Velon takes a look at 10 young, up-and-coming riders who will move into the UCI WorldTour in 2020.
João Almeida
Age: 21
Nationality: Portuguese
Team joining: Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Almeida is an all-rounder who has been one of the most promising under-23 talents of the past two years. In 2018 he won the under-23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege and then finished second at the under-23 Giro d’Italia and seventh at the Tour de l’Avenir, which is effectively the under-23 Tour de France. In 2019 he focused more on senior races and impressed in particular at the Tour of Utah, where he finished fourth overall. Almeida’s impressive results have been rewarded with a two-year deal at Deceuninck – Quick-Step.
João Almeida is heading to Deceuninck - Quick-Step (Getty Images)
Andres Camilo Ardila
Age: 20
Nationality: Colombian
Team joining: UAE Team Emirates
Nairo Quintana, Esteban Chaves, Miguel Angel Lopez, Egan Bernal, Ivan Ramiro Sosa – next off the seemingly endless production line of Colombian climbing talent comes Ardila, who dominated the 2019 under-23 Giro d’Italia by winning two stages and the overall title by a commanding 4min 10sec. UAE Team Emirates were already in talks with him by then and subsequently signed him up to a four-year deal.
Andrea Bagioli
Age: 20
Nationality: Italian
Team joining: Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Bagioli is a climber who can turn his hand to both one-day and stage races. On the one-day scene, he finished second and then first in the last two editions of the under-23 Il Lombardia, and also finished runner-up at the under-23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2018 (behind Almeida). In multi-day races, Bagioli’s stand-out performance was at the 2019 Ronde de l’Isard in France, where he won two stages and the overall title. He will now join Almeida by turning pro with Deceuninck – Quick-Step in 2020, also on a two-year deal.
Stefan Bissegger
Age: 21
Nationality: Swiss
Team joining: EF Education First Pro Cycling
2020 is going to be huge year for Bissegger, who will aim to win a medal in the team pursuit on the track for Switzerland at the Tokyo Olympics before turning pro on the road with EF Education First Pro Cycling on August 1. Bissegger caught the attention of the American team after a string of early-2019 victories at the New Zealand Classic, Tour du Jura Cicliste and then, most impressive of all, in a sprint against established pros at the Tour de l’Ain. Victory in the Swiss under-23 time-trial championship, a stage win at the Tour de l’Avenir and a silver medal in the world under-23 road race in Yorkshire confirmed EF had snapped up a gem. Bissegger specialises in time trials and sprints – “the harder the better”, he says.
Stefan Bissegger (front) on his way to finishing second in the men’s under-23 World Championship road race in Yorkshire (Getty Images)
Mikkel Bjerg
Age: 21
Nationality: Danish
Team joining: UAE Team Emirates
Bjerg is the next big thing in time-trialling, an heir to the likes of Rohan Dennis, Tom Dumoulin and Tony Martin. He won the under-23 world time-trial title in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and before that finished second in the junior version in 2016. He also holds the third fastest time for the Hour Record, bettered only by current holder Victor Campenaerts and Sir Bradley Wiggins. Bjerg has signed a three-year deal with UAE Team Emirates.
Mikkel Bjerg is a three-time under-23 world time trial champion (Getty Images)
Alberto Dainese
Age: 21
Nationality: Italian
Team joining: Team Sunweb
Dainese was one of the most prolific sprinters in the under-23 ranks in 2019, the most prestigious of his seven victories being the under-23 European Championship road race in the Netherlands in the summer. Dainese can also get over short, punchy climbs, so his talents stretch beyond mere flat days. Team Sunweb have signed him up to a two-year deal.
Alberto Dainese is the European under-23 road race champion (Getty Images)
Tobias Foss
Age: 22
Nationality: Norwegian
Team joining: Team Jumbo-Visma
Foss is one of the most promising up-and-coming talents in cycling and has enjoyed a stellar year in 2019, featuring prominently in both stage races and one-day Classics in the spring before going on to win the prestigious Tour de l’Avenir in August. He can climb and time trial and has been recruited by Team Jumbo-Visma on a two-year deal.
Tobias Foss (right) won the prestigious Tour de l’Avenir in 2019 (Getty Images)
Quinn Simmons
Age: 18
Nationality: American
Team joining: Trek-Segafredo
Deceuninck – Quick-Step and Remco Evenepoel showed in 2019 that it’s possible for a teenage rider to jump direct from the juniors to the senior ranks and flourish, so Trek-Segafredo have decided to test out the theory too by signing the 18-year-old American prodigy Simmons. Already being dubbed ‘The New Evenepoel’ by the cycling media, Simmons dominated the junior scene in 2019 just as Evenepoel had in 2018, winning on 10 of his 21 race days with a mix of virtuoso solo efforts and powerful time-trialling. His biggest triumph was in the junior men’s road race at the World Championships in Yorkshire, where he went solo - in Evenepoel-esque fashion - with more than 30km still to race and won by 56 seconds. Simmons is a budding Classics rider and will now move to Belgium to begin a journey that both he and Trek-Segafredo hope will end with a raft of Monument wins.
Quinn Simmons is heading direct to the WorldTour from the junior ranks (Getty Images)
Mauri Vansevenant
Age: 20
Nationality: Belgian
Team joining: Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Vansevenant is yet another exciting young talent making his way to Deceuninck – Quick-Step in 2020, although he won’t officially join until July, after he finishes studying at university. Vansevenant is a climber who is particularly at home in stages races, which he showed by winning the 2019 Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta Mont Blanc and then finishing sixth at the Tour de l’Avenir. Vansevenant has signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with the Belgian team.
Georg Zimmerman
Age: 22
Nationality: German
Team joining: CCC Team
Zimmerman describes himself as being best-suited to one-day races and proved as much with wins at the Trofeo Piva and Coppa della Pace in Italy in 2019, the former by a huge margin of 1min 42sec. However, the 22-year-old also showed himself to be a stand-out stage racer when he won the mountains classification at the Tour of Austria, finished in the top five in the youth classification at both the Tour of the Alps and Tour de l’Ain, and then finished fifth overall at the Tour de l’Avenir. Zimmerman will join CCC Team from Tirol KTM Cycling Team on a two-year neo-pro contract.