Food for thought: things we’ve learned in the early season

It’s only just the middle of February, and the men’s cycling season so far has already served up a plate full of takeaways to digest. Come with me on this culinary journey to discover who has been spicy and who needs extra seasoning; which teams have taken the biggest helping of wins and which are still holding out their empty bowl, begging ‘please sir, can I have some more?’

Will I labour the extended food metaphor throughout the article? Probably. If it’s not to your taste, there’s a place across the street you can try but I heard the service is rubbish.

Appetiser: Freshly prepared young riders

Arnaud de Lie, Axel Laurance, Lenny Martinez, Lennert van Eetvelt… these are just a few of the young riders who’ve shone in the early season in recent years, grabbing their opportunity to launch themselves into the spotlight before the biggest names of the sport arrive back on the scene.

This early season has been no different. Young Spanish rider Iván Romeo dazzled with a stunning solo victory in Valenciana, proving that Movistar’s future is in safe hands – if they can keep hold of him, of course. A powerful rider with excellent skill and a proven ability in time-trialling – he’s the reigning U23 world champion in the discipline – it's far too early to predict whether Romeo represents a viable possibility for Grand Tour GCs in the future, but the signs are promising.

Spain aren’t the only nation celebrating youth this early season. So too are the French, with junior ITT World Champion Paul Seixas. In his first professional race for the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, the rider from Lyon immediately delivered on the promise of his potential, delivering a swashbuckling performance at the GP la Marseillaise. The young Frenchman threw himself at the race in the final stages, attacking repeatedly, descending with daring and exhibiting the kind of panache that we’ve come to expect from men of his nationality. And not to be deterred once the breakaway was subsumed by the surging bunch, Seixas went on to finish fifth in the bunch sprint.

Another young rider who may easily have slipped under my radar if it wasn’t for me squinting at an Arkéa-B&B Hotels Instagram post is Embret Svestad-Bårdseng (don't blame me, it's hard enough to watch the Tour of Oman in the first place without waiting around to see who comes in fourth). Next in line of a spate of riders to issue from the Scandinavian nation, whose stock is rising fast in world cycling, Svestad-Bårdseng finished in 8^th position on GC at the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir, and flew under the radar right to the top of Green Mountain on the final stage at the Tour of Oman, a pretty impressive result given the company he was in. Given the situation at Arkéa, I don’t expect that he will stay with the team with whom he graduated from development level this year, for very long. He’s not the only young Norwegian who has impressed in the desert: Uno-X Mobility’s Johannes Kulset also finished fourth on a stage and won the youth jersey at the AlUla Tour. A really solid effort, and I can't wait to see how he performs over the course of the season.

Outside of these, Niklas Behrens for Visma-Lease A Bike, Tim Torn Teutenberg and Albert Within Philipsen for Lidl-Trek and have all looked good too.

POST-SCRIPT: Alan Hatherly. OK, he's 28, so not that fresh, but he’s new to top level road cycling so he gets a pass. The mountain-biking World Champion was second only to fellow MTB-er Tom Pidcock at the AlUla Tour, and with but Van Aert, van der Poel and Nys bringing the noise from the cyclocross field, once again it’s going to be all about the off-roaders this season.

Plat du Jour: French ups and downs (and ups, and some more downs)

Ah, the road travelled by a fan of French cycling is one littered with dashed hopes and broken dreams, and anyone would think we might learn from our choices and support Slovenians or something. But alas, this is path we have chosen, and it has its moments – last season’s Grand Tour stage wins for Julian Alaphilippe and Romain Bardet were two of the most beautiful moments of the season. The glory may be fleeting but when it arrives, it’s all the more gratifying.

David Gaudu is the perfect example of the capricious nature of the French climber at large, and he continues to frustrate and delight in equal measure. The former winner of the Tour de l’Avenir’s progress over the past few years has been non-linear to say the least, with bright spots and dark patches and moments of ‘yes, that’s it, do some more of that’ but mostly ‘where did he go?’ or ‘oh, dear.’ His valiant ride at the Tour of Oman perfectly encapsulates what’s great about supporting a French rider. His climbing style in itself is like a visual metaphor for his career – stop-start, all-in, and totally unpredictable. It was on full display as he dug deep to take the victory on stage 3, beating Adam Yates, who couldn’t be more different in terms of his physical form on the bike, and it was clear from his exhaustion afterwards that Gaudu had gone deep, and that’s why we love him – who doesn’t love a rider who empties the tank so viscerally and performatively? This is why we’re all still talking about Mathieu van der Poel’s epic ‘I was cold’ stage victory at Tirreno-Adriatico back in 2021.

