The Italian Under 23 world champion, the Frenchman 7th at Lombardia, the Belgian king of Europe: here are the “born ready” heirs of Tadej
Paul Seixas is the one going fastest: he turned 19 on 24 September, recently bronzed at the European Championship for adults and seventh at the Lombardia, the youngest to finish a Monument in the top-ten since 1917. But Lorenzo Finn defends himself: he will turn 19 on 19 December, meanwhile in 12 months he won the Junior and Under 23 World Championships despite none of those at the start being born after him. And Jarno Widar isn’t joking: he was born in 2005 – on November 13th he will be 20 years old – and he has had a little more time to string together pearls such as the European Championship and the Liège Under 23 in 2025, but also the Giro d’Italia Next Gen (2024). They represent France, Italy, Belgium. And somehow they are already booking the post-Tadej Pogacar season, even if it is a statement that must be made with all the necessary caution. They are not the only ones: as a new pro, the British Matthew Brennan (Visma, born in 2005) has won 12 races this year – he is a powerful sprinter – and the Danish Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek, 2006) in the last week was on the podium of the Tre Valli Varesine – 2nd – and of the Parigi-Tours, 3rd. But those three are getting more attention at the moment.
flashes
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Lorenzo Finn is complete, he is not afraid to attack and keeps his feet on the ground. The Red Bull academy took him on and seems to be developing him in the right way: in 2026, for the Ligurian, one more season among the Under 23s before the leap to the big boys. He achieved his world championship successes by dominating, but he didn’t disfigure himself even when he raced with the pros: at the Giro di Reggio Calabria, held in the blue jersey, he finished third. And the prophet Elia Viviani, his companion for a day, exclaimed: “This is a runner.” While the coach of the Under 23s, Marino Amadori, when he saw him unleashed on the attack in the Memorial Pantani 13 days before the world championship success in Africa, had to suggest he calm down…
Expectations
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For Paul Seixas it will not be easy to keep the expectations of the French at bay, who have not won the Tour de France since 1985 (Bernard Hinault’s fifth in a row). The former Thibaut Pinot pointed out that “at 19, Pogacar probably wasn’t that strong”, which obviously, however, doesn’t give any kind of guarantee. Seixas can only dream of winning the Tour, meanwhile with Decathlon in 2026 he will make his debut in a grand tour (we still don’t know which one) and this year at the Dauphiné he finished eighth. Pogacar is a model to follow, not only in his racing style but in his character, “for how he remains humble and respects his opponents”.
Grit
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Jarno Widar has character. At the World Championship, on Lorenzo Finn’s day, he had disappointed: 34th. A week later, against more or less the same opponents, he outpaced everyone at the European Championship. Lotto has locked him down until 2027, and at this year’s Tour de l’Avenir on the Tignes climb he took away a climbing record from Tadej Pogacar. Like Finn and Seixas, Jarno does not choose between grand tours and classics and has already been able to recover from disappointments such as that of the Giro Next Gen 2025, when he crashed: among other things, the winner of the squad was Jakob Omrzel, born in 2006 and Slovenian like Pogacar, ready to make the leap to the greats with Bahrain. Another name to keep in mind, because all these guys are young, strong, hungry. “Born ready”, they say now.
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