Day 2 of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda concluded with Canadian Jonas Walton time trialing to sixth in the U23 men’s race and Jakob Söderqvist becoming the first Swede to wear a rainbow jersey since 2003 when Susanne Ljungskog took the elite women’s road race title.
The Course
The U23 men faced the same course as the elite women. There were three hills: Cote de Nyanza, where the first intermediate time was taken, Nyanza again from the longer, milder side, and finally the taxing, cobbled Cote de Kimihurura, which crested just over a kilometer from the finish line.
The sole Canadian entrant was Jonas Walton.
The first to take on the 31.2 km was Rwandan Etienne Tuyizere, who posted 43:36. When Slovenian Jaka Marolt finished he held all the best intermediate times and the race lead.
Pole Mateusz Gajdulewicz was going great guns on the course, beating all of Marolt’s times. His 39:52 was now top of the table.
Walton was on a good ride too. At the second time check, the Canadian trailed the Pole by only 13 seconds before equaling at Time Check 3. The Canadian then took the lead by 1.47 seconds. However, behind came a threat in the form of Kiwi Nate “the Snack” Pringle. Pringle put Walton into the silver spot by 22 seconds.
By everyone’s markers at Time Check 1, it was going to be difficult for Walton to maintain his lofty perch. First Callum Thornley shifted the Canadian down to bronze. Then Lorenzo Finn bounced him right off the podium. It seemed that no one but Swede Jakob Söderqvist could nab the gold from Pringle. He did! Pringle kept silver by a single second.
Tuesday is the Junior men’s and women’s time trials.
2025 UCI Road World Championships, U23 Men’s Time Trial
Gold) Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) 38:24
Silver) Nate Pringle (New Zealand) +1:03
Bronze) Maxime Decomble (France) +1:04
6) Jonas Walton (Canada) +1:26
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