Here is my new selection of ten riders to watch out for in 2014, all of them first-year professionals who have excelled as espoirs. My idea here is more to introduce you to riders who I think have outstanding ultimate potential, rather than who I think will hit the ground running straight away. There are naturally some riders who I’m disappointed I have to leave out, but difficult choices are inevitable. So without further ado, here are my ten to watch:
Julian Alaphilippe
Julian Alaphilippe (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)
We start with a Frenchman who begins his career at the Belgian super team, Omega Pharma – QuickStep. Alaphilippe has excelled both on the road and in cyclo-cross, in which he’s been under-23 national champion of France in both 2012 and 2013, but he’s leaving the knobbly tires behind now as he embarks on his first professional season. A rider with explosive talent, Alaphilippe surfaced on the road in 2012 with eye-catching rides in the Tour de Bretagne and in the Nations Cup round of Ville de Saguenay, where he won a stage and finished second overall. Signing with Etixx-IHNed last year, the feeder team of OPQS and one of the strongest development teams, Alaphilippe shone all season. In his return to the Tour de Bretagne he won a stage and placed second on two other stages. In the Thüringen-Rundfahrt, one of the most prestigious and competitive U23 races, he won another stage ahead of Simon Yates and Silvio Herklotz, two riders with massive potential.
Alaphilippe’s biggest win came in the Tour de l’Avenir. He had already finished third in the prologue, as well as in the sprints behind prodigious Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan on stages one and two; his consistency would bring him the green jersey at the final podium ceremony. On the final stage, a summit finish, Alaphilippe bridged to the day’s breakaway with a few other dangerous riders before the final climb to Plateau des Gliers. He left behind his last companion Matej Mohorič on the climb and secured a brilliant solo victory. That wasn’t the last Alaphilippe would see of Mohorič however, for in the under-23 Road Race in Florence a month later Alaphilippe again found himself away with the Slovenian, having been set up by a super-aggressive French national team. Only, this time it was he was the one dropped on an uphill slog. Alaphilippe and Mohorič both share extraordinary bike handling skills, though Alaphilippe’s technique is not quite so bizarre…
As a rider we can’t categorise him so easily as he is a true all-rounder, but Gilbert/Sagan-style uphill sprints look to be his greatest forte. Alaphilippe is into the action early in 2014: he’s down to start the Tour Down Under. Well worth keeping an eye on.
Damien Howson
Damien Howson (Photo: Getty Images)
Australia’s becoming a bit of a factory for time trial powerhouses these days, breeding them on the track and then letting them loose on the road. Jack Bobridge, Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn, Rohan Dennis. Damien Howson is the next model in the production line. Australia has dominated in recent times at the under-23 time trial at the World Championships, and 2013 was no exception. Howson had to settle for third in 2012, but last year was head and shoulders above the rest, beating his nearest challenger by nearly a full minute. With this dominant showing in mind, it was impossible not to include him in my selection.
Howson didn’t demolish every time trial he rode last year. He was beaten on a few occasions by fellow Australian Campbell Flakemore, and in the Tour de l’Avenir prologue he was looking ominous until he threw his bike into a bend a little too aggressively and fell. Outside the time trials, he had a good, consistent run in some one-day Italian races last year. In the elite time trial at the Australian National Championships, Howson – benefitting from Rohan Dennis’ crash, it should be said – finished third, a couple of minutes down on Michael Hepburn. His first outing for Orica-GreenEdge comes in the Tour of Qatar. Outside the time trials, Howson has certainly shown some climbing ability, but – and as ever, I could be proved wrong – it’s unlikely he’ll be able to replicate the level on the climbs that Rohan Dennis has shown this year; it’s more likely he’ll become a pure TT specialist. Orica-GreenEdge haven’t been snapping up all the Australian talent, but in Howson they potentially have a star of the future in the time trial.
