Cycling's next generations were set to take centre stage on Tuesday in the individual time trials (ITT) at the road world championships in Kigali.
The women's junior ITT featuring 17 and 18-year-olds will start the day's action over 18.3km between the BK Arena in Kigali and the Kigali Convention Centre.
In a nod to the first world championships to be held in Africa, Yvonne Masengesho from Rwanda will launch the race. She will be followed by Divine Ogbe from Nigeria and Rosemarie Thiel from Namibia.
In all, 47 cyclists will compete for the coveted rainbow vest.
The competition will be followed by the male teenagers who will ride over 22.6km between the same venues.
On Monday, Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist claimed the men's under 23 ITT.
The 22-year-old Lidl-Trek Future Racing cyclist completed the 31.2 km course in 38 minutes, 24.43 seconds. He posed an average speed of 48.741 km/h between the BK Arena in Kigali and the Kigali Convention Centre.
“This is the one thing in the U23 category that I care about the most," he said after his triumph. "So there have been preparations all year round to just make this one as good as possible.”
Nate Pringle from New Zealand was second just over a minute behind. France’s Maxime Decomble claimed bronze.
In the women's under 23 ITT, Zoe Backstedt took top prize. She completed the 22.6km sprint in 30 minutes, 56.16 seconds.
Viktoria Chladonova from Slovakia was second nearly two minutes behind the 20-year-old Briton and the Italian Federica Venturelli was third.
