Swedish Giant Rules Rwanda: Söderqvist U23 ITT World Champion

After Remco Evenepoel and Marlen Reusser, another former Maglia Rosa has taken center stage in Rwanda. Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist stormed to victory in the U23 time trial at the historic African World Championships – the first ever held on the continent – beating his rivals by a clear margin. New Zealand’s Nate Pringle took second, 1’03” down, with France’s Maxime Decomble third at 1’04”. Just off the podium, by a mere four seconds, was Italian hope Lorenzo Mark Finn.

We’d already seen glimpses of Söderqvist’s talent at the 2024 Giro d’Italia Next Gen, where he won the opening time trial in Aosta and pulled on the Maglia Rosa. Last year, he had to settle for silver at the Worlds against the clock, beaten only by Iván Romeo, which means this time he came with one clear mission: revenge. That goal was made more attainable by the new U23 rule allowing only non-professional riders to compete in the rainbow races.

Despite his remarkable results last season, Söderqvist technically remained part of Lidl–Trek’s development squad. But his calendar was packed with call-ups to the WorldTour team, where he became a trusted ally for the likes of Jonathan Milan and Mads Pedersen. His full professional status won’t kick in until 2026, when he will officially step up to race at the WorldTour level.

As for Finn, his fourth place confirms that Italy has a real all-round talent on its hands. On Friday, he’ll be looking to repeat last year’s feat, when he pulled on the rainbow jersey in the junior road race. Like many of the brightest U23 names in the peloton, he too shone at this year’s Giro Next Gen.