Spain dominates the Junior Time Trial at the European Championships with Neira and Noval

Spain has achieved a spectacular double in the junior time trials of the 2026 European Championship. Alejandra Neira and Benjamín Noval have been crowned European champions against the clock in Šenčur, both after resolving two extremely close races.

Neira won with just three seconds ahead of Belgian Laura Fivé, while Noval needed only three hundredths to surpass Danish Malthe Risbjerg. Two golds that extend the extraordinary moment of the Spanish junior generation and come just two weeks after a World Championship in Montreal where both already donned the rainbow jersey.

Alejandra Neira comes from behind in the final kilometers to take the European title

The first Spanish victory of the morning came with Alejandra Neira. The juniors faced the same 22.1 kilometers around Šenčur as the other categories, including the tough climb to Možjanca, which is just over two kilometers long and has an average gradient of around 10%.

Neira completed the course in 35:45.65, but she had to build her victory from behind. Laura Fivé was the fastest in the first part and passed the 8-kilometer checkpoint with just over five seconds advantage over the Spaniard.

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The difference was still 3.8 seconds after 16.3 kilometers, but Neira clearly improved as the race progressed. In the last six kilometers, she managed to recover all the disadvantage and finished ahead of Fivé by 3.17 seconds. Augustė Mikutytė took the bronze at 10.48 seconds.

The result also confirms the huge leap Neira has made in this specialty in just two weeks. In Montreal, the Spaniard finished ninth in the World Championship time trial, 45 seconds behind Maria Okrucińska.

That performance turned out to be the prelude to her greatest success up to that point. Just a few days later, Neira was crowned junior world champion on the road in Montreal after winning a sprint against a reduced group of five riders.

Now she adds to that rainbow the European time trial champion jersey and also maintains Spanish dominance in this event after the titles won by Paula Ostiz in 2024 and 2025.

Benjamín Noval wins against the clock by just three hundredths

If the end of the women's race was close, Benjamín Noval's was even more extreme. The Asturian started very strong and was already the clear reference at the first intermediate point. After eight kilometers, he was ahead by almost 15 seconds of Vic De Smet and by more than 23 of Danish Malthe Risbjerg. At 16 kilometers, he was still in first place, although Risbjerg had reduced his disadvantage to 9.96 seconds.

The Dane continued to cut the gap in the final part, making the fight for gold practically impossible to appreciate at a glance. Noval stopped the clock at 29:46.98 and held on to just three hundredths over Risbjerg. De Smet finished third at 7.66 seconds.

The victory reaffirms Noval as one of the great references in the world of his generation against the clock. On September 22, he became the first Spanish junior world champion in the time trial after beating De Smet by six seconds in Montreal.

But his World Championship didn't end there. Just two days later, Noval won gold again, this time in the road race, with an attack almost 27 kilometers from the finish that allowed him to complete a historic double of rainbow jerseys.

Fifteen days after winning his first World Championship, Noval has already accumulated three major international titles in 2026: junior world champion in the time trial, junior world champion on the road, and junior European champion in the time trial.

The double in Šenčur thus reinforces an exceptional end of the season for Spanish junior cycling. Neira adds the European time trial title to the rainbow jersey on the road, while Noval continues a streak that has already reached three major championships won in just fifteen days.