Neo-Pros To Watch For 2025

Ten neo-pros to watch this year.

If Juan Ayuso has a sore neck, it could be because of Pablo Torres (19). UAE’s only neo-pro signing is touted as the future of Spanish cycling, almost as if Ayuso – and Carlos Rodriguez – are looking over their shoulders waiting for the pepita from Madrid to surpass them.

Torres is relatively new to cycling but had a very solid first year as a senior culminating with second place in the Tour de l’Avenir but arguably the strongest rider. He lost beaucoup time mid-race but launched an all or nothing move on the final stage and the Colle Finestre summit finish where he left everyone trailing, not just the field that day but anyone else who has ever done the climb. Quicker than Froome, Contador, Rujano et al too.

Last season he was impressive but found Jarno Widar in his way at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta and the U23 Giro, the Belgian had the pick of the top races and perhaps wisely he is doing another season before moving up to the World Tour. But the point about Torres less the results so far and more the potential. UAE haven’t given him the longest ever contract in pro cycling by chance, they’ve seen his data. Now up to him and the team to see what he can do, look to smaller stage races here and there. A year ago Isaac Del Toro was the pick but the Mexican was more experienced, Torres might need more more time.

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Visma-LAB’s star riders pose for a photo. The image says plenty with Jørgen Nordhagen (20) facing the cameras inbetween Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson. He was signed by Visma-LAB back in 2022 with a programme to bring him into their development team first and now the Norwegian has joined the World Tour. He’s got a background in cross-country skiing but that’s like saying Mozart was musical as a child: Nordhagen is a ski world champ. He has a reputed Vo2 Max of 96, among the highest recorded.

A future Tour winner? That’s the aim but a lot has to happen. As he’s Scandinavian and has a light build comparisons so Jonas Vingegaard get made but there could be more, more punch for one day races for starters. He beat Torres to win the 2.2-rated Giro della Regione Friuli last year. A mention of team mate Tijmen Graat (22) too, another stage racing talent but not the sizzling talent of Nordhagen today, also sprinter Matthew Brennan (19) and Niklas Behrens (21), the Colossus of Bremen.

Heard of Diego Pescador (20)? A few years ago you probably would have, perhaps because of a fractious bidding war between World Tour teams keen to recruit the latest escarabajo talent, if not a slew of hype articles about the “new Egan Bernal”. Just the late Gianni Savio brought Bernal to Europe, Pescador was the last rider he saw into the World Tour, this time with Movistar. He’s a prodigious climbing talent who has been floating to wins on the Colombian scene but with little experience of racing in Europe so there’s a lot to learn about positioning and more, as well as life on the other side of the planet. If he can handle this then the open structure – read Movistar don’t have too many leaders – means he can get opportunities early but this year should be more about apprenticeship. If he wins one day expect a “Pescador nets first win” and more if he makes a habit of it.

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It’s all change at Bahrain, the team has signed nine new riders including seven neo-pros and they go from one of the oldest rosters to the youngest. Is Afonso Eulálio (23) the pick among them? Maybe not but there’s an interesting story. For all the talk of the Tour de France dominating cycling, Portuguese cycling is fixated by the Volta, the grandíssima too and plenty of riders seem to stay at home. Eulálio is the newest export and after impressing in his home stage race with a spell in yellow he’s making the move to the World Tour, the question is whether he can repeat the results in stage races outside Portugal and throughout the year, his entourage say yes and more. A mention too for Vlad Van Mechelen (20), the name alone stood out a long time ago and following results he’s been up on the up as a classics contender.

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Paul Seixas (18) turns pro straight out of the junior ranks. Too soon? Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale remember asking Matteo Jorgenson to do an extra year in their feeder team only for him to turn pro with Movistar instead. So this is a way of securing Seixas and a whatever-it-takes deal is no bad idea as he was the best junior in 2024, winning plenty and often by some margin when in the mountains. The crowing result was the junior worlds time trial, where he took on notional specialists and won. This all bodes well but he’s now got to live with the rucksack of French expectations, something that has burdened many before. Plus there’s lots to learn and areas to progress. The team had an excellent season last year which will be hard to repeat, out goes Ben O’Connor and in come many signings from their youth teams with a mention of Léo Bisiaux (19) as another stage racing talent and Noa Isidore (20) for the classics.

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Albert Withen Philipsen (18) is another joining the World Tour straight out of the junior ranks but he’s got as much experience as possible having won junior world championships on the road and MTB, as well as European and Danish championships too, he’s already got more jerseys than Uniqlo. His versatility has impressed, at ease in Paris-Roubaix, winning time trials or collecting the mountainous junior Tour de l’Ain so no wonder several teams were chasing him. He’ll have to specialise at some point, even Pogačar can’t yet cover the ground from Roubaix to the Tourmalet. But not yet and look for this range in the upcoming Tour Down Under.

