Junior world champion Lorenzo Finn makes a big step in his development in 2025, stepping up a level to the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe Rookies team. The 18-year-old Italian is in no rush to make the jump up to World Tour level just yet though.
"I think it's just been a natural step in the development, from last year being a junior and then having this development pathway up to the World Tour," explains Finn in conversation with Cycling News. "I wanted to have two years at under-23 to continue my development because I felt like making the jump straight to World Tour from the juniors was definitely not the right choice for me. We're not all like Remco."
Although the Italian is in no rush to emulate Remco Evenepoel's World Tour heroics, Finn's incredible World Championship solo in Zürich actually broke the Belgian's record for biggest winning margin at the Junior World Championship, proving his capabilities in a big way. "As I say, most juniors aren't like Remco, so I see some juniors going straight to World Tour and ask myself if that's the right choice," he adds with maturity. "But I mainly just try focusing on myself and I think for me, this is right. Maybe for them, it will work."
Although he's not yet part of the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe first team squad, Finn has had a chance to meet and ride alongside his teammates at their December training camp. "It's definitely been amazing. We're just like part of the team. Also, coming from the juniors, I still felt like we were in the environment, but especially this year, we just feel like part of the World Tour team, basically, just a different calendar," he says of the experience. "Even just being at dinner with the World Tour guys is really cool. It should make the step to World Tour a lot easier when hopefully, eventually it will come. I'll have two years in the under-23 team and then obviously, the ideal plan will be to go World Tour after that. Hopefully, that's how it goes."
"I could be described as a GC climber but it's hard to know when you're young. The races are a lot shorter than the pros but I think I'm pretty good in one-day races. I like a hard hilly one-day race on a Liège type of parcours, and I like stage races, you know, as well as climbing days. Hopefully, I'll develop into a climbing GC talent but it might be too early to say," Finn continues, noting some of his upcoming goals. "For sure, the baby Giro especially with it being in Italy. But yeah, they're both amazing races that I will do with the team. There are also some one-day races I'm looking forward to but those two are the big, big targets."