The day before Harry Hudson sits down to chat with Rouleur, he was at home in Sheffield, waiting by the door, wondering when there’d be a knock and someone appearing with a box of clothing. The morning passed and no one came. The hours ticked by in the afternoon and still no one arrived. “I was thinking that it wasn’t going to arrive,” he says, “but then at 6pm someone finally knocked.” Hudson opened the door, collected the parcel, and in a rush opened up the packaging. What was inside? “A rainbow jersey, my rainbow jersey. And a white skinsuit with the rainbow bands on them.” He bursts a big cheesy grin. And rightly so.
A week before, Hudson had become the first ever British rider to win the men’s Junior Road Race World Championships, attacking solo 36km from the line in Kigali, Rwanda, and winning by 16 seconds. He was greeted at the finish by Mark Cavendish – “that was pretty cool as I got to chat with him,” he says – and was singled out for praise by Geraint Thomas: “I always listen to Watts Occuring, especially when I’m building my bikes up, so it was cool to get a mention.” Slowly, gradually, reality is sinking in that the 18-year-old Yorkshireman is a world champion. “It’s beginning to feel more normal now,” Hudson says. “I only rode in my rainbow jersey for an hour today as I’ve been a bit ill since Rwanda but it was really special.” At the Philippe Gilbert Junior Road Race on Saturday and Sunday (October 4-5) he raced in the bands for the first time, finishing fourth overall. “It’s going to be so cool to line up in them,” he predicts a few days before.
Hudson’s win in Rwanda wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but he’s not dominated the junior category like Remco Evenepoel and Quinn Simmons once did. Victory at May’s junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège underlined his potential, though, and he was the subject of interest from a number of WorldTour development teams, eventually agreeing to sign for Lidl-Trek Future Racing for next season. He’s still a kid, just out of school, but the world title suggests he’s got a big future in the sport.
Mark Cavendish congratulates Hudson after his win in Kigali. Image: Simon Wilkinson/SWPix.com.
“I’ve always ridden my bike and watched the Tour de France with my dad, and I started with circuit racing aged 12,” he explains. “At U14 I began racing cyclocross, and that gradually evolved into riding hill climbs as well. It was…