Worlds 2025 - 10 riders to watch in the Men's Junior road race

The men’s junior World Championship road race will be held for the 50th time on September 26, 2025. The 119-kilometre race in Kigali will be the shortest junior road race in the last 20 years, but despite this, the 140-strong peloton won't have an easy race ahead of them. 

Over the eight laps, the Côte de Kigali Golf (0.8 km at 8.1%) and the Côte de Kimihurura (1.3 km at 6.3%), which includes a cobbled section, will be the two biggest obstacles for the riders. The weather has also influenced the race in the past three editions. Forecasters are currently predicting 24 degrees Celsius for the race date, which, combined with the altitude of 1600 meters above sea level, suggests a demanding race. 

In the junior category, perhaps even more depends on strength and endurance than in any other discipline, but this year looks to be a very deep field and a very close race, where even good tactical decisions and the correct use of satellite riders could offer a lot to the teams. 

This piece introduces ten riders who could be contenders for this World Championship Road race, highlighting the strengths that could help them win.

Success runs in the family. This could be the main slogan for the 2025 Junior World Championships, as the current list includes several riders whose siblings or parents were excellent cyclists and who have inherited their good genes. 

In the case of Seff van Kerckhove, his brother Matisse, currently riding for Visma | Lease a Bike Development, was the benchmark. The older van Kerckhove won bronze at last year's World Time Trial Championships in Zurich, and with Seff's junior career taking off this year, his younger brother could even surpass him this year. 

The Decathlon-AG2R U19 team rider had a slow start to his first junior season, taking the early months to get into his stride and grow into this class, but he has really come into his own since June. He won the Saarland Trofeo stage race in Germany thanks to his excellent TT, finished fourth in the Valromey Tour, which is considered the queen of mountain races, and also won the Giro della Lunigiana, the last serious race before the World Championships, thanks to his consistency. 

Perhaps the latter victory shows what Kerckhove's strength is: he doesn't win much, but he is often placed in the top 5-10, precisely because he climbs well (preferably longer climbs rather than shorter ones) and has excellent time trial skills. 

As for the Belgian team, this is the strongest squad again this year. In the past ten editions, the Belgians have only made it to the podium twice (Remco Evenepoel’s gold in Innsbruck 2018 and Vlad van Mechelen’s bronze in Wollongong 2022), so they will be keen to repeat their victory. 

The team includes Édouard Claisse, who is incredibly difficult to categorise in terms of profile, but could very well become a modern-day Ben Healy; Thor Michielsen, who won the junior version of Nokere Koerse this year; and Tuur Verbeeck, who won the junior Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne race in 2025. The Belgians have a very classics-oriented squad, with van Kerckhove perhaps being the one who is best suited to the Kigali circuit. 

The junior class and the French have grown together over the past 49 years, as many prominent French riders began their world-conquering journey here at the Junior World Championships. However, they last stood on the podium four years ago and are now on a 14-year streak without a win, which is an incredibly long wait by French standards. 

This year, a three-man team could change that, with Johan Blanc, an Occitaine rider competing for Groupama-FDJ's U19 team, likely to be the man to watch. Blanc has raced a lot this year, trying his hand at a wide variety of terrain and delivering more than convincing performances almost everywhere. 

He finished third in the Bernaudeau Juniors race; sixth in the Czech Peace Race; won a stage in the biggest Basque junior race – the Gipuzkoa Klasikoa; finished fifth in the GP Plouay junior race, and took the last two days of the Giro della Lunigiana, one in a sprint and the other with a very heroic solo effort. His 22 top-10 finishes in 35 race days speak for themselves, not only in terms of quantity but also quality. 

Blanc's strength may lie in the Kigali course. In every race, he had at least one, but more often several, very strong kicks with which he was able to make a difference or be involved in the group which fought for victory, and these kicks will be worth a lot when the Côte de Kigali Golf becomes the main venue for attacks. It's another question how Blanc will cope if the race goes completely crazy from the very beginning. 

The other two Frenchmen on the team are no less famous: Soan Ruesch will be Blanc's teammate starting next year, and he has also often been at the forefront of punchy races in France (with less than stellar success, but that doesn't detract from his merits), while in Theophile Vassal, France has the current French junior road champion, a true multidisciplinary talent who has already shown some serious climbing skills this year and will be a perfect complement to Blanc. 

The main question is whether this trio can break the curse that has been hanging over the French for more than a decade now.

Could the Herzogs become the first pair of brothers in history to win the junior world championship title? After Emil's success in Wollongong in 2022, younger brother Karl, a rider for the GRENKE–Auto Eder team, will try to make this dream come true this year (and next year) – and anyone who thinks that this year's event might be too early for Herzog is wrong. 

He competed in five stage races this year (all of them quite prestigious in the junior category) and, with one exception, won a stage in each of them, also making it onto the GC podium in three of them. 