Merhawi Kudus
Merhawi Kudus (Photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Europe)
Up until 2012, there had been no Eritrean riders in the professional peloton, but here we are in 2014 with six. It’s a tremendously exciting development. Kudus, the sixth, is a real gem who took the African cycling scene by storm in November last year with a brilliant ride at 18 years young in the Tour of Rwanda, one of Africa’s biggest races. Kudus won a stage and was in the race lead until a successful ambush by the South African team dislodged him on the penultimate stage. Kudus again impressed in Tropicale Amissa Bongo representing the Eritrean national team, and racing for the first time amongst some European professionals, placing fifth on one stage and winning the KOM jersey. Over the next month racing at home in Eritrea he proved to be already amongst the best Eritrean racers – and it’s worth saying now that Eritrea has a highly competitive domestic scene, so that is no mean feat.
With the opportunity to ride in Europe with the UCI World Training Centre, Kudus started to make waves. He won a stage of the Tour de Côte d’Or in France and in the Freccia dei Vini in Italy he beat Italo Zilioli, a rider four years his senior and with a contract to ride with Savio’s Androni next year. Best of all was Kudus’ performance in the Vuelta Ciclista a León, where he thrived in the mountains in warm conditions and finished second overall. Kudus signed a stagiaire contract with Bretagne-Séché and finished the Tour de l’Ain 17th overall, but more importantly it pitted him against the under-23 national teams of France and Colombia in the lead up to the Tour de l’Avenir. Of the l’Avenir hopefuls, only Clément Chevrier of France beat him. When it came to the Tour de l’Avenir two weeks later, however, Chevrier and Kudus didn’t seem to be on the same form. Kudus managed 11th overall when he was probably capable of more, but it was a fantastic performance from a rider who’d only been racing in Europe for a few months. So too was his 15th place in the road race at the World Championships.
MTN is the perfect fit for Kudus. He will grow with the other young African riders – amongst them four other Eritreans – and be eased into his pro career. He starts at the Tour de Langwaki.
Matej Mohorič
Matej Mohorič (Photo: Toscana 2013)
When Matej Mohorič won the under-23 road race in Florence, he became the first man in history to win junior and under-23 gold in the road race back to back. He did so in style too: his unconventional but effective Obree-like descending style carried him down to the line after he had broken solo on the final ascent of the Fiesole climb. 12 months earlier in the junior road race, Mohorič had also pulled off a solo move and denied a 55-strong pack of sprinters. Mohorič was utterly dominant as a junior in 2012, winning three stage races before his gold in the road race in Copenhagen and silver in the time trial behind ‘Mr VO2 max’ Oskar Svendsen. Mohorič didn’t set the world alight in 2013 until he came alive at the Tour de l’Avenir, taking second place on the final two stages in the mountains. Mohorič confesses he doesn’t like the cold weather, which could be a reason for him tending to perform much better in the second half of the season.
For all that Mohorič exploits over the last couple of years have been nothing short of exceptional, there is reason to be concerned that he is turning professional so young, however. He only turned 19 in October, and it would have been much safer to go for at least another year at under-23 level. As it is, Cannondale will have to go easy on his racing schedule. As I write this now I’m finding out that Cannondale are planning to put Mohorič in Paris-Nice and the Ardennes Classics, which is worrying. It is a similar situation to when Sagan turned professional at 19. But we’re talking Sagan here. It’s certainly unreasonable to expect that Mohorič will be able to adapt so quickly to professional racing. One thing in the Slovenian’s favour, though, is that it’s clear to see from his interviews that he has a maturity beyond his years, and this will serve him well.
So what to expect from Mohorič? Not too much, initially, but there’s no doubting his enormous potential if Cannondale can help to develop it. A strong climber who can ride good technical time trials and descend quite brilliantly.
Jan Polanc
Jan Polanc (Photo: Berry)
From one Slovenian to another. I realise that Polanc technically turned professional last year when he signed a contract with Lampre starting at the beginning of August, but it felt wrong to discount him from my selection because of this detail. It’s already blindingly obvious from his short time as professional that Polanc is set for big things. He is an excellent climber who took a solo victory in the 2012 Piccolo Giro di Lombardia, and in 2013 won the Giro della Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia and finished second in the Tour of Slovenia.
