"I look to the guys who mix disciplines, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock" - Junior World Champion Albert Philipsen on who he hopes to emulate

17-year-old Albert Philipsen took a brilliant victory earlier this year at the Glasgow World Championships in the junior road race. As teams circle around him and battle for his signature, the Dane has spoken of his future plans.

“This season passed my expectations,” Philipsen revealed in an interview with GCN. “When I started the year my goal was to win the World Championships in mountain bike and road. It was pretty ambitious goals I set for myself being a first-year junior, so accomplishing those goals was pretty crazy.”

A number of the top teams are very interested in Philipsen including the likes of BORA - hansgrohe, INEOS Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek and UAE Team Emirates. But what kind of rider would they be getting? “My favourite are the road races, it’s more fun," he admits. "Right now I would say that I'm better at time trialling because it is more about steady pace and not so tactical, and my tactical skills are something that I'm really working on as I got into road cycling a bit late.”

“Coming from mountain biking, the races I dream to win are always the Olympics and the World Champs, that’s probably some of my goals that I have for the future," he concludes. “I would say I look a lot to the guys who mix a lot in the disciplines, like Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock, but my favourite guy in the road side is Tadej Pogačar, and today is the first time I met him in person, so that also pretty wild for me.”