World Cycling Championships 2023: Milesi surprisingly wins the U23 timed gold medal

Only the silver medallist was among the favourites for the precious metal. Segaert had already finished runner-up last year in Wollongong. The 21-year-old Milesi was tenth at the time.

World Cycling Championships 2023: The top 10 of the men's U23 individual time trial

1. Lorenzo Milesi (Italy) 43:00
2. Alec Segaert (Belgium) +0:11
3. Hamish McKenzie (Australia) +0:50
4. Raul Garcia Pierna (Spain) +0:53
5. Darren Rafferty (Ireland) +0:56
6. Josh Charlton (Great Britain) +1:11
7. Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) +1:18
8. Logan Currie (New Zealand) +1:18
9. Jan Christen (Switzerland) +1:21
10. Michael Leonard (Canada) +1:29

Milesi also started the race correspondingly early. His split times could not be jeopardised even by the favoured riders such as Gustav Wang or Carl-Frederik Bevort (both Denmark), who started last and both missed out on the top 10. The New Zealander Logan Currie also had his work cut out for him. However, Britain's Josh Carlton at least came close to Milesi. He only missed the first two measurements by seven seconds - but lost a lot of time at the back, partly due to a problem with his gears.

>> Overview of all competitions at the Road World Championships in Scotland

Only Segaert was initially on course. At the first split time, the 20-year-old was still ten seconds ahead of Milesi. However, he had obviously planned the 36.2 kilometre course better. Segaert lost second after second until he was behind at the third measuring point.

Kretschy and Theiler play no role

Even in the steep finale up to the fortress of Stirling, he was unable to reverse this trend. The 750 metres on cobblestones brought a gradient of more than six per cent - and more penalty seconds for Segaert.

Milesi, who is under contract with Team dsm-firmenich in the World Tour, is the successor to Norway's Sören Waerenskjold.

As expected, the two German starters Moritz Kretschy and Ole Theiler were unable to compete for the top positions. They finished in 28th and 40th place, just under three and four minutes behind respectively.