The youngest talents of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships took over Kigali on the third day of competition in Rwanda, with male and female Juniors battling for glory in the individual time trial (ITT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Megan Arens put in a dominant performance to bring the Netherlands their first rainbow jersey of the event, after Anna van der Breggen and Demi Vollering took silver and bronze medals respectively in the Women Elite ITT on Sunday\u2019s opening day of competition. The Dutch youngster won the Women Junior event ahead of Spain\u2019s Paula Ostiz and Norway\u2019s Oda Aune Gissinger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arens\u2019 countryman Michiel Mouris also claimed victory when, in the afternoon, he got the better of the USA\u2019s Ashlin Barry in the Men Junior ITT. Belgium\u2019s Seff Van Kerckhove rounded out the podium thanks to a strong finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The action was full of thrills with a hard-fought battle for the rainbow jersey in the Women Junior ITT. Some 47 riders (representing 29 nations) took on the 18.3km course (featuring 225m of elevation) and just three seconds covered the best four riders at the intermediate point (kilometre 14.7). But Arens mastered the gradients and cobbles of the C\u00f4te de Kimihurura (1.3km, 6.3%) to take gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At last year\u2019s UCI Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, Arens finished fourth in the road race and ninth in the ITT. The 2025 season saw her step up to victory in the Piccolo Trofeo Alfredo Binda (the second event of the UCI Women Junior Nations\u2019 Cup), the ITT of the Dutch National Championships, and now a maiden rainbow jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI cannot believe it actually. It\u2019s really unbelievable, I don\u2019t know what to say,\u201d was her first reaction. \u201cIt was a really tough parcours. We made a pace plan obviously but it was hard to reach the watts so I just focused on my feelings, I just gave everything I could, and it worked out! Riding the cobbles on a TT bike is so different and I never practised that actually. It was really new. I got in with an open mind like: \u2018I will see how it goes\u2019. In recon it was pretty good so I had a good feeling about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arens maintained an average speed of 42.574km\/h to take victory with a margin of 35.30 seconds over Ostiz and 37.54 seconds to Gissinger. Third at the intermediate point, Great Britain\u2019s Erin Boothman, a four-time Junior UCI World Champion on the track, dropped down to fifth at the finish behind fourth-placed Roos Muller (NED).<\/p>\n\n\n\n