Johan Bruyneel analyzes the greatest young prospects and explains whom he sees as "the biggest talent" among the rising stars

Never before have been scouts, coaches and managers looking for young talents as frantically as nowadays. We could account this phenomenon to the superstars Tadej Pogacar (youngest Tour de France winner since 1904), Remco Evenepoel (Won San Sebastian in his first year out of juniors) or Joshua Tarling (European Champion as 1st year U23), but the reality of professional cycling may have just simple changed with more focus than ever on the youngest categories.

In The Move podcast of Lance Armstrong, another outcast of cycling world Johan Bruyneel analyzes who he thinks are the most entertaining talents flowing into the professional peloton at the moment, and who he expects to step up massively in 2025.

Brennan first let himself heard when he broke the junior world record in Individual pursuit, before making the step up to the under-23 category on road. Well, we say "step up" but it's not an exaggeration to say that Brennan bursted onto the scene, winning his first two races in 2024. Throughout the rest of the season he continued to impress even on more challenging profiles and ultimately, he convinced Visma | Lease a Bike to give him a professional contract sooner than anyone expected.

Bruyneel is particularly excited because you don't see as many "supertalented" fast men nowadays. "Most of the talents are mainly climbers, but with Matthew Brennan we have a complete rider with a good sprint who immediately showed himself at the Tour Down Under. Last year he already rode well and achieved good results and I expect that we will see him regularly fighting for the victory again this year."

On the opposite end of the scale in terms of rider profile are three extremely talented young climbers - all of them might be small in frame, but with a huge potential.

Pablo Torres may have been the biggest revelation of 2024, coming out of modest junior career racing mostly in Spain, he immediately impressed in elite category, in particular by shattering the climbing record on Colle delle Finestre during a raid that almost saw him walk away with overall triumph at the Tour de l'Avenir: "He is only nineteen years old, but he is already riding so strongly. He is small, but has enormous power. In the Tour Down Under, he rode very strongly without being noticed in the results."

Jarno Widar was one of the few men who managed to beat Torres in a head-to-head climbing "watt-fest" at the under-23 Giro, but the Belgian opts to stick around for one more year in the prospects category with a clear goal of becoming the U23 World champion in Rwanda later this year, before moving on to pros.

When we talk about climbing prospects, Visma | Lease a Bike are expecting even more wonders from the Norwegian Jorgen Nordhagen, who is often seen as the successor to his teammate Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France champion.

And then there's the fresh batch of neo-pros coming straight off the junior ranks, who have already begun to perform at the highest level. You know the talents Bruyneel talks about are massive when the Junior World champion Lorenzo Finn didn't even make the list...

Firstly, Bruyneel mentions the French GC hope Paul Seixas. The 18-year-old finished fifth in his professional debut at GP La Marseillaise after attacking away with top riders like Kévin Vauquelin.

"He impressively became (time trial, ed.) world champion among the juniors and will now make his debut among the pros. He is one of the greatest talents in France for a long time and will certainly make an impression next season. Where the young riders often fall short in the final, Paul can perform well."

But all the eyes are on another rider who might well be the cycling superstar in a couple years. World champion in MTB, on road, and a strong cyclocrosser, Albert Withen Philipsen has all the assets to be the next Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock or maybe even the next Tadej Pogacar?

"I think the biggest talent of this group is Albert Withen Philipsen," Bruyneel assesses. He is a multiple world champion in various disciplines and showed some really good things in the Tour Down Under and won the youth classification. The figures of this boy are absurd and the way he races is also very impressive. I expect that we will see him at the front a lot this year."