The individual time trials at the UCI Road World Championships will conclude with the junior categories on Tuesday, before the event resets for the road races starting on Thursday.
The junior women’s individual time trial will cover 10.7 km, the shortest distance for this category in the event’s history at the Road World Championships.
The route is a shortened version of the elite and under-23 individual time trial held on Sunday and Monday, with a flat, technical out-and-back course that retraces the same route before returning to Old Montreal and heading to the uphill finish.
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Cyclingnews highlights a handful of riders to watch for the junior women’s individual time trial in Montreal.
Maria Okrucinska (Poland)
Maria Okrucinska is one of Poland’s brightest cycling talents, with a growing palmarès in the junior ranks where she races for Grouwels-Watersley R&D Road Team.
After finishing seventh in the individual time trial at the World Championships and European Championships last year, she raised the bar by winning the overall title at the Watersley Ladies Challenge.
Okrucinska lost only one time trial this year, and it was at the Watersley Ladies Challenge, where she finished second in the stage 1 time trial to Liliana Edwards (USA).
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In every other time trial, she has crossed the line in victory, including stage 1 of EPZ Omloop van Borsele, Memoriał Tomka Jakubowskiego – ITT, and the junior time trial title at the Polish National Championships.
Liliana Edwards (USA)
Liliana Edwards was the rider who beat Okrucinska in the opening time trial at the prestigious Watersley Ladies Challenge, and she too finished in the top-10 (9th) in the junior time trial at the Worlds in Kigali last year.
She arrives in Montreal as the US junior time trial champion but has represented her nation in an international calendar of racing this season, racing for trade team CCB p/b Levine Law Group.
Her successes include finishing third in the time trial at the EPZ Omloop van Borsele, where she finished third overall. After winning her national title in the junior time trial, she went on to finish second in the road race behind Sophia Wellmeier.
Laura Fivé (Belgium)
Laura Fivé is the reigning Belgian junior women’s time trial champion, who finished 10th last year at the Worlds in Kigali. She competes with Airtox – Carl Ras Junior Women in an international racing season.
She has won three races this year, two of them time trials, at Provinciaal Kampioenschap Oost-Vlaanderen WJ – ITT, Chrono Challenge Poperinge, and the national championships.
She also placed third at Chrono Challenge Lendelede and second at Chrono Challenge Borlo, both times behind her compatriot Yana Decruyenaere, who will also represent Belgium at the Worlds in Montreal.
Ones to watch
- Maria Acuti – Italian junior road race champion, third in stage 1 time trial of Watersley Ladies Challenge
- Alejandra Neira – Spanish junior time trial champion
- Karlijn Wijma – Dutch junior time trial champion
- Aalia Clay – British junior time trial champion
- Neve Parslow – Australian junior time trial champion
- Lilyarna Eggersglusz – Zimbabwe junior time trial and road race champion
- Karoline Flaterud – Norwegian junior time trial champion
- Élodie Malois – Canadian junior time trial champion
- Anel Tashbay – Kazakhstan junior time trial champion
- Eva Drhová – Czech Republic junior time trial champion
- Mercy Eragae – Kenyan junior time trial champion
- Adeele Jaht – Estonian junior time trial champion
- Karolina Hajduková – Slovakian junior time trial champion
- Pontso Makatile – Lesotho junior road race champion
- Emer Heverin – Irish junior time trial champion
- Maitê Coelho da Silva – Brazilian junior time trial champion and Pan-American junior time trial champion
- Nahomi Yamilet Jativa – Ecuador junior time trial and road race champion
- Donatha Akimana – Rwanda junior road race champion and second in the junior time trial
- Neve McKenzie – New Zealand junior time trial champion
- Anja Grossmann – Swiss junior time trial champion
- Kira Dubinina – Ukrainian junior time trial champion
- Augustė Mikutytė – Lithuanian junior time trial and road race champion
- June Nothum – Luxembourg junior time trial champion
- Cheyenne Isabel Urquizu – Bolivia junior time trial and road race champion
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