Belgium, in the men’s sector, and the Netherlands, among the women, won the gold medals in the under-23 time trials at the European Road Championships, held this Thursday afternoon in Anadia, Portugal, in temperatures of more than 35 degrees.
The races were held on the same 22-kilometre course that the juniors had run in the morning, but in even more adverse weather conditions, due to the higher temperature and the wind that began to blow with some intensity.
The men’s time trial was dominated by the Belgian Alec Segaert. After the European Junior title in 2021 and the bronze medal in the World Championship of the same year, the rider from Lotto Soudal’s development team was the only one to complete the course, which started and finished in Sangalhos, in less than 28 minutes.
The Belgium representative stopped the chronometer in 27’25”732 (48.15 km/h average). The runner-up, at 50.204 seconds, was Croatian Fran Miholjević, a cyclist who in this year’s Tour of Sicily surprised some WorldTour names by winning a stage. Third place was Frenchman Eddy Le Huittouze, a cyclist with Groupama-FDJ’s development team, who spent 51.764 seconds more than the winner.
The fight for the gold medal in the under-23 women’s time trial was much more even. The fastest, with 31’34”124, was Dutchwoman Shirin van Anrooij, who pedalled at 41.82 km/h. She was followed by Italian Vittoria Guazzini, at 11.823 seconds, and French Marie Le Net, at 12.678 seconds.
The podium was entirely composed by women WorldTour riders, as the winner represents Trek-Segafredo and the second and third places are from the FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope squad.
The European Championship continues on Friday, with a time trial in Sangalhos. It will be the mixed realy time trial. The junior time trial starts at 10h00 and the under-23 starts at 11h30.
It is the first time that mixed time trials will take place in Under-23 and Under-19 European Championships. In both categories, each team has two men who, after completing a 22-kilometre lap, will pass the baton to two women, who will complete the same distance to establish the final time for the national team.