Since then, MVDP has learned about pacing strategy and fuelling, but after his implosion in the final kilometre on Green Mountain which saw Gaudu lose the GC, his admission that he blew up was a reminder that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen him going well, until he wasn’t. Whether it’s down to Groupama-FDJ’s nutrition strategy or because he is one of the few riders left who seem to resist the shift towards riding to the numbers and continues to attack on instinct and go too far into the red, too often, is difficult to say.

Regardless, it won’t change my mind. For me, I’d rather see a rider seize an opportunity and fail 9 time out of 10, than watch a rider staring down at a power meter for 4 hours. Maybe that makes me an enemy of progress – after all, why shouldn’t athletes push themselves to find their very best performance possible, especially in an era where winning is harder than ever?

If there is a happy medium between the two schools of thought, then his name is Valentin Paret-Peintre. Having moved away from a French team to the Soudal-QuickStep set-up, the younger of the Brothers P-P seized his chance to impress on the final day in Oman, pacing his effort well yet still displaying verve and confidence, and he managed to ensure that Yates took away the GC without having won a stage, ensuring a consolation prize for anyone who wants to see a Frenchman win at all costs.

So what’s the answer? French riders at non-French teams? Or maybe Gaudu’s team just needs to feed him more often? (But not after midnight). Either way, with Alaphilippe at a new team, young riders such as Seixas, Magnier and Laurance lighting up races and Bardet retiring, French fans are guaranteed to have plenty more ups and downs to weather this season.

Side Dish: Team tapas

(A little bit of this, a little bit of that).

Which teams have scored so far this season? Bahrain-Victorious look as though after a few years of not quite having all the ingredients they needed, they have finally assembled a collection of youth and experience capable of challenging in Grand Tours for more than just the odd stage win. With quality teams from the likes of UAE Team Emirates and more vying for victory, Bahrain took control of the GC in Valenciana in the most classy and assured fashion. They rode stage 2 to perfection, ending up with two riders at the front of the race in the closing kilometres, Pello Bilbao waving off his younger teammate Santiago Buitrago up the road, from where he would eventually take a well-deserved victory. Buitrago is a rider who’s been developing steadily over the past few years and he will certainly have bigger teams paying close attention as the season develops.

While Bahrain have flourished, INEOS Grenadiers have floundered. Though they’ve been prominent in a number of races, they still appear to lack direction and conviction when it matters. Their plan at Valenciana was hard to decipher, and though they had two riders in a lead group of five at one point at the GP la Marseillaise, they lacked a decisive edge in the final sprint, leaving Axel Laurance adrift. They will be ruing the losses of Tom Pidcock and Jhonathan Narvaez, both of whom have taken victory at the first time of asking for their new teams, and they will hope to reverse their run of misses at the earliest possible opportunity, as it’s starting to get a bit awkward now to be honest.

When it comes to the battle for UCI points, Cofidis have the upper hand with a World Tour level victory thanks to Bryan Coquard’s strong performance at the Tour Down Under, a victory at GP de la Marseillaise with Valentin Ferron, and Dylan Teuns' strong second-place finish at Étoile de Bessèges, though Arkéa-B&B Hotels accrued a few points there too, thanks to Kévin Vauquelin delivering the goods and Arnaud Démare racking up two second place finishes. XDS Astana on the other hand have nothing to show for their numerous efforts so far, and are currently the lowest ranked World Tour team. Intermarché also haven’t yet won and EF Education-EasyPost have just one win thanks to Marijn van den Berg, and will hope for better from their core group pushing on into the season.

It's been a good start for Pro Teams too, with Marc Hirschi roaring out of the blocks for Tudor Pro Cycling (the team have also won with Rick Pluimers at the Muscat Classic), Tom Pidcock winning for Q36.5 Pro Cycling (along with Matteo Moschetti) and Iúri Leitão taking a surprise with for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA at the Trofeo Palma.

And what about Movistar? Let’s not put too fine a point on it: they’ve been a bit lacking for the past few years, haven’t they. While rays of hope shone in the shape of Alex Aranburu and latterly, Oier Lazkano, those delicious morsels have been gobbled up by rivals of the Spanish team; particularly galling given that they are homegrown talents.

Though they’ve had a few riders stand out in recent seasons – the likes of Einer Rubio, Ruben Guerreiro, and Pelayo Sanchez – beyond Mas, the team seem to lack individuals capable of delivering the consistency they require to re-establish themselves in the World Tour team pecking order.

So can Mas look forward to another season of bowing under the weight of carrying the entire team when it comes to stage races, or could there be some light at the end of the long, dark tunnel? Well, probably not, in the very near future. But watching as a neutral, I’d argue that it doesn’t overly matter, if they continue in their current pattern. Just as they did last season, this