Alejandra Neira gave Spain their third gold medal of the UCI Road World Championships, winning the junior women’s road race in a hotly-contested five-rider sprint in Montreal.

Neira patiently waited until the final 150 metres to put in a massive turn of speed, leaving Matilde Rossignoli (Italy) in her wake to take silver, while Anja Grossmann (Switzerland) claimed third.

After the dual titles from Benjamín Noval in the junior men’s time trial and road race, Neira’s gold medal represents the future of Spanish cycling.

“I can’t believe it. It’s the best day of my life,” Neira said. “I can’t believe that I’m the World Champion. It’s incredible.”

Last year, it was Neira’s teammate Paula Ostiz who won the title. Now it’s her turn.

“Paula is a big, big friend, also teammate, and to be the World Champion after her, wow, incredible.”

Neira was part of a three-rider escape along with Grossmann and Rossignoli, but the pair were caught in the final three kilometres by Maria Okrucińska (Poland) and Mirthe Mons (Netherlands), which shook her confidence a bit.

“When the other riders arrived, I lost a little bit my confidence, because Maria is a really good sprinter. But I tried to keep on her wheel, and then when I saw that I have to pass, I went.”

Grossmann finished fourth in the junior women’s time trial, so found redemption with a bronze medal, though she said the final 26km were a challenge after a missed water bottle.

“I think the the last two laps were pretty intense and pretty tough because the Spanish girl attacked at the feed zone and I didn’t catch my bottle there, so I rode like two laps without my bottle,” she said at the post-race press conference.

“That was hard because I got pretty bad cramps. But I think I worked really on my mental strength, and that just kept going. I’m not the best sprinter, but I just try to to sprint as best as I can.”

Second half challenges and re-positioning

This year’s route for the junior women measured 5.6km longer than the Kigali route and included a little more climbing, a total of 1,614 metres of elevation gain. Canada, Great Britain and Spain came with five riders each, giving them an edge with numbers.

It was not until the second lap that the complexion of the peloton began to change, with riders falling off the back rather than anyone accelerating away. Spain, Australia and Poland were represented at the front.

With just under 45km to go, French rider Sidonie Vachet put a spark in the proceedings with an attack at the front of a fractured peloton. She opened a slight 16-second gap on the uphill to start a fourth circuit, marking the halfway point of the 80.4km race.

Behind, Scout Wellmeier (USA) rode at the front with Lluna Jimenez (Spain), Eva Drhova (Czechia), the Australian duo Chloe Bowen and Neve Parslow, and Polish duo Maria Okrucińska and Amelia Szymańska, and another 31 riders packed into the peloton.

Bright sunshine helped the temperatures rise as high as 24°C (76°F), the warmest afternoon of the championships so far, and riders took on plenty of liquids at the feed zone along the climb. Across the summit of the Camillien-Houde, Vachet relented to the pace behind and the race reset.

Once across the Polytechnique climb and on the twisting city-centre streets of Montréal, Great Britain riders could be seen gathering at the front. But it was an acceleration from Colombia’s Zara Sofia Lamprea that came on the approach to the Parc Avenue climb.

Lamprea carried a 10-second advantage, with Wellmeier trailing in solo second. The reduced peloton of 35 riders began the chase with two laps remaining at 20 seconds.

There was a crash at the front of the race under a heavy canopy of trees, with Lamprea and Wellmeier going down. Both were back riding quickly, but as they made the penultimate ascent of Camillien-Houde, the chase began closing down their effort.

A group of 10 crested the summit, and Lamprea just a few seconds behind and Wellmeier farther back, now chasers. France, Spain and Germany each had two riders, with one rider each from the USA, Netherlands, Great Britain and Switzerland. Then on the back side of Mont Royal, more riders tagged along for a bigger group.

Riders upped the pace to position at the front, passing crowds at the Polytechnique Montréal centre for science and technology, with a series of twisting turns on the descent causing riders to go wide on the course.

With 18.5km to go, Nabyenka García (Mexico) was the next rider to put in an extra effort, gapping the field by 15 seconds quickly on a flatter section. The Mexican rider looked back several times, and finally kept on the accelerator to go alone.

The bell lap rang with long shadows forming in the late Canadian afternoon, García still out front but only by 14 seconds. The curse of race leaders continued as she stopped for a mechanical, looking to reposition her chain, and was forced back in the peloton.

Wellmeier, Vachet, Parslow, Orucińska and Lidia Castro (Spain) were setting the pace at the bottom of the final ascent. Mirthe Mons (Netherlands) pushed the pace at the front, which seemed to spur others to give it a go. Soon a trio were at the front – Anja Grossmann (Switzerland), Alejandra Neira (Spain) and Matilde Rossignoli (Italy) – and with 10km to go had 20 seconds on Okrucińska and Mons.

With 4km to go, the trio weren’t showing signs of working togehter, which allowed Mons and Okrucińska, the new world time trial champion, to edge closer in the chase.

“Maybe we should have worked a little bit more together, so the other two wouldn’t came back. But that’s junior racing because junior racing is always a little bit more hectic and a little bit more without a clear tactic. I wanted to work together, but it was not my decision,” Grossmann said later.

With 2km to go, there were five to fight for three medals.

Mons struck first on the final climb. Then mountain bike world champion Grossman passed, then Rossignoli, but it was Neira who went wide on the right side and took the victory.

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