Top teams attempt to lure away the supertalent Jarno Widar from Lotto Dstny where he seems unhappy

The 2005 class seems to be filled with extremely talented climbers and among them the youngest (but perhaps also most talented) is the little guy Jarno Widar.

The winner of Giro Next Gen entered the Tour de l'Avenir as an overwhelming favourite for victory, especially since main challenger AJ August seemed out of gas and lost a lot of time in the first mountain stage, while the other wonderkid Jørgen Nordhagen didn't even make an appearance with Norway opting not to send a team this year.

Things seemed to be in moving in the right direction despite not stage wins slipping through Widar's fingers as he sat second overall with two days left and the queen stage yet to come. However the attack of other favourites on the relatively "easy" stage passing Col du Mont-Cenis caught Widar off guard and the Belgian lost a lot of time after which completely collapsed on the very next day on the brutal Colle delle Finestre, losing 28 minutes.

After the race finished, the disappointed Widar made quite a statement at DirectVelo, accusing his team Lotto Dstny of messing up his season to the point that he collapsed at Avenir: "I've ridden too many races. I told the team two months ago that I'm riding too many races, but they didn't listen to me..."

Previously it had been taken for granted that Widar would connect his future with the Belgian formation for next years, making the step up to main team either in 2025 or 2026. But that future doesn't seem so certain anymore.

When there's a blood, there're sharks

Widar is one of the gems of the Belgian cycling and many teams would like to bet their future on the services of the 18-year-old talent who has previously matched Tadej Pogacar's record on La Redoute this spring. According to Het Belang van Limburg, there seem to be four teams ringing up Widar agent's phone.

Leading the hunt for Widar seems to be Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. The team has recently declared its intention to build a team that can win Tour de France, regardless of what it takes. And getting the talented climber, who very much resembles Tadej Pogacar, on board is definitely a step in the right direction.

Another teams in the contention seem to be Lidl-Trek, UAE Team Emirates (of course) and Alpecin-Deceuninck.