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Rather than tagging Tim Torn Teutenberg (22) as another at Lidl-Trek, a separate mention as he’s a rider for the classics. A world champ on the track (with Roger Kluge), he won the U23 Paris-Roubaix last year and is part of the Teutenberg dynasty, his father is Lars, his aunt Ina-Yoko, uncle Sven and his sister Lea Lin is a pro too. Being older and more experienced than those fresh out of the junior ranks suggests more might be expected from “TTT” right away but think of this as being able to do some jobs like a leadout or being around after 200km in a classic rather than instant results.

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For all the talent detection and rustling boy-racers out of school, along comes ex-speedskater Jelte Krijnsen (23) as he was a club rider just two years ago. Each time he’s got up a level he’s thrived, winning pro races last year as a Conti rider and then a stagiaire with Q36.5. He’s won sprints and flat races but his best result was in the Tour of Britain, making the race-winning move on a hilly day and in other races he’s made these kind of splits too. If he just carries on doing what he’s done then Jayco could be satisfied as he’ll win points although the “who is this guy / he’ll come back” hesitation from others as he jumps away won’t exist as much now. But they’ve got an option on him improving further.

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Attaque deBrieuc Rolland (21). The Frenchman has had two years at Groupama-FDJ’s development team and got plenty of solid results, 5th in the U23 Liège, winning U23 Lombardia and these seem to point to the type of rider who will soon be alongside Romain Grégoire. But could there be more? Fifth on the final Finestre stage of the Tour de l’Avenir, he matched Diego Pescador so we’ll see if the range extends to one week stage races as well, that’s certainly the plan.

The last pick is Florian Kajamini (21), an Italian with an Iranian surname and a Dutch passport who is a punchy climber. The big story at XDS-Astana is whether they can avoid relegation but the team has to look beyond this and they’ve got five neo-pros with a view to the future. Kajamini was raised in Italy by his Dutch mother and says he’s as happy on Dutch roads as Italian, even if he’s built as a climber. He might prove to be more like a Bagioli than a Ciccone and getting opportunities this year could be tough. Also at the team are Ronde de l’Isard winner Darren van Bekkum who didn’t wait for a spot with Visma-LAB, and Haoyu Su from China which is interesting alone.

That’s ten and some more names tagged along but there are many more. Congestion at UAE means Slovenia’s Gal Glivar goes to Alpecin-Deceuninck. Mathys Rondel (21) is the former inline skater who keeps impressing but he turned pro mid-season with Tudor. Nevermind Krijnsen, Sam Maisonobe joins Cofidis and a couple of years ago he was doing village races and risen up the ranks faster, although he has a background in elite triathlon so the rise so this isn’t quite the fairy tale. Arkéa-Samsic have promoted several riders from their development team and Embret Svestad-Bårdseng more than deserves a chance in the World Tour but he doesn’t count as a neo-pro having had a season with Human Powered Health.

Comment
Recruitment across teams varies, Bahrain hire seven neo-pros, Arkéa-B&B take six, Alpecin, Decathlon and Visma five but Ineos and Red Bull haven’t hired any this time. Like Groupama-FDJ a couple of years ago some teams have such a pipeline of talent that they’re almost obliged to sign them for fear of losing them elsewhere but this will have an effect on the team, a lack of results because of inexperience and the need to rest new riders means older ones get over-worked and fatigued.

The pro-amateur split is far less obvious these days with the vertical integration of teams having development squads, a rider may not be in the World Tour today but they’re de facto pros with salaries and long term contracts. Think of Jarno Widar, Ashlin Barry and Adrià Pericas among others who are worth watching but just not “pros” by the formal definition.

32 thoughts on “Neo-Pros To Watch For 2025”

  1. A small and pointless correction a.k.a. mere nitpicking: Nordhagen is a *junior* (i.e. U20) world champion.

    His best result in men´s elite, though, is a hugely respectable 8th in the Norwegian championships (where the competition is at least as tough as at the Worlds).

    • Yes, sort of assumed people would read junior for the ski title give his age as he’s good… but not that good. All the more impressive for skiing given his light build in a sport that – outwardly – seems to suit taller and slightly more muscular frames.

  2. Odd that the UCI have made a new rule that prohibits WorldTour and ProTeam riders from racing in the under-23 category at the World Championships. Surely this means that most of the top U23 riders will be banned (while having almost zero chance in the ‘regular’ WC race). The point of the U23 race is surely to show us/reward these promising riders. It’s not like previous winners of the U23 race were winning WT races when they won the U23 WC.

    They’ve also lowered the max. distance in the men’s race from 180km to 150km.

    Does anyone know the reasoning behind these rules?

    • The idea is if you’ve turned pro, are full time, have the resources of a big team behind you, even done a grand tour etc… then you should race against your peers in the Worlds and not drop down a category for the day.

      • Seems like the end result might well be that the winners of the U23 WC go on to be journeymen pros, at best, which is fine but, for me, that makes it less interesting to watch.
        Might have been better to change it to a U21 race – to take into account the younger ages at which riders develop these days.
        Also, most of these young riders, although they’re at WT teams, they’re not usually competing to win big races.

        • I agree – 21 is the new 23. U21 would continue to fulfill the original purpose. U23 seems obselete when a number of the world’s best pros are that age. Ditto for the white jersey in the Tour de France.

          • I think a lot of ‘seniors’ won’t turn up either. Girmay has said he doesn’t want to – but will go if Eritrea really want him to (which they surely will) – because he has almost no chance of winning.

          • The Danish cycling union DCU made a similar decision already in December.
            It is a simple question of money or a lack of sufficient amounts of it: while the cost may not be prohibitive in itself, the question that has to be asked when the budget is limited is where the euros are put to best possible use for the development of young riders.

            It should perhaps be remembered that the DCU chose not to send any juniors to Wollongong, either.

            It´s a shame, but I dare say we can hope that the WC in Rwanda will not be somehow diminished in their sporting value and that the junior and U23 champions won´t have any asterisks attached to their names.

          • No one cares when African countries couldn’t afford to send their riders to Worlds in the Western countries. So I couldn’t care less if it is the other way now.

        • Is there a chance that the Junior WC winners could be better riders than the U23s? Because the Junior winner is often someone who is snaffled up by a WT team, whereas the U23 winner will now not be in either a WT team or a Pro team (sorry if I haven’t got the team terminology correct here, but who can keep up?).

      • I also find this change odd. It’s a situation where if you’re really good you don’t get to participate, but if you’re only ok then you do. I agree that there need to be more tweaks, otherwise the U23 category won’t mean much.

  3. An interesting piece in this context is Jack Burke’s podcast with Luis Luehrs, who was a promising junior three years ago (a world champion in the team pursuit and top 10 at the junior world road championships) – and who has finally stepped down from the WorldTour this year, back to the Decathlon Ag2r Devo team.
    For all the excitement of juniors joining the pro ranks, he is an example of how big the step really is: not just physiologically, with longer races and much more volume but also pressure to perform, being in a much more grown-up and potentially cut-throat environment.
    With years of trouble to perform, some bad luck (injuries, etc.), he openly advocates a more progressive approach in the podcast.

    • It’s a good point, pro cycling can be like miners trying to find the next giant diamond or gold deposit without too much thought of costs of extraction.

      One reason some young riders perform so well from the start is because they’ve been living like pros already. Now this can be great but it does mean going to bed at 9pm, no ice cream, measuring food portions, giving up education and it’s not for everyone. Luhrs is at least continuing to race, others have given up.

      It’s also a strain on some families as the riders are almost pro but the family has to do a lot for them still, parents are nutritionists/DS/soigneur/mechanic too.

    • Indeed. As I wrote before, I totally see a “children’s crusade” point. A few success stories shouldn’t compensate the fact that many might be paying a high price.

      • That’s why teams like TotalEnergies, with VendéeU, or AG2R conti (until now) are reassuring in a way : Bernaudeau always insist on how making a man is more important than making a cyclist. Don’t know if it’s the same message elsewhere… In Italy, how do the conti or youngster’s teams work ?

    • Agree fully. I used to ride with Alexey Vermuelen when he was a teenager. He won the USA Junior national RR in 2011 and eventually got signed by Jumbo (when it was LottoNL-Jumbo), I think when he was 21. But lasted only a year, partly because of Jumbo’s increasing budget and ambitions as a team, but I think the challenge in adapting to life as a pro, racing around the world, played a big part in it. He seems to be enjoying cycling outside the WT now, though.

  4. Brennan looks a good pick, still nineteen but already with UCI wins. He can sprint and cope with punchy climbs. One for the Flemish classics despite the internal opposition within Team Visma?

  5. I’m extremely interested in seeing how Seixas progresses. He has a lot of talent, but he will be under the microscope at a very young age. Hope he has a good support system around him.

    On a totally unrelated note, I was looking at the Visma LAB picture and thinking about something I’ve noticed before: Jorgenson looks like a giant Viking next to all the tiny climbers, with shoulders fit for a completely different kind of athlete. It is amazing to me that he already has a one-week win and a top ten in the Tour; he just doesn’t have the look of a GC contender.

    • Agree on Jorgenson!

      Regarding how neo-pros deal with pressure, there must be evidence-based strategies for this that can even be adapted to specific personality types. It would be analogous to training regimes tailored to each athlete’s individual physiology. Given that this is common in cycling from the athletic/training perspective, I’d be surprised if there weren’t also structures/strategies to help athletes cope with pressure, tailored to their psychology/personality. Has anyone read anything on this?

      Remco seems to have dealt well with the enormous pressure and expectation, but then he seems to have quite a resilient mindset.

  6. I wonder if when Álvarez Pallete penned last Decemeber the new 5 yrs long sponsorship deal with the Movistar cycling team, which he always was a big supporter of, he already knew that they were going to try and have him out from the head of the company…

  7. As long Jumbo dońt just stick him on the front to drag the bunch along/chase, I can see Behrens pulling off a big surprise this classics season… not a win maybe, but perhaps a podium. He could really go places in those kind of races.

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