A parade of burgeoning talent will be on display for the men's under-23 individual time trial on the second day of competition at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships. The U23 men will compete on the same 29.9km course used by the elite women the day before, riding from Gossau to Zürich.
The 327 metres of climbing begins just 3km from the start ramp in Gossau, located in the northeastern corner of Switzerland near the border of Liechtenstein. To pass through the foothills of the Pfannenstiel, the course winds up a 2.6km climb passing Oetwil am See, the gradient averaging 4.5%. Two kilometres from the crest on the northern outskirts of Uetikon, there is one smaller 1.4km incline that leads to a steep 1km descent, with pitches of 10-12%. Then the climbing is done and a right-hand turn follows the eastern shore of Lake Zurich for the fast, flat 12km to the finish line in the largest Swiss city.
A sculpture of David and Goliath, depicting the young shepherd conquering the giant with only a sling and stones, overlooks the finish line on Sechseläuten square by the lakeshore where one rider will emerge with the rainbow jersey.
Last year Lorenzo Milesi (Italy) surprised Belgium's Alec Segaert to win the world title, with Hamish McKenzie (Australia) in third. There is no title defence for Milesi as he is set to race for Movistar at the Tour of Luxembourg, September 18-22. Cyclingnews looks at the top five riders who will compete for the open top step on the podium.
Alec Segaert (Belgium)
The favourite to win the U23 world title in the individual time trial is three-time U23 EUC European champion Alec Segaert (Belgium). In his three appearances at road worlds to date, he has been a constant on the podium - third in the men's junior time trial in 2021 and a pair of silver medals in the last set of U23 rides.
Segaert, who has been riding pro with Lotto Dstny since 2023, turned heads last week when his ITT winning time on the 31.3km dry course at the Continental Championships, 35:06, was nine seconds faster than elite men's winner Edoardo Affini (Italy). And with the U23 defending champion absent due to a commitment to his trade team at a five-day stage race, Segaert has a path waiting to a gold medal.
Artem Shmidt (United States)
Team USA brings a pair of young riders into the time trial who are now teammates at Ineos Grenadiers, so one, or both, could land on the podium. The first choice is Artem Shmidt as the reigning US men's U23 ITT national champion. He did not finish well at shorter time trial stages this season, but took the national title at a longer distance of 33.7 kilometres. As a junior, he finished top 6 at Wollongong Worlds in both the ITT and road race.
Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden)
U23 ITT champion of Sweden Jakob Söderqvist is on a mission for a gold medal. The 21-year-old earned the silver at the EUC European Championships a week ago and last year finished seventh at Worlds. He is a time trial machine, having four podium finishes, two of them victories, in races against the clock at stage races this year with Lidl-Trek. Riding with the WorldTour contingency at Tour de la Provence, the youngster finished second to teammate Mads Pedersen in that 5km prologue.
Hamish McKenzie (Australia)
The 20-year-old from Australian is a former junior silver medallist at Worlds in the time trial. In his first year matching up against the U23s last year he finished third. This season he earned a silver medal at Australian nationals. His schedule of races have not provided any long time trials so he is a bit of an unknown coming in this year. However, he has signed a two-year contract with Jayco-AlUla for the next two seasons so will be looking to impress his future employers.
Ben Wiggins (Great Britain)
Making his inaugural appearance in the U23 field is Ben Wiggins. A year ago at road Worlds, he finished on the podium in the junior ITT as the runner-up. Competing on the track, he earned a rainbow jersey that year in the Madison, riding alongside Matthew Brennan.
At 19 years old he comes in as the U23 silver medallist from British nationals, finishing just 10 seconds off the winning pace on a 30km course. He also won as a junior in the ITT the year before. He has 39 races in his legs with limited opportunities to race against the clock. A testing course at the World Championships may be what he needs to showcase his power and time-trialling abilities that should be in his genes, father Bradley Wiggins an ITT champion at both the World Championships and Olympic Games.
