Sunday’s final day of the 2026 UCI CX World Championships had the U23 women’s race for the middle part of the program, where in Hulst, the Netherlands, Dutch rider Leonie Bentveld finally won a rainbow jersey after a cagey late move. She had twice stood on the U23 podium and once on the Junior steps. One of the pre-race favourites, Canada’s Rafaelle Carrier, suffered a hard day at the office, placing 16th.
Preliminaries
Isabella Holmgren, 2023 Junior world champion, was fifth last season, as Zoe Backstedt repeated as U23 champion. Backstedt earned seventh in Saturday’s elite race, but 2024 and 2025 bronze medalist Bentveld, who took the U23 2025-2026 World Cup title, was back. Riders would be wary of France’s Célia Gery.
Rafaelle Carrier, the bronze medalist in last year’s Junior race who came third in the elite Superprestige Gullegem round, headed up the Canadian squad, with Nico Knoll and Dorothee Perron also in Hulst. All three had seen a lot of action in Europe this season.
Carrier for some reason didn’t start of the front row. Bentveld and Gery led from the hole shot, Knoll getting the best Canadian start. Perron crashed very early and was Tailgunner Charlie for the first half of the race. Belgian Fleur Moors grabbed the front and created a trio with Bentveld and Gery. Carrier was not having a good race. Viktoria Chladonova of Slovakia made the trio a quartet by the line. Carrier was 18th, Knoll 19th.
The Slovakian pulled in the early part of Lap 2 and the Belgian, Dutch and French riders had to be wary of Chladonova’s aspirations. The Slovakian had a five-second lead at the finish line. Carrier had moved up to 13th.
On the middle lap of 5 Bentveld dropped Gery, who in turn dumped Moors. Gery found Bentveld again, but Floors really fell back. Then Gery crashed and had to start to fight back again. Perron was in a battle with an Albanian for the penultimate place. Carrier was 16th.
Bentveld’s task on the penultimate lap was to run down the Slovakian. The Dutch rider succeeded and then squeezed out Chladonova for the race lead. Moors’ bid for the podium suffered a further blow when she crashed. Rain started to patter the course. The two riders at the pointy end of the race continued their cut and thrust. Carrier kept her 16th.
Chladonova forced the…
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