A very animated Men Under 23 road race crowned Germany’s Niklas Behrens on Friday, ahead of the final weekend of competition at the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships, in Zurich (Switzerland). On home soil, Jan Christen launched a daring attack but eventually had to settle for 4th, behind Slovakia’s Martin Srvček (silver) and Belgium’s Alec Segaert (bronze).
Part of Lidl-Trek Future Racing (the feeder team for UCI WorldTeam Lidl-Trek), Behrens is the second German to win the Men Under 23 road race at the UCI Worlds. And it took an impressive ride from the 20-year-old to succeed Gerald Ciolek, crowned in 2006.
The pace was relentless from the start of the 173.6km race, with four laps to complete on the city circuit (26.9km) around Zurich. The continuous attacks were always contained, with the gap from the front of the race to the bunch never reaching a minute. However, many riders were already dropped when Christen put the hammer down at the beginning of the penultimate lap, with 51km remaining.
But the final lap was too much for the Swiss rider, who was caught and quickly countered by Behrens and Srvček 10km away from a home triumph. The powerful German (195cm) eventually made the most of that power in the sprint, while Segaert emerged for the bronze medal.