The start of his pro career couldn’t have gone much better. In his first race, the Coppa Agostini, his Lampre teammate Filippo Pozzato won, and in the next, Tre Valle Varesine, Kristijan Durasek took another victory for Lampre. Polanc rode the double-header of Canadian World Tour races, DNFing the first and finishing 40th in the GP de Montréal. Most impressively of all, when Polanc was selected as part of the Slovenian elite team for the World Championships, he pulled off an outstanding ride in the rain in Florence. Eventually finishing 40th, Polanc got his face on television screens all around the world as he led a severely depleted peloton over the line to begin the final lap. One commentator, having no idea who this ‘Jan Polanc’ was, suggested Polanc had thought it was the final lap. Which, of course, was nonsense. If only he knew what that turn at the front really meant: that here was a 21-year old who’d been professional for barely two months representing his country with pride when his five experienced teammates had already climbed off. Another great ride came in the Tour of Beijing, where Polanc finished 15th in the mountain stage, one place behind his countryman Janez Brajkovič
Polanc is two years the senior of Mohorič. Of the two, he has much more chance of making a bigger impact this coming season, so be sure to look out for him whenever things get climby.
Michael Valgren
Michael Valgren (Photo: Flèche du Sud)
There’s been a bit of an issue in recent years of Danish super-talents being unstoppable at under-23 level, but failing to live up to lofty expectations having turned professional. Hopefully Michael Valgren can break this pattern.
Valgren is best known for having won Liège – Bastogne – Liège espoirs two years running, a rare thing indeed. In 2012, in bitterly cold conditions, Valgren sped away from his challengers and surprised even himself by winning. A year later, another solo victory was confirmation for Valgren, and for onlookers, that the first time round had been no fluke. Valgren also won a stage and the overall of Flèche du Sud, a race won last year by Bob Jungels, and held off the sprinters to win a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir solo. The only real disappointment for Valgren last year was that he went missing at the World Championships.
As a Danish rider, the move to Saxo-Tinkoff was an obvious one. His time trialling is solid, but Valgren wants to work on this more and climb better. We’ll see if he rediscovers himself as a stage racer as he hopes, but being a good hilly classics rider isn’t so bad. Valgren starts his season down under, having been promoted to Saxo-Tinkoff’s roster following Michael Rogers’ positive test. His racing program has him down for a run at the Ardennes and even the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Dylan van Baarle
Dylan van Baarle (Photo: Vincent Jannink/ANP)
Here’s something that’s been missing from this list: a true northern classics specialist. Van Baarle looks to be made for for wet, windy slogs over Belgian cobbles. He has a huge power on the flat and ability on the short climbs that there’s reason to believe he’ll make a career of the classics. He’s also a very good time triallist. He only managed 23rd in the World Championships under-23 time trial, but throughout last year he was consistently one of the best TTers and easily won the under-23 Dutch national time trial. In fact, he did the double, winning the road race just as dominantly.
So good was van Baarle last season that there’s really too much to mention here. Amongst his wins was the overall of the Olympia’s Tour for the second year running and the Thüringen-Rundfahrt overall, in which he narrowly beat new Garmin teammate Lasse Norman Hansen (himself not making my selection but still worth keeping an eye on). Van Baarle, despite his disappointment in the World Championships time trial, did well in the road race, jumping in a dangerous move with Frederik Ludvigsson, Jascha Sutterlin and Flavien Dassonville and eventually finishing seventh. He finished the year with tenth in Paris-Tours Espoirs.
Van Baarle starts his season in the Dubai Tour. Nothing more than that is known right now, but he’ll surely have a taste of the classics and a chance to learn from Garmin’s leaders on the cobbles, Nick Nuyens, Johan Van Summeren and Sebastian Langeveld.
Davide Villella
Davide Villella (Photo: Rodella)
Having been one of the stand-out riders in Italian under-23 racing over the last couple of years, Villella is another bright young talent signing with Cannondale. Last year he won one of the big Italian stage races, the Giro della Valle d’Aosta, which took on even more significance given that the Baby Giro wasn’t held. Villella is a strong climber, but he’s been full of consistency in one day races too. On three occasions last year, one of them the Italian National Championships, Villella had to settle for second place in a single day race simply because of the presence of super fast sprinter Andrea Zordan, who’s turning professional with Androni this season.