Herzog's greatest strength clearly lies in his 25+ minute climbing efforts. Three of his four stage race victories came on days when there was such a climb during the day, which resulted in either a solo effort or a sprint where Karl had to sprint against riders who were more tired than him, which he managed to do thanks to his superior strength. It's strange to say, but a longer lap, similar to the elite men's road race, including Mont Kigali, would have suited him and his current skills much better than this very punchy circuit. 

In addition, Herzog has not yet won an official one-day race in his junior career, which also counts against him. The German team has the numbers, but both Benedikt Benz and Zeno Levi Winter will be good for him in the first and middle stages of the race, as they are both excellent pacers in their own right – but in the final stages of the race, Herzog may soon find himself alone. 

However, the opportunity is there: now, but perhaps even more so in Montreal next year. 

We first heard Harry Hudson’s name in May 2025, when he controversially won the junior version of Liège–Bastogne–Liège, after a motorbike blocked the path of Belgian rider Leander de Gendt during the final sprint, effectively handing Hudson the victory. 

Of course, we are still talking about Hudson as the winner of a major one-day junior race, and though he flew a little under the radar this year and was not necessarily invited to most of the big races, we can still draw some conclusions from the results he produced. Hudson is a very complex climber, as he can handle the steep climbs around Liege, but he also did an excellent job winning a race in the French Alps, where longer efforts were required.

However, Hudson has not been very consistent this year. For example, he did well on the Col de la Biche in the Valromey Tour, but on days that should have suited him better in theory, he did not perform that well. The biggest question will be which side of him we will see on Friday morning. 

This will not be a problem for the British team, as they will field one of the strongest squads, with the four-man team including, in addition to Hudson, the excellent puncheur and TT rider, Morbihan winner Max Hinds; Matthew Peace, who won a stage race in Cantabria, and Dylan Sage, who represents the classics line in the team and who will perhaps be more prominent in the first half of the race. 

Four Brits from four different teams, yet this is a strong squad – and Hudson could be the one to finish it off in the end.

When someone is compared to Mathieu van der Poel, you know you are dealing with a once-in-a-generation talent. Mattia Agostinacchio has been described in this way several times this year, mainly due to his physique and the aggressive and proactive way he attacks and races, which has already attracted the interest of WorldTour teams. 

The current junior cyclocross world champion competed in 18 races this year for the Ciclista Trevgliese team and did not finish lower than 19th in any road race. He delivered an amazingly consistent string of top-10 finishes, yet the highlight of his season was his victory on the final day of the Trophée Morbihan, which came after a 30-kilometre solo breakaway, attacking repeatedly and showing tremendous mental strength throughout the effort, leaving the best sprinters in the current junior age group behind him. 

The punchy route in Rwanda suits Agostinacchio perfectly. One might even think that a little less punch would be even better for him. Still, the eight lap, 120-kilometre-long route may be the perfect distance for him to achieve his goal – although for him to win, the Italian team will have to control the race, slowing down the first few laps as much as possible so that Mattia has a real chance at gold in the last three laps. 

Even if Agostinacchio isn't there at the end, the Italians may have another option – Roberto Capello has shown good climbing performances throughout the season, and although he is not among GRENKE–Auto Eder's top 5 this year, he could be the perfect man for a great underdog story. 

Latvia's best result in the history of the Junior World Championships was an 11th place, achieved by Toms Skujiņš, who currently rides for Lidl-Trek, in Moscow in 2009. However, this year, Georgs Tjumins has every chance of surpassing this, as the GRENKE–Auto Eder rider has become a truly phenomenal one-day racer in 2025. 

Tjumins competed in 11 one-day races this season, finishing in the top 10 in all but the E3 Saxo Classic and a smaller Italian race. His second place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen junior race (great on cobblestones), his 8th place in the Alpes Juniors (can climb mountains seriously), and his 3rd place overall in the GP Rüebliland (also has puncheur skills) are also noteworthy. However, there's one thing missing from his repertoire that hasn't arrived yet: climbing very steep climbs. 

This can be key in such a race, and Georgs hasn't fully mastered it yet – although the cobbles of Kimihurura and the fact that this climb will come at the very end of the race will definitely help his chances. 

It's very rare in the junior age group for someone to solve everything on such a hilly route; it will take a lot of energy out of Georgs, but if there's a rider in the peloton who is excellent at every level and is truly capable of going all the way, it's him. Skujiņš' record might be broken – and Tjumins won't just have one chance to do it – as he's a first-year junior, even if it doesn't happen now, he can try again in Montreal next year.

A very strong Dutch team is participating in this race, and both Michiel Mouris and Daan Dijkman have had seasons that would qualify them to compete here, yet the choice for leadership fell on Gijs Schoonvelde, who, as a second-year junior, has shown veteran-like experience throughout the year and whose form is currently quite brilliant. 

