'I took a bit more risk than usual' - Late crash ends Söderqvist's medal bid in Worlds TT
Jakob Söderqvist looked on a track for a medal after his flying start to the individual time trial at the World Championships, but a crash on a sharp left-hand corner in the finale meant he would have to settle for fifth.
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The Swede made a rapid start, and he was just nine seconds down on eventual champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) at the first time check. Although he was 48 seconds down on Evenepoel by the final check, he was locked on the same time as silver medallist Filippo Ganna (Italy) and five ahead of bronze medallist Paul Seixas (France).
Söderqvist remounted quickly from the crash and finished strongly, but the damage was done. He came home in fifth place, 1:26 down on Evenepoel and 13 seconds off a medal.
“I’m fully okay: it’s just a bit of lost skin and also a bit of lost ego, maybe,” Söderqvist told CyclingPro.net. “But no, I’m fully fine, and it’s just a bummer that it’s not too long from a medal. With this crash, in your mind, then you know that maybe this is what takes it away, but it is like this sometimes.”
Söderqvist won the under-23 time trial title at last year’s Worlds in Rwanda, and he placed third in the time trial at the ZLM Tour earlier this month. But he confessed that he was unsure of his form ahead of the Worlds, which saw him lean into taking risks on the corners in Montreal.
“I think something that affects it is a bit how much confidence you have in your physical abilities and how much confidence you have in your technical abilities coming in,” Söderqvist said.
“Before this, I was a lot more confident about my technical abilities and not too much in my physical ones after the past month. I was a bit up and down in shape, so I knew that I needed to give it every shot to have a chance to compete with the best guys. And then I took a bit more risk than I usually do today.”
No matter, Söderqvist’s display augurs well for his future as he brings his debut season with Lidl-Trek’s WorldTour squad to an end.
“I was happily surprised to know that I was competing and that I was up there contending with the best,” he said. “This was a growing, good feeling in the race, and then yeah, it happened in the end like this. It will do sometimes, and it’s for a reason.”
Race result: 2026 World Championship ITT Men
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