Tour de l'Avenir format change could leave Italy and other big nations without an invitation

The biggest under-23 stage race on calendar will drastically change its format from 2026 onwards. No longer part of the cancelled Nations Cup series, the Tour de l'Avenir will, for the first time in its modern history, welcome commercial teams alongside national selections. This will come as a great news for some riders who wouldn't make the cut for their national teams in old system, but indirectly implicates that some national teams will no longer acquire an invitation this year.

"The change in the Tour de l'Avenir's participation rules is fully in line with the reality of modern professional cycling," the organizers write. "As a result of the UCI's reform of professional cycling, professional teams are increasingly investing in the development of (very) young riders by establishing training teams."

Furthermore, ten invitations have already been allocated for World and Pro team development squads. This involves the under-23 structures of Visma | Lease a Bike, UAE Team Emirates, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, Picnic PostNL, INEOS Grenadiers, Bahrain - Victorious, Soudal - Quick-Step, EF Education-EasyPost, Lidl-Trek and Tudor Pro Cycling.

In 2025, 26 national teams and the mixed team of World Cycling Centre lined up for Tour de l'Avenir. Now it's already clear that many of the federations will not be back for the 2026 editions and more than one third of the spots are already taken.

Italy, among many other nations could be among those who no longer find their spot for the race. With their biggest talents racing for the invited development teams (in particular Lorenzo Finn and Davide Donati at Red Bull Rookies), the organizing party might choose to prioritize other countries.

Marino Amadori, the long-time coach of the Italian U23 team, was already aware of the change. He spoke about it in an interview with Bici.Pro. "This year, the Tour de l'Avenir will be a mixed event: reserved for teams and national teams," he pointed out. "The best riders in our country will compete as part of a team."

Without the reigning under-23 world champion Finn, the Italian team would be notably weakened. And while that is a big setback for Amadori, he accepts the outcome. "It's clear that if the best riders compete for their youth teams, it will be difficult for us to compete. Therefore, we are not expected to participate as a national team."

In 2025, Finn came fourth overall in the mini-Tour, losing to some of the finest GC talents in the peloton; Paul Seixas, Jarno Widar and Jorgen Nordhagen. But all three are expected to focus on their WorldTour responsibilities this year, thus not participating in Avenir, leaving the throne open for the Italian.

If Finn were to win the 2026 Tour de l'Avenir, he'd become the first Italian to do so since 1973 when Gianbattista Baronchelli, a two-time Giro d'Italia runner-up won the race.

While we'll only learn throughout the year who the most serious contenders for overall victory will be, we can already expect the 6th overall Mateo Pablo Ramírez (Ecuador, UAE Gen Z) and 11th overall and world championship runner-up Jan Huber (Switzerland, Tudor U23) to be Finn's big challengers for the prestigious title.