The rider for GRENKE–Auto Eder started the year with a fourth place at the junior Paris-Roubaix, followed by a podium finish at the junior Trofeo San Vendemiano, a slightly less steep Italian race for U23 riders. 

After that, Schoonvelde won a punchy uphill sprint in the Czech Republic, showing that he has the top-end speed in the right situations – he then won the Dutch junior championship in solo fashion, and in the second half of the season, he won the final day of one of the most prestigious stage races, the Ain Bugey Valromey Tour, in a small group sprint, followed by winning the final day of the Aubel – Stavelot race with an awe-inspiring solo effort. 

Schoonvelde knows enough about everything to succeed. This could essentially be a disadvantage for him in his first U23 year next year, as those who stand out have one or two very exceptional qualities (Theodor Clemmensen and Paul Seixas are perfect examples from last year for both), but what we saw from him in this race could very well be enough for him to achieve his goals with these – his speed could actually be worth gold at the end.

Talent is not only passed down between siblings, but also from father to son, as Benjamín Noval's father, Benjamín Noval senior, was a professional cyclist for 10 years, competing for teams such as Discovery Channel, Astana and Team Saxo Bank. Although he did not win any professional races, he was an excellent climber in the 2000s. 

His son, Benjamín, is one of the biggest dark horses of this year's World Championships, with the potential to win both races as a first-year junior. It is no coincidence that Noval already has a contract with the INEOS Grenadiers team in the WorldTour from 2027. 

What is all the hype about? Noval has won 19 races this year, making him the most successful junior rider in the world. However, there is a slight problem with this: Noval has won most of his races on the domestic scene, where the competition is not nearly as fierce as he will face in international competitions. 

He has competed outside Spain on three occasions this year, winning an Italian mountain race, the GP Pieve di Grappa, and finishing third in the Valromey Tour, which suggests that some of his dominant performances can be transferred to the biggest races. 

It is a big question as to what Noval will show in Kigali. We can expect a kamikaze-style strategy from him, attacking early, riding solo, to see if the others can catch him or not. His racing will be entertaining, but the question is whether he will be successful, alongside his Spanish team. 

Competing alongside Noval will be Eñaut Urkaregi, who has dominated on the Basque scene, and Ibai Villate, who on his best days is capable of long climbing performances similar to Noval's. It's a deep team, but in the end, everything will come down to Noval and how he handles the grandest stage of all.

The Americans will play with a two-captain system, hoping for another gold medal and an excellent race like that of Quinn Simmons in Yorkshire in 2019. Essentially, the American team's number one player could be Ashlin Barry, who turns 18 before the competition and will be competing for the Visma Development team next year. 

Ashlin has only been outside the top 10 twice this year; with this consistency, he is considered one of the greatest talents of his generation. However, Barry achieved these results mainly in Flemish and French classic races, which had a profile utterly different to that which the competitors will have to contend with in Kigali. Put simply, it is unclear how well Barry will fare on the current World Championship route, but based on this year's results, I personally do not believe that he will do that well. 

Given the depth of the American team, it is worth looking beyond Barry to see what else the nation has to offer, and Braden Reitz looks the best climbing option for the Americans. The young man from Ohio competed for the Decathlon AG2R U19 team this year, albeit relatively little, with fewer than 20 race days under his belt. However, even during this time, he showed that he is a force to be reckoned with, especially on short, steep climbs, of which there will be many in Rwanda. 

The fact that almost everyone will be watching Barry could open up opportunities for Reitz, and based on his results, he could even win a sprint against some of his rivals, not to mention a shorter final lap attack. He could be a great option for those hoping for a real dark horse victory.

We close our current list with the young Polish rider who many expect to return from Kigali with Poland's best junior male result in history; for this, Jan Jackowiak would need to finish in the top 4. The competition is enormous, yet there is a chance, as the Cannibal–Victorious team’s Polish rider is perhaps the most versatile among all the riders in the field. 

Very few from the 2007 class are even theoretically capable of finishing in the top 5 in the junior versions of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, as well as winning the Peace Race, which is a very hilly stage race, consistently podiuming in Italian and Spanish mountain one-day races, and finally finishing seventh in the Valromey Tour, considered the most important junior stage race. 

Jackowiak has achieved this, which has not only exponentially increased his value month by month but also made him a contender on a route that includes everything he excels at, and this excellent versatility may pay off better this year than in any other year. 

What prevents him from being the outright top favourite is that although the team around him is numerically sufficient, being good on the local scene and providing impactful support at a world championship are two completely different things, and it is not clear how anyone could stay with him in the last two laps. Nevertheless, Jackowiak must be listed among the top favourites, as he deserves it on his own merit.

Compared to last year, a much more open competition can be expected; on Friday morning, it will be revealed who will be Lorenzo Finn's worthy successor on the junior cycling throne.