Villella rode as a stagiaire with Cannondale from August last year onwards, which gave him the opportunity to ride the Tour of Colorado and a few other races. Selected as the leader of the under-23 Italian team at the World Championhips, Villella managed sixth place. A week later he scored a big win at the Piccolo Giro di Lombardia, where he’d had to settle for second place the previous year behind Jan Polanc. Best of all though – and it was this that convinced me I should include him in my selection – was his performance in the Giro dell’Emilia representing Cannondale. He played a starring role in a dramatic finale on the Colle di San Luca, finishing third behind Diego Ullissi and Chris Anker Sørensen. For a stagiaire in a race of that calibre, it was an excellent and suprising ride.
Cannondale has an exceptionally young squad. As well as Villella and Mohorič, they’ve also snapped up another couple of neo-pros in Davide Formolo and Alberto Bettiol. They make a very exciting quartet. Villella’s earned a bit of a repuation for bad behaviour in the peloton though, so he definitely needs to sort that out and let his legs do the talking.
Adam Yates
Adam Yates (Photo: Simon Gardner)
Rounding out the ten are a pair of twins. They may be something of a novelty, but they’ve much more to offer cycling than just that. The two have taken different routes but together they’ve reached their destination, not at Team Sky as many would have anticipated, but at Orica-GreenEdge, a team that is edging away from its standing as a team set up for sprints and team time trials.
Adam took a different path because he didn’t make it into the British cycling academy like his brother. He instead moved to France and eventually ended up at one of the best French amateur teams, CC Étupes for the 2013 season. This is the team that in recent years has produced Thibaut Pinot, Warren Barguil and Kenny Elissonde. All three are already stage winners in Grand Tours. At CC Étupes, Yates focused on training as a climber when in previous years he hadn’t specialised, and the change bore fruit. Yates finished twelfth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège Espoirs and finished second on the penultimate stage of the Tour of Alsace in July.
Adam has been slightly overshadowed by his twin brother Simon in terms of results, but this may have something to do with what Adam has recognised himself as being a little less suited to the short climbs and sprints than his brother because of their different training; Adam is more at home on the longer mountain passes. And it was at the Tour de l’Avenir in the mountains where Adam really shone. He proved he was one of the strongest climbers and finished an excellent second overall behind the clear winner, Rubén Fernández. The Yates tandem didn’t fire quite as well at the World Championships, where Adam finished 19th, but Adam had proved his potential on the big climbs of the Alps.
Simon Yates
Simon Yates (Photo: Simon Gardner)
And here’s twin number two. As a student of the British Cycling Academy, Simon rode a program of track and road. He’d already had success on the track having been Junior World Champion in the Madison with Daniel McLay. Skipping ahead to last year, Yates won gold in the Points Race at the Track World Championships in Minsk in February and on the road showed brilliant consistency riding for the Great Britain national team. Third in La Côte Picarde, tenth in Flèche du Sud, ninth in An Post, tenth in Ras Thüringen-Rundfahrt (second on one stage to Alaphilippe).
In the Tour de l’Avenir, Simon lost a bundle of time on the first mountain stage, like several other riders with big hopes for the GC. It did, however, give him some freedom to attack, and attack is what he did. He won the following two stages in the mountains, the first a one-two with brother Adam. Next, Simon did the unthinkable at the Tour of Britain, winning at the summit finish of Haytor on stage six with a devastating jump in the closing two hundred meters. Nairo Quintana, Dan Martin and Bradley Wiggins may not have been on their best form, but they were all scalps taken by Yates before he’d even turned professional. His good form at the Tour de l’Avenir and the Tour of Britain made him perhaps the stand-out favourite for the Under-23 World Championships road race, but despite some impressive attacks on the climbs he was unable to jump out of the group and join Mohorič at the head of the race when he needed to.
Adam starts his season at the Tour de San Luis but Simon begins in the Tour of Oman with his brother. If you want a bit more background, I recommend these interviews with the Yates brothers.
There you have it. Elsewhere, Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier is a former junior world champion beginning life at FDJ. AG2R have an exciting pair of young classics riders in Florian Sénéchal and Alexis Gougeard. Giant-Shimano have Dutch climber Daan Olivier and Lawson Craddock, an American stage racing talent. Also look out for Sebastian Henao, cousin of Sergio who’s joined Sky, Andrea Zordan, Androni’s new sprinter, and Belkin’s Nick van der Lijke.
OK. Time to stop.
procyclingfanatic 
Posted on January 18, 2014
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