Britain's Hudson wins junior road race as UCI retires Furrer's number

Britain's Harry Hudson has won the junior road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda.

Hudson, 18, beat France's Johan Blanc to the line by 16 seconds, with Jan Michal Jackowiak of Poland in third.

In warm conditions on a hilly 119.3km sequence of laps around the capital Kigali, Hudson - who is known to be a good climber - crossed the line in two hours 55 minutes and 19 seconds, with team-mates Max Hinds and Matthew Peace in fourth and fifth respectively.

"I thought I was going to get caught like a lap before or something, I was really suffering on the final climb," said Hudson afterwards.

"I think it was a French guy behind [me], but I just managed to stay away."

It was announced straight after the race that Hudson, who races for the Harrogate Nova team, had signed a contract to race for Lidl-Trek Future Racing from 2026 - a third-tier 'continental' team which feeds the full Lidl-Trek World Tour team.

Meanwhile, cycling's world governing body the UCI announced it will retire the number 84 from women's junior competition at the road worlds.

It was assigned to Muriel Furrer, who died of a head injury following a crash during the women's junior road race a year ago today in Switzerland.

Organisers were unaware Furrer had crashed and the Swiss was reportedly only discovered an hour and a half later by a course marshal.

The investigation into Furrer's death by the Zurich Public Prosecutor's office is still ongoing.

BBC Sport has contacted the office for comment.

The UCI's president David Lappartient said: "The death of Muriel Furrer, a promising young rider with a bright future ahead of her, during our UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships last year, cast a shadow of mourning over the event and the entire cycling community.

"One year later to the day, our thoughts are still with her, her loved ones, and her Federation, Swiss Cycling.

"To pay tribute to Muriel, the UCI has decided that the race number she wore during the event will no longer be assigned in the Women Junior road race at the UCI World Championships for road cycling."