Italy's Lorenzo Finn takes Men's Junior Road Race World Championships after defending champion Albert Philipsen crashes out in finale

Italy's Lorenzo Finn has triumphed in the men's junior road race at the 2024 World Championships in Zürich after a heart-breaking crash from defending champion Albert Philipsen ruled the Dane out inside the final 23km.

In some pretty disgusting conditions weather-wise, there were a number of crashes in the early portion of the race. Rather than the typical style of smaller nations sending riders on attacks early on to form a breakaway, the Danish team began to set such a fierce pace that the only direction riders were going, was backwards, dropped from an ever-diminishing peloton.

As the race neared the halfway point, a select group of less than 15 riders were all that remained at the front of the action. Defending champion and Danish leader Albert Philipsen wasn't happy with the situation though and continued to try to attack and string things out with around 65km to go.

Italy's Lorenzo Finn attempted a solo attack, but heading into the final 30km, he had been caught and joined by the likes of Philipsen, Spain's Hector Alvarez and Great Britain's Sebastian Grindley. Notably absent though, and left chasing hard behind, was the recently crowned time trial world champion Paul Seixas of France. After another Philipsen attack dropped both Alvarez and Grindley, the Dane disastrously slipped out on the wet descent, ending his hopes of a 2nd successive title.

From there, Finn rode clear solo. Behind, Alvarez and Grindley regrouped, although both were now more than a minute down on the lone leader heading into the final 15km. Soon after though, the Brit attacked his Spanish rival to move clear towards the silver medal.

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