Byron Munton achieves top-10 result in wet time-trial at road world champs

South Africa’s Byron Munton feels he achieved his goal by finishing in the top 10 in the U23 individual time-trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, UK, on Tuesday.

“It was my goal and to achieve it feels really good, especially considering the weather conditions,” said Munton, who placed eighth in the race.

He said it showed he could hold his own in a time-trial against the best in his age group.

“It will have obviously drawn some interest to my name as there was only one other rider in front of me who hasn’t signed a pro-conti or World Tour contract yet.”

Munton said on the day he was the second rider off the line.

“About 30 to 40 minutes before the start, during my warm-up, the rain started to come down hard. I was expecting it and had mentally prepared to ride in the rain.

“I was still not prepared for how bad the roads would be with the amount of water that was holding on the road.”

Despite the conditions he felt he still had an excellent day on the bike.

“At the beginning I had to tell myself to ease off as I knew for the last half of the course you needed to have the legs to push over the climbs.”

An obstacle for him was trying to navigate the road at the beginning when the rain was coming down hard.

“It got to a point where I had to take my visor off as I couldn’t see anything ahead of me.

“A highlight though was rolling down the start ramp and hearing everyone shouting. That was when I realised how big this event is and how privileged I am to be here.”

He enjoyed racing against a top field that included some of the best riders from around the world.

“It’s the level I want to compete at so I just embraced it as much as possible and was happy to show that I’m worthy of being here.”

Munton will line up for the men’s U23 road race today.

“I definitely feel I have good legs heading into the event, but the road race is something totally different where anything can happen.”