He Won the World Championships on a Chinese Bike
Young Brit makes history riding a Chinese bike
Harry Hudson just made history by being the first British rider to win the UCI Junior Road World Championships and he did it all on a Panda Podium bike. His monumental victory came after a 36km solo attack on the steep climbs of the Rwandan circuit, a course well suited to the sub-60kg rider and his 6.83kg bike.
This victory is a landmark moment for us here at Panda Podium. We founded this site with the ethos of making high-performance bike gear available to everyone. Junior riders are usually tasked with providing their own race gear. Most parents can’t afford to buy a $12,000 race bike and a second $10,000 spare bike. While Harry’s bike isn’t cheap (It would cost around $6,000 – $7,000 to build a similar bike) it’s essentially half the price of a mainstream alternative and probably lighter too.
Harry has two bikes sponsored by Panda Podium, a Quick Pro ER:One and a Quick Pro AR:One. For the World Championships he was racing on his AR:One – the lighter all-rounder bike from Quick Pro. The commentators of the race noted the ‘groovy’ paintjob on the bike, and it certainly stood out in the peloton. Lets go over his build in detail.
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The Frame
Harry rides a size M of the Quick Pro AR:One. When we QC’d his frame it weighed 811.5g. He rides the bike with a zero-offset seat post and has 1cm of spacers under the stem of his CANWIN Zephyr SSL handlebar.
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Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageWheels Tires & Tubes, WheelsetsCRW Works 2026 CS5060 Road Disc Brake Wheelset
$1,680.00 – $1,720.00
The Wheels
For the wheels, he’s using the CRW CS5060 carbon spoked wheels measuring 50mm deep on the front wheel and 60mm deep on the rear wheel. The aero profile of the rims definitely helped with his 36km solo effort when reaching speeds of up to 80kph (check his Strava of the race.) But weighing just 1280g for the pair, they definitely didn’t hold him back on the steep climbs.
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The Cranks
Harry’s bike also saves weight with the CYBREI carbon cranks. Harry is 1.76m tall and uses 165mm cranks with 54/38 chainrings. Harry is using pedal based power meters from Italian brand Assioma. CYBREI also help with weight reduction with their pair of carbon bottle cages.
Lightest Bike in the Race?
It's also highly possible that Harry's bike was one of, if not the lightest bike in the race. The official paperwork shows the bike weighed in at just 6.83kg, a mere 30g over the UCI minimum weight limit. For a bike running 50/60mm deep wheels, 28mm tires, and power meter pedals, thats a very impressive weight. There were viral videos on Instagram showing riders with 8.5kg bikes. (Although that video has deceptive editing.) But this means Harry's bike has at least a 1.7kg advantage over some of the other bikes in the race.
Some rough maths can work out that Harry was doing about 435 watts for his 1min54 effort up the golf course climb. If his bike was 1.7kg heavier, the same power would result in a 1 minute 56 second climb.
The second cobbled climb the Kimiberg is less steep, but the cobbled surface increasing rolling resistance. On this climb a 1.7kg heavier bike results in a 3 second disadvantage (It's a longer effort.)
So on these two climbs alone, Harry's light bike was able to save him around 5 seconds a lap. Considering the gap got down to 10 seconds at some point, it's not insignificant.
Of course, a road race isn't a time trial, and there are other factors at play. Harry could have probably won the race on a 10kg touring bike, but in the pursuit of performance; weight matters.
The Future
Upon being crowned World Champion, Lidl-TREK announced Harry's signing to their development team. This is great news for Harry and his future. Like all junior riders, he and his family have made huge sacrifices to get to where they are today and it's great for all that work to pay off with a pro contract. It also reassures us that we are on the right track here at Panda Podium. We will continue to work with the top Asian brands to bring the highest performance equipment down to an affordable price point for the masses. We will also continue to search for new emerging talent to support with our sponsorship program going forward. We also wish to acknowledge and thank Harry's team Harrogate Nova, his club Harrogate Cycling Club, the Dave Raynor foundation and everyone else who has helped Harry on his journey to become the World Champion.
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