Ten riders to watch in 2026. Some are picked as tips for their raw talent, others to see what paths they will go down and the stories this tells about their teams and the sport.
Remco Evenepoel has moved to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe looking to improve, there’s no narrative of a change or a reset but outwardly going for better performance and improved results. The problem, to paraphrase Rik Verbrugghe the other day, is that he’s looking for those extra 5-10W but to out-climb Pogačar and Vingegaard day after day he needs a lot more. Plus moving teams doesn’t guarantee improvements, just ask Finn Fisher-Black, Dani Martinez, Laurence Pithie, Jan Tratnik and others who seem to have gathered dust after signing with the same team. Evenepoel ought to be different as he brings his entourage and the team is adapting to him but it’s a story to watch. All while Florian Lipowitz is quietly growing in stature and improving so seeing him and Evenepoel in action will be interesting and the media will be looking for morsels, especially given Evenepoel is charismatic and a polished media performer while “Lipo” is still working on his racecraft, let alone all the extras. In short a paradox where if Evenepoel can match his results in recent years it’s excellent but he and the team have raised the bar and probably no other rider gets the media scrutiny; you can go days or weeks without Pogačar being in the media but only hours in between articles in the Flemish press.
After Evenepoel, the uneven Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) who has the talent for big results but had a rough season last year. He now has a lot of weight on his shoulders as the stand-out rider on his team. They could have been relegated from the World Tour but were saved by Oscar Onley’s summer, itself underpinned by strong team support. What if Onley had crashed or been ill? Only play these counterfactuals and it’s just as likely Poole would not have crashed or fallen ill and so delivered results instead to save them. Perhaps not fourth in the Tour de France but other top-10s in stage races are achievable and having had a viral infection last year he is clear of this now and should start to get results and points this season. He’s down to do both the Giro and Vuelta and still aged 22 could feature in both if fortune goes his way but look for results in smaller races in between like the Tour of the Alps or Burgos.
Jan Christen (UAE) is young man in a hurry. He got roasted by his team mates for attacking in the Tour de Suisse last year but it’s probably a step too far to read Ayuso-levels of personal ambition clashing with team work and an impending divorce. That said would you bet big on him seeing out his contract until 2030? For now when and where can he get opportunities? The Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse would be ideal for a Swiss rider but they’re on Tadej Pogačar’s calendar so Christen will likely be on support duties. The team race a lot and so he’s likely to find opportunities in smaller races but converting this into results will require a little more patience, he’s often made moves that look good on TV but don’t last. He’s down for the Giro where he’ll be a key rider for João Almeida even as a grand tour debutant because if UAE want to topple Jonas Vingegaard then using multiple riders like Jay Vine, Adam Yates and even Christen is way to sap the Dane, both in May but also ahead of July too. But the difference with Vine and Yates is they and possibly we know the limit of their abilities, while Christen still has frontiers to explore.
Kévin Vauquelin is a useful signing for Ineos. But what sort of rider can he become? So far he’s at his best in short efforts, take the Flèche Wallonne were he was second behind Tadej Pogačar and he could have beaten João Almeida for a Tour de Suisse stage if he’d timed his sprint better. He’s good on 40-60 minute Alpine climbs but not the best but the Tour de France is a draw for any rider, ask Geraint Thomas who Vauquelin resembles in many ways but more so for Vauquelin after two successful editions, a stage win in his debut and a spell in the white jersey and 7th overall last summer. For now Vauquelin could deliver wins in week-long stage races in a way that Carlos Rodriguez or Thyman Arensman haven’t. The late signing of Oscar Onley complicates things as the Scot is another punchy type so an extra storyline to watch is the leadership and congestion on the team. He finished his 2025 season early with a broken ankle but the word is he’s fully recovered. Put simply yes he’s French and the Tour de France offers beaucoup incentives but his best hopes might be Paris-Nice, Itzulia or Pologne. A passing mention to another Arkéa recruit in Embret Svestad-Bårdseng who has the makings of a valuable mountain lieutenant or more.
Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) is a pick as a raw talent but how many opportunities will he get? Take the Giro last year when he was invaluable for Mads Pedersen’s win in Matera, guiding him into position and chasing down late moves but this meant he pulled over and Pedersen grabbed the glory. No larceny here though, just team work. But this display could be converted into winning races but it’s also just so useful for helping Pedersen and probably Thibau Nys who are proven to deliver already. So we’ll see if Vacek can find more chances or if he’s invaluable to the team. He got a win in the Tour de Wallonnie and should be a core part of their spring classics squad.
Matthew Brennan (Visma-LAB) got lucky last year. Not the wins in themselves, more that he wasn’t supposed to start the Volta a Catalunya only Jonas Vingegaard pulled out and grabbed the opportunity to win two stages. And he was probably drafted in here on the back of success in the GP de Denain which itself might have happened because Visma-LAB had other injuries and illness too. Other than that he’s already made cycling look easy and clinical. He’s an archetypal “new” sprinter, able to win bunch sprints but also handle the increasing number of climbs put into spice up the finish of races. Apparently he can sprint at the same power as Olav Kooij but he’s seven kilos lighter, handy in a sport where people go a long way to save 100g. He was also in the right place coming out of the Arenberg forest in Paris-Roubaix, impressive for a debut. Now the surprise factor is gone. Indeed he’s propelled into leadership – he was picked alongside Van Aert, Jorgenson, Vingegaard and Simon Yates to front their team kit release – what opportunities does he get? A full classics campaign alongside Van Aert and later on the Vuelta.
The best part Stage 6 in the Tour de France was the first two hours as wave after wave of riders tried to go clear. Many riders knew it took all the energy they had to make a move, only to see it brought back by others. But Ben Healy kept trying and with the help of team mates he had several goes. And then he won the stage. This ability to make the right move and then profit from it was repeated on Stage 10 when he got away and took the yellow jersey. So if the form is good then his EF team ought to be confident about pulling of wins here and there, they’ll think “if we execute our plan he can probably get a win” with confidence. Of course it’s not so easy but he does give the impression of being able to ride away from the field. Will this now range to going for GC in stage races? And if you’d bet on Healy to win on a hilly day (Tour Stage 9) does this mean his team mates are reduced to working as booster rockets to place him into the breakaway?
Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) ought to win some more races this year. His name stands out, plenty of vowels for a Dutchman but he takes his mother’s name and she has Italian heritage. But he’s as Dutch as a stroopwafel and consequently keen on cyclo-cross to the point where he said last year he could have joined DSM (now Picnic-PostNL) but they wanted him to race more on the road. Still he managed over 60 days of road racing last year and as much this time should see him among the results again. As first year pro he won a stage in the Tour of Turkiye last year but had a string of top-10s in other races and it should be possible to convert these into podiums and wins, especially as the tall Dutchman is able to hang in there during hectic times and then able to win a sprint.
He’s not the new Thibaut Pinot but Mathys Rondel (Tudor) has built a mini-farm in the Pyrenees to keep a menagerie of pet animals including Herta, a micro-pig as well as rabbits and goats. A former speed skater he’s crossed over into cycling and had a solid season last year including a top-10 in Romandie and was second to Adam Yates in the Trofeo Tessile & Moda, beaten on the Oropa climb by UAE’s numbers. If he can keep this up then more results will come and he’ll become useful to the team in the mountains alongside Michael Storer at times.
Just turned 21 Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-LAB) was on last year’s neo-pros to watch list. He should ride the Vuelta later this year. Simon Yates’ sudden retirement means the Norwegian might have more opportunities before then but the team are managing him carefully as their heir to Vingegaard so we’ll see what results are possible. All this matters because if he is a long term project then all the same at times this year there should be moments to glimpse the potential so look for him on long climbs and and selective moments in smaller races.
If that’s ten riders then a bonus: Tadej Pogačar. Too obvious? Sure but so central to the sport and therefore unavoidable. Only that’s what many teams trying do to: avoid him. Many are noting where Pogačar will be racing and making alternative plans for their leaders or their points scorers as he seems almost invincible, take the Flèche Wallonne where he didn’t get out of the saddle on the Mur de Huy. So more than ever it’ll matter if he’s at a race or not. Crowds might tune if he is, you might lick your lips to see who might win in his absence. Now his two big goals are arguably the two most elusive races: Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix can be lost in a moment with little chance to correct course. A fifth Tour de France feels inevitable but how certain can we and he really be about all of this given the glorious uncertainty of sport? When we come to rate his season it’ll be compared to 2024 and 2025 but he is set to race less, only 16 days prior to the Tour de France. This could mean fewer wins and makes the UAE team’s unspoken target of 100 wins harder.
As ever ten is reductive in a peloton of several hundred and that’s the men. This blog doesn’t follow women’s cycling enough to do another ten as but would lap up a piece about what awaits Marlen Reusser, Valentina Cavallar, Dominika Włodarczyk, Lotte Kopecky and more. Another ten men could feature… Paul Seixas‘s every move will be followed but that was too obvious a pick but let’s note the will he/won’t he ride the Tour is a saga, the thing to look out for his how he fares among his peers and to what extent can Decathlon-CMA CGM win with Olav Kooij instead, including a coveted Tour de France stage; but look out for Tobias Lund too. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) too felt like too obvious a story, a big transfer move but the money riding on it means results are expected. Paul Magnier becoming the central rider at Soudal-Quickstep is a story to watch but his versatility and “new” sprinter label were sort of covered by Brennan above. Romain Grégoire is a world class rider but how to become a dominant in a niche, all while his Groupama-FDJ team are increasingly dependent on him. Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) delivered wins and points for his team, now will he the team’s top riders want to aim for bigger races or do they focus on points hunting? After his Vuelta podium is Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) going to the Tour with GC ambitions of a top-5 or would he prefer to race for stage wins, and before you attempt to answer the question remember a GC contender typically several million more reasons to aim for a podium than pick off stages. Fifth in the Dauphiné, sixth in the Tour, what can Tobias Halland Johannessen do with Uno-X in the World Tour? Cofidis got relegated and maybe now there’s less pressure riders will be more at ease and let’s see what Milan Fretin can do in the classics for them.