Ten riders were picked at the start of the year, time to see how they got on.
Pablo Torres (pictured second from left) started the season with the longest contract in pro cycling, six years after UAE hired the Madrid teenager out of their development team following second place at the Tour de l’Avenir in 2024. As the post at the time mentioned, he was incoming like the new Del Toro but more inexperienced and probably needed more time. So there were no sizzling wins, instead some solid riding. Torres was often working for others, doing long pulls on climbs to set up colleagues and thin the field. So visible on TV as he was on the front when many were going backwards, but less so on a results website although he was part of the team effort at times.
As well as being the meat tenderiser weaponised to soften up the field for the likes of João Almeida and Isaac Del Toro, perhaps his best result might be 13th place in the Tour of Luxembourg’s 26km time trial stage. Nothing spectacular but improve and soon top-10s in more competitive fields are not far off which is just what a climber like him needs. Next year look to see him in a grand tour and doing the mountains work while getting some kind of joint leadership in a couple of smaller races.
Jørgen Nordhagen was unveiled to the media alongside Vingegaard and Van Aert at Visma’s training camp but probably didn’t finish the season any more recognisable to the general public. He had a solid season, in the past just the kind of year that would have had keen observers nodding with approval. Think a top-10 on the Tour de Romandie summit finish stage and fifth overall in the Tour de Guangxi. These days if a hyped neo-pro isn’t winning it’s almost a disappointment but Nordhagen is being lined up to replace Vingegaard and there’s no rush.
Matthew Brennan got a mention in passing below Nordhagen and he’s been the neo-pro revelation of the year (well done DJW for picking him in the commments), 12 wins and 43rd on the UCI rankings, the best among first-year pros. A year ago he looked like a handy sprinter but the thinking was he’d be down the pecking order on a team that had Van Aert and Kooij among others and so not get many opportunities. But he took a good win in the GP Denain and by chance got a start in Catalunya, replacing Vingegaard who had crashed out of Paris-Nice. Brennan made winning look easy to the point where you could see him at times on the approach the finish and somehow know he was going to win, he was floating. Able to produce the same power as Kooij but several kilos lighter, he’s one to watch for 2026.
2025 started without Gianni Savio after he died just before the new year. Diego Pescador was the Italian’s last import and he had his moments at Movistar during the season but nothing spectacular. Ninth in the Lagunas de Neila summit finish in the Vuelta a Burgos was good and the sign that he can climb with the best if he can get to the climb in position. Whether it was to learn this or more likely the short end of the straw he rode plenty of races that didn’t suit, including a Paris-Roubaix debut which ended in the broom wagon but it all sets up him for better next year.
Afonso Eulálio came good in the final part of the season despite a busy year that saw him rack up 64 race days starting Down Under and then doing Tirreno, Catalunya and the Giro. His 9th place in the Worlds road race was impressive and it came after a top-10 in the Tour of Britain too. At the start of the year the question was whether he could cope with swapping the Portguese domestic scene for the World Tour and he delivered in a season when plenty of colleagues at Bahrain did not.
Paul Seixas is probably on everyone’s radar now and most people can now pronounce his name too. Decathlon had cascade chart with goals to achieve in the year ranging from modest to dream season and he achieved every one and more, surpassing expectations. Fifth in the GP La Marseillaise, second in Paris – Camembert was impressive. Donating a win to Nicolas Prodhomme in the Tour of the Alps may have looked wrong with hindsight as Prodhomme would win a Giro stage the next month but surely it was even more noble because Seixas went against team orders, le patron (boss) while still a teenager. Eight overall in the Dauphiné was a big result, especially as it was no fluke, he was top-10 in the time trial stage.
The Tour de l’Avenir win looked like formality – and you can argue whether a World Tour pro out to regress back to an amateur race – but he’d been ill and almost didn’t start and so it wasn’t easy. He finished the season with a bronze medal in the Euro championships and a top-10 in Lombardia.
There are already a collection of ambidextrous articles about whether he should ride the Tour de France; “on the one hand yes, on the other hand no” and even if you don’t form a view just the fact that it’s a long-running talking point shows the media climate he exists in. You can see the interest too, this is a review post but it’s what comes next that’s fascinating. There’s also who is next too and the piece did mention Léo Bisiaux in passing and he got a Burgos stage win ahead of Ciccone, Del Toro, Fortunato and Pellizzari. Plus Aubin Sparfel is coming too.
Albert Withen Philipsen impressed but did he exceed or match expectations in 2025? While Paris-Tours saw Paul Lapeira and Thibaut Gruel play poker and lose, Philipsen got on the podium with Matteo Trentin and Christophe Laporte, his second podium of the week after the Tre Valle Varesine too. His versatility stands out, winning the U23 Paris-Roubaix in April, in May he one place ahead of Nordhagen in a summit finish at the U23 Giro suggesting range that could even make Tadej Pogačar envious but it’s more likely AWP will have to see what suits in the coming years but at Lidl-Trek he’s got team mates from Mads Pedersen to Juan Ayuso to learn from.
Tim Torn Teutenberg was in the mix for sprints on the road but arguably fared better on the track at times. A pick in January more out of curiosity than promise, a champion on the track and the latest from the Teutenberg family. Could he branch out into sprints after gruelling days? Not yet but he’s been a handy helper at times and as Lidl-Trek take a more German identity he’s surely part of this.
Jelte Krijnsen was riding club races a couple of years ago and then started winning and placing in pro races in 2024. Jayco are among the keenest to recruit overlooked riders and so they signed the Dutchman but results didn’t come as easily, even in smaller races. In a season where the team needed UCI points to stave off relegation he wasn’t among the team’s top-20 scorers.
Brieuc Rolland was a pick as a puncheur but with the question of whether he could extend his range into the mountains. Normally turning pro means picking a niche rather than expanding but it’s more the space is crowded, whether with Romain Grégoire at Groupama-FDJ or in general. He showed he can climb well at times and had three top-10s in the Vuelta and one in the Dauphiné too but becoming a GC contender is still a big ask.
Florian Kajamini joined XDS-Astana and the idea was a signing that looked beyond their relegation challenge, he was not hired to harvest points. Luckily so as he did not finish many races and not much to write home about but then likewise from their other neos in Darren van Bekkum and Haoyu Su. With this comes the challenge for the team, it’s retained World Tour status but now that’s secure where does it go?
Comment
For all the hype around youth, even Paul Seixas spent most of the season learning how to race at the top level but this apprenticeship is more structured rather than the sink-or-swim experience of the past.
As well as younger on average, a neo-pro today is in a different place than a few years ago as they can have special calendars to suit. The likes of Seixas, Torres, Philipsen and Nordhagen have been able to participate in amateur events like the U23 Giro or the Tour de l’Avenir, all while being part of a professional structure and the boundaries are blurred further by development teams which mean others are full-time riders but legally not professionals yet. Riders within these vertical structures make incremental career moves compared to the likes of Pescador, Eulálio or Krijnsen for whom turning pro has meant changing a lot more, whether teams to languages to moving home.