'It's crazy' – first ever British men's junior road world champion Harry Hudson to join Lidl-Trek Future Racing

Harry Hudson had never been to Africa before this UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, but the 18-year-old made himself at home in the continent on Friday, making history for Great Britain.

There have been many great British male juniors in the 21st century, from Geraint Thomas to Sebastian Grindley, via Tom Pidcock, but none had ever stood on the top step of the podium after the junior road race at the World Championships until Friday.

Hudson, the junior national hill-climb champion, was the man to change that story, a step up from Grindley's silver in Zürich last year, and did so in dramatic fashion, attacking from 36km to go, and soloing to victory.

Not as a result, as it was already in the works, but the man from Sheffield has been announced as a Lidl-Trek Future Racing rider for 2026, following in the wheel-tracks of Grindley.

"It's still sinking in to be honest. I'm really happy to have won the race, I really liked the course," Hudson said in his post-race press conference, speaking to Matilda Price of Cyclingnews. "It suited me quite a lot, it was going to be really hard and attritional. It's crazy."

There was no plan for Hudson, a winner of junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the junior CiCLE Classic this year, to attack from that far out, it just happened that way, he explained.

"When the break went up the road, I had a teammate in it so I was pretty happy to just sit there and let them do what they wanted," he said.

"The plan was just to be up near the front of the race, and I saw an opportunity with 35km to go. I just decided to give it a go, and see if anyone came. I was solo, so I just decided to see if I could hold on, settled into my rhythm.

"At the top of the cobbled climb was maybe where I thought I probably had it."

While he his the first male junior road race world champion, the men are following the women; Cat Ferguson won the junior women's road race in Zürich last year, and Zoe Bäckstedt won the event twice, in 2021 and 2023. Before them, Nicole Cooke and Lucy van der Haar also won twice each.

In the men's race on Friday, Hudson was followed in by Max Hinds in fourth, and Matthew Peace in fourth.

"The British riders this year were super strong, we've got lots of racing, the level is really high," Hudson explained. "The support we get from GB at these events is great, we've basically got everything done for us, so we can just focus on performing in the race, which we did today."