UCI World Championships: Lorenzo Milesi claims U23 time trial gold for Italy

Italy claimed their first World Championship under-23 men’s individual time trial victory since Adriano Malori in 2008, as a sensational ride from Lorenzo Milesi saw him pip Alec Segaert (Belgium) to the title, who claimed the silver medal for the second year in succession. It was Hamish McKenzie (Australia) who finished in third, as Milesi became the first non-Scandinavian winner of the event since Marco Mathis in 2016.

The U23 ITT world title is always a sought-after prize, given its long list of winners who have gone onto successful WorldTour careers, but this year the rainbow bands are all the more enticing. Due to the early scheduling of this year’s World Championships in Scotland, the winner of the race will actually get to wear their new jersey at this month’s Tour de l’Avenir, which features an 11km ITT on stage 7a.

Milesi pushed close by Segaert but to no avail

The first man off the ramp, Alastair Mackellar (Australia), was a rider to watch and he paid dividends with a solid time of 44:42. Mackeller enjoyed a lengthy spell in the race lead, before a flurry of riders came to the finish with better times and appeared to be playing musical chairs as they toppled one another from the hot seat. First, it was Jan Christen (Switzerland) who went fastest, before Hamish McKenzie (Australia) and Lorenzo Milesi (Italy) posted better rides in quick succession.

With an average speed of 50.5km/h, it was a blistering ride from dsm-firmenich’s Milesi, who would make the hot seat his own and suffer an anxious wait as the final riders made their way down the starting ramp.

His performance looked like it might stand as many riders couldn’t match his pace, whilst a dropped chain for Jan Christen (Switzerland) put pay to his medal ambitions. Nevertheless, Alec Segaert (Belgium) and Josh Charlton (Great Britain) were able to push the Italian late in the day.

Segaert went faster through the first two intermediate checkpoints and set up a tense finale as Charlton suffered a heartbreaking mechanical that ended his podium hopes. Segaert entered the final 400m of the cobbled climb to Stirling Castle with just 56 seconds to spare to claim the gold medal, but despite a valiant effort, he crossed the line 11 seconds down on Milesi’s winning time of 43:00:46.