's U23 Road Worlds 2025

On September 26, 2025, the 29th World Championship Road Race for U23 men will be held. The 165-kilometre race in Kigali will be the shortest since 2021, but also one of the most difficult editions in the history of the race, as riders will have to overcome more than 3,000 metres of elevation gain.

During the 11 laps, the Côte de Kigali Golf (0.8 km, 8.1%) and the Côte de Kimihurura (1.3 km, 6.3%), which includes a cobbled section, will be the two biggest obstacles for the riders, along with the weather, which has dramatically influenced the race in the last three editions. 

However, whereas previous years have seen cold and rainy weather, this year is expected to be warm, with forecasters predicting a temperature of 28 degrees Celsius at the time of the race. 

This, combined with an altitude of 1,600 metres above sea level, promises to make the race very demanding. Due to the vagaries of the weather, the initial expectations have been turned on their head many times in previous years, with Yevgeniy Fedorov's shock victory in 2022 and last year's victory by Niklas Behrens, who came from nowhere to catch Jan Christen, who had been riding solo for 50 kilometres. 

This year, due to UCI rule changes, only riders who are not under professional contract with a UCI ProTeam or UCI World Tour Team at the time of the race are eligible to compete, which fundamentally reshuffles the balance of power, bringing those who are strong on the U23 scene to the forefront. 

This article presents 10 riders who could be contenders for this world championship road race, highlighting the strengths that could help them to victory.

We must begin this list with the biggest favourite: the Belgian second-year U23 star Jarno Widar is currently the forerunner in this race based on this start list. Widar already took part in last year's world championships, where he finished seventh in a bizarre road race in Zurich, which the Belgians thought they could control but which quickly turned into chaos, on a course that perhaps did not suit his pure climber skillset as well as this year's race in Rwanda. 

Widar is a clear stage racer and a winner, having won a quarter of his race days this year, alongside winning the Ronde de l'Isard and the Giro Ciclistico Valle d'Aosta, finishing second in the Tour de l'Avenir, and winning the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, on a profile that is perhaps most similar to the Kigali course. 

The Belgian star's greatest strength is definitely his acceleration in the final 2-3 kilometres, with which he leaves everyone in the U23 peloton behind in the blink of an eye, and bearing in mind the extent to which this class has strengthened in recent years, it is no exaggeration to say that these attacks would hold their own at WorldTour level and cause serious damage even among the top 15-20 climbers in the world. 

Last year's Belgian team felt a little disharmonious from the outside, so it is positive news that Widar is travelling to the race with a very well-coordinated team. Kamiel Eeman has been his teammate for three years within the Lotto Development Team (they even competed together as second-year juniors), and this year they have competed on several occasions in a leader-domestique pairing like those who have been helping each other for years, even decades. 

Aaron Dockx, although he rides for Alpecin-Deceuninck, is also regularly alongside Widar in events where they compete for their country (Tour de l'Avenir is a particularly striking example of this). Both are excellent puncheurs and climbers, so it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that Widar is the favourite to win this race. The question is, will this pressure spur him on or possibly weigh him down?

The biggest discovery of the year among riders competing at the U23 level was 19-year-old Slovenian Jakob Omrzel, who competed for the Bahrain–Victorious development team, but even more so for the Slovenian national team, where he spread his wings in 2025. 

As a second-year junior, Jakob was already known to be an excellent climber, as he finished in the top 5 every single time in races with a lot of climbing, indicating that he is a young rider with serious potential in this area. However, his contract with Bahrain raised questions about whether he would be in good hands, as the Bahrain Devo Team's programme in the years leading up to 2025 consisted mainly of Italian races, all of which included climbing, but would not necessarily have highlighted Omrzel's strengths as much as a French WorldTour development team would have done. 

Until April-May, it did not seem that this relationship would be fruitful, at least not in terms of results – then came the big boom, which was unexpected but incredibly joyful. Omrzel got his chance in the Tour of Slovenia with Bahrain’s WorldTour team, and he repaid them with a fantastic performance, finishing fourth on GC. 

From then on, he maximised the month, riding on this extremely positive flow and winning the U23 Giro d'Italia as a first-year U23 rider. A week later, he won the Slovenian elite national championship title. Omrzel's value skyrocketed in June; since then, though, he has hit a bit of a slump, which could indeed affect his chances in Rwanda.

The big question is how well Omrzel will fare on this course. Based on this year, it can be assumed that the fast, repetitive, steep climbs will not necessarily suit him. Omrzel performed better this year on days that included a high mountain or at events with a very steep climb. Looking at this team, it isn't easy to see who could stay with him in the final stages. 

Although Erazem Valjavec and Anže Ravbar are very talented young riders who still have a good one or two U23 years ahead of them, they may not yet be at the level to go all the way to the end with Omrzel. If they are able to, however, he could have a very serious chance of finishing on the podium at the end of the race.

If there is a rider who could win this year's world championship not as a climber but rather as a punchy rider, it could be Antoine L’Hote. The 20-year-old talent from the Decathlon AG2R Development team has become a serious contender in recent weeks, winning bronze at the French U23 Championships in the Alps and then finishing third in the Tour of Denmark queen stage, which ended at Kiddesvej, on a climb has almost achieved legendary status in the race. 

