Men's under-23 road race World Championships 2025 startlist | Riders: Finn, Widar, Álvarez, Söderqvist, Omrzel & more

This Friday, September 26, the road race of the under-23 men will take place at the World Championships in Kigali 2025 and we already know the final list of participants with all the riders who will fight for the medals and, above all, for the rainbow jersey in an increasingly tough category.

Although the profile will not be as beastly as in the elite category, the U23 will have to face a very difficult parcours consisting of 11 laps that combine up to 164.5 kilometers of racing and a total of 3,600 meters of elevation gain. The main focus will be on the cobbled climb Cote de Kimihurura of 1.3 kilometers at 6.4% with the steepest part in the first half of this ascent with slopes that go above 10% on a rough surface. The final 700 meters of the race are not flat either, with a 5% elevation gain. All this at more than 1500 meters of elevation gain.

The names to follow will be Lorenzo Finn (Italy), Maxime Decomble (France), Jarno Widar (Belgium), Jakob Omrzel (Slovenia), Mateo Pablo Ramirez (Ecuador), Hector Álvarez, Adria Pericas (both Spain) or the under-23 time trial champion Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden).

It must be said that the category has been weakened by the fact that more and more young stars are turning pro earlier and UCI prohibits riders with professional contracts to participate in under-23 championships. The likes of Paul Seixas, Isaac del Toro, Jan Christen or António Morgado could be technically still eligible for the under-23 title, but will instead compete in the elite category against the likes of Tadej Pogacar or Remco Evenepoel. However, that does not mean that we will not see a spectacle this Friday in Kigali as we have explained in a very hard circuit that will surely give a lot of action.