Benjamín Noval, a diamond in the rough that is beginning to become a reality
Winning horse. Benjamín Noval Suárez (Pola from Laviana, Asturias; 10-7-2018) was traveling to Montreal as one of the cyclists who had many things to say. Its quality, its excellent performance and its results They predicted that ‘Benja’ could give great moments of glory to Spanish cycling at the Canadian World Cup event. The road proved it: he is a junior world champion in both the time trial and the online event.
The current corridor of the MMR Academy He accepted the weight of responsibility from the beginning, when in the run-up to the junior time trial he said that this year he would have worked much harder on the time trial and that he did not believe he was the top favorite but that he saw himself with possibilities. Now, at the moment of truth, The Asturian gave a real performance, proclaiming himself junior time trial world champion, the first Spanish cyclist to achieve this.
Once this first objective was achieved, the next one remained, fight for gold in the junior road race, leading a Spanish team in which Aitor Martínez, Luca Martínez and Raúl López functioned as a true team to be attentive to all race situations. The leader concluded, a Noval with the enthusiasm of a young man who wants to take on the world.
Quadruple junior champion of Spain, celebrates like Alberto Contador: now look at the European Championship
He had made it clear in the preview that he dreamed of the double, a double that in the history of cycling had only been achieved at the junior level by the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who He was proclaimed double world champion in 2018. Years later he repeated the double, road and time trial, this time in a larger event, such as the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
For now, Noval is beginning his path with a very firm step. Montreal has brought to light the enormous potential of the Asturian jewel, the same one that the British team Ineos saw in him in 2025, when they paid more than a million euros to seduce him and prevent him from joining another formation.
The team was clear that this investment was worth making, as pointed out by the executive director of what was then known as Ineos Grenadiers, today Netcompany Ineos, John Allert. “Benjamín represents that futureand we are delighted that you have chosen to grow and develop with us. The foundations that we will lay for him heading into 2027 will be designed to support his performance, but also his growth as an athlete and as a person,” he said.
Stratospheric data
He was right in the short term future. This season, the young Spaniard, son of former cyclist Benjamín Noval, who was a partner of Alberto Contador, has swept wherever he has competed. With the two World Cup wins he has increased his list of successes to eighteen wins by 2026.
The powerful Ineos has already bet heavily on it in 2025: it paid more than a million euros
But it is no longer the what, but the how. The World Cup has left two victories in which Noval has won with absolute superiority, setting the pace and, in the case of the online test, showing itself as the undisputed pattern of the race. With his two, the total world gold medals in Spanish road cycling among all categories have already risen to fifteen. Although, more than the present of the numbers, Spanish cycling celebrates taking from Canada a huge diamond in the rough for the future.
