Benjamín Noval closed out a remarkable week in Montreal by adding the junior men’s road race title to the time trial gold he won two days earlier, becoming only the second rider this century to complete that particular double at a single World Championships.
The 17-year-old Spaniard soloed away from a select group on the penultimate lap of the 134km race over the demanding Mont-Royal circuit, holding off France’s Simon Defrance to the line and erasing the memory of a crash that cost him a medal shot in Kigali twelve months ago.
After crashing while in pursuit of the gold medal in Kigali last year, Benjamín Noval of Spain made no mistakes en route to victory in the 2026 UCI Road World Championships junior men’s road race in Montreal on Thursday. Sweden’s Elias Wandel won the sprint from the chasing group to take bronze.
Noval’s winning move was built on patience rather than impulse. He let early breakaways form and dissolve before making his decisive effort with 45 kilometres remaining, bridging across to the front group and then riding clear alone with 19 kilometres still to race. The final lap told the physical cost of that effort: he had stretched his advantage to half a minute, but he was visibly suffering as he approached the line.
“From the start I felt really good, I had very good sensations,” Noval said after the finish. “Once I saw that the race was progressing and the moment was approaching, when I decided to attack, I didn’t look back until the finish line.”
Defrance never let the gap grow beyond reach in his mind, chasing alone for lap after lap even once contact with Noval had been lost, and his resolve was rewarded with silver. Behind him, Wandel timed his sprint to perfection to beat Germany’s Owen Kinds and Austria’s Michael Hettegger for bronze.
Noval was quick to share credit with his Spanish teammates, who set up the race for him earlier on. “The truth is that from the very beginning they did an incredible job – Raúl [Lopez], Luca [Martinez], as well as Aitor [Martinez] – thanks to them,” he said.
A double last seen from a future Monument winner
The time trial and road race double at junior worlds is a rare achievement, and the name attached to the last rider to manage it carries some weight. Remco Evenepoel pulled off the same feat in 2018 before going on to become one of the sport’s dominant riders, and Noval was well aware of the comparison being drawn around him in Montreal.
Two days earlier, Noval had already made history by becoming the first Spanish rider to win the junior time trial world title, beating Belgium’s Vic de Smet by six seconds on the same technical 20.3km course used by the road race field. That victory placed him among a list of past junior chrono champions that includes Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock, Michal Kwiatkowski, Marcel Kittel and Fabian Cancellara.
Noval’s cycling pedigree runs in the family. His father, also named Benjamín, raced professionally for the US Postal and Discovery Channel teams in the 2000s. The younger Noval will step up to the WorldTour ranks next season with Netcompany-Ineos, skipping the under-23 category entirely.
Reflecting on the week, Noval said he needed time to process what he had achieved. “We’re going to enjoy today, assimilate it – it’s been an incredible four days that I think until a few days pass, I’m not going to believe it, so well, let’s celebrate it and think about it, absorb it.”
This article draws on reporting originally published by Cyclingnews.
Photo: Zac Williams/SWpix.com via Cyclingnews