What is very similar in both cases is that the race was on a final circuit that included almost identical profile climbs to those that will be on the Cote de Kigali Golf, which will probably decide the fate of the medals in the end (though the climbs did not come as frequently as they will in Rwanda).

L'Hote's chances lie in his very long and courageous attacks, as well as his intelligence. He has a very good sense of when to launch, when to follow attacks, and he also likes difficult conditions; the heat and altitude will create sufficiently complex conditions on race day. 

The French team is small but very strong – there will be another member of the team on the list, Maxime Decomble, and the two will  complement each other very well. 

Spain will field its best youth squad in recent years at this year's World Championships, both at the U23 level and among the juniors. The enormous effort they have put into this area is beginning to pay off on paper, but of course, the results will determine whether this will be realised in practice. 

In the U23 category, this article features two climbers/puncheurs who have a good chance of competing for the world championship title. The first is 19-year-old Adriá Pericas, rider of UAE Emirates Gen Z who made his mark on the pro peloton in his early days. 

Pericas played a significant role in the WorldTour team in the first third of the season, and he repaid that trust by helping Adam Yates win the Saudi Tour and then finishing in the top 10 in the Vuelta a Murcia after moving to Europe. 

After these great achievements, however, Adriá disappeared a little, but that did not mean that he did not continue to have a good season. He won an uphill finish in Istria in March, finished 6th in this year's U23 Liège–Bastogne–Liège - proving that he can handle shorter climbs well - and then earned a GC top-15 in Asturias, again as part of the WorldTour team. 

However, the pinnacle of his season so far has been the Giro NextGen, where he finished in the top 3 in both mountain-top finishes, in two different ways; first, through pure strength and second, with great panache and an attack launched from a long way back.

Pericas is good at almost everything, which is both an advantage - as he is likely to be among the top 5-7 riders in most scenarios - and a disadvantage, as he does not have any outstanding skills that would propel him into the top 3 or possibly even in a winning position. As he has a contract signed for the next five years with the UAE WorldTour squad, this will be his only chance to win a world championship title in this category. 

The biggest question will be whether he can handle this kind of pressure and transform himself from his previous, more domestique role into a leader. 

The second Spanish captain represents experience, as Pau Martí Soriano is now in his third U23 year with Israel Premier Tech Academy; though he is perhaps experiencing a slight decline this year compared to last year in terms of his outstanding results. 

Martí came to the fore last year in the Giro NextGen, where he raced sensationally, keeping pace with Jarno Widar and Pablo Torres at the most important moments, and ultimately finishing on the podium in one of the most prestigious U23 stage races.

Many thought that this would be a direct ticket to the WorldTour peloton for the Spaniard, yet Pau remained in the development team in 2025, and this did not necessarily have a positive effect on him. He visibly lost the high-altitude mountain skills he had in 2024 and started to move in a much more punchy direction, trying to add a quite acceptable sprint to his repertoire, and although this brought him several top-10 results in 2.2 races (he even won a stage in the Volta a Portugal), overall, he did not show the kind of pure climbing level during the season that he had on several occasions in 2024. 

Regardless, Martí should be considered a contender on terrain such as that in Rwanda, as the constant altitude change may suit his current specialties better than could have been said last year, but this kind of regression and transformation will definitely be worth watching in the near future, especially since it has not yet been confirmed at what level and where he will be riding from 2026 onwards.

Outstanding Czech climber Pavel Novák will also be competing for gold at the World Championships in Rwanda. The MBH Bank Colpack Ballan rider has developed into a proper stage racer this year, which will serve him well in his professional career, but could be a disadvantage at the current World Championships. 

Novák has had two sublime days this year – first, he climbed Hungary's highest mountain, Kékestető, finishing in fourth place on the queen stage of the Tour de Hongrie, and then he won the final day of the Giro NextGen at Prato Nevoso with a 24-kilometre solo breakaway. 

Both were very serious mountain finish days - admittedly not on the world's most difficult climbs - but these are fundamentally valuable, good results; yet they do not show why he could be the 2025 U23 world champion. 

If we are to discuss his chances at the world championships, the last day of the Giro NextGen may provide some insight. There, on the shorter but very steep climbs near Pinerolo, he was able to keep pace with the eventual winner, Jakob Omrzel. However, one such short climb versus more than 30 in just 160 kilometres is an entirely different story. 

The Czech team has the numbers, with five riders entered in this event, and perhaps Tomáš Přidal, the 21-year-old Czech rider competing for Elkov-Kasper, who finished fourth in the Czech Tour’s final stage, just behind Cian Uijtdebroeks and Junior Lecerf, could be Novák's biggest help. 

The two of them have the potential and opportunity to go together on the road to victory until the very end.

Can Lorenzo Finn win the junior and U23 world championships within 12 months? Lorenzo Finn will not let this chance pass him by. The 19-year-old Italian from Liguria had a brilliant first year in the U23 category with Red Bull–Bora Rookies, scoring 12 top-10 finishes in 32 race days, and what is most promising for the World Championships is the three-week period beginning in mid-April, in which he achieved five top-5 finishes in five one-day races. 

Looking at those profiles, especially his Giro del Belvedere victory and the Flèche Ardennaise, where only Jarno Widar's brutal final kilometre sprint prevented Lorenzo from winning, it's safe to say that this Kigali course was made for him. It is hilly enough for his skills to come into play, but there will also be enough attrition for him to stay at the front for a long time. 

There are too many similarities with last season to say that he is not one of the top three contenders for this race. Although he was not the most hyped rider of the season, he performed consistently at a high level, which can mean a lot in a competition like this. 

Last year, Finn really stood out in terms of adapting to difficult conditions, but while in Zurich, he had to overcome the harsh cold and rain. This year, the opposite will be true, with 30 degrees Celsius creating conditions that will be a leap into the complete unknown. 

Although the Italian team is relatively small in terms of numbers, with only four riders lining up at the start, the team comprises some strong riders – alongside Finn, there will be perhaps the best domestique of the Visma Development team this year, Pietro Mattio, and Simone Gualdi, who - despite being a development rider - spent most of his season with the Intermarché-Wanty WorldTour team. If this trio comes together, at least one of the Italians could finish on the podium in this race.

Another French contender for this year's world championship, Maxime Decomble, is a real Swiss Army knife who has proven himself in many areas and in many ways this year, and who may have more than one weapon at his disposal to defeat everyone in Kigali. 

The public may have discovered Decomble at the Tour de l'Avenir, where he gained more than a two-minute lead with a well-timed early breakaway on stage 3, a lead he managed to maintain until the final time trial against Paul Seixas (who competes in the elite road race as a WorldTour rider) and Jarno Widar. Considering how climbing-heavy the final three days of l'Avenir were, this proved to be a truly heroic feat. 

But there is more to Decomble than that. He was the runner-up in the U23 national time trial and has had some great time trials at the professional level (Groupama-FDJ sent him to several 2.1 races this year), finishing fifth in the Etoile de Bességes classic and Alés TT, and third in the hilly TT of O Gran Camino. 

He is also quite good at one-day races, with a top-20 finish at the GP Vitré (for context: this is one of the most challenging races in the French Cup every year, with lots of climbs) and a fourth-place finish at this year's U23 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, showing that the French team has an exceptionally versatile rider. This will be a significant advantage on the current route, because although the basic assumption is that the strongest will win, if there is a race where tactics can play a huge role, it is the U23 race. 

Decomble has the versatility to make an early move or go solo, thanks to his time trial skills, and he also has the fighting spirit to see it through. Together with L'Hote, the two Frenchmen could put on a spectacular race at the front. 

Staying with versatility, Callum Thornley is another rider who can be mentioned as possessing this virtue. The 22-year-old Scottish rider from Red Bull–Bora Rookies evolved into a stable, consistent, loyal and, above all, very strong cyclist in this, his final U23 year. 

Thornley had a spectacular season, especially considering that in many cases it was not necessarily his job to go for himself, as Lorenzo Finn was an outstanding leader for his team. When he was given a role in the WorldTour, his primary role was clearly that of a domestique. Regardless, he already has a professional victory under his belt, having won the final, very technical time trial in the city centre of Sibiu at Sibiu Tour.

Thornley's strength is clearly on punchy terrain; although he can do everything well, this is where he feels at home, and what is a considerable advantage is that he also has a very good top speed, which could come in handy if there is any kind of sprint in this race. 

He will need his race craft and strength this year, as the British federation has entered him alone for this race, which will obviously be a competitive disadvantage compared to teams that have squads of four or more.

However, recent years have shown that it is still possible to achieve a podium finish, for example, Martin Svrček has managed to finish on the podium twice in the last two years as the only Slovakian in the U23 road race. Thornley should keep his example in mind, as well as the fact that he can finally compete entirely for himself, which may even free him from the burden.

The final featured rider in this piece also represents the lone wolf category, as Marco Schrettl is also competing alone for Austria at this world championship; but that doesn't mean that the Tirol KTM Cycling Team's last U23 rider is lost, especially considering how fantastic the first half of his season was, which spanned all levels. 

He won the Trofeo San Vendemiano one-day race, the main feature of which was the Muro di Ca' de Poggio, a wall with an average gradient of 11.5%, which the peloton had to climb multiple times, and he also won the Orlen Nations Grand Prix stage race, which has no specific mountain stage, but which made things difficult for the U23 riders with its many short, steep hills. 

Based on this, Schrettl's chances would seem to be high, but it is no coincidence that he is at the bottom of the list, as the second half of the season has not been as successful, perhaps due to his powerful early season. According to him, he also struggled with fatigue during the Tour de l'Avenir – although he did not achieve bad results overall, he lacked the wow factor that was present at the beginning of the season. 

If he can pull himself together for the road race on 26 September, it cannot be ruled out that we could have an Austrian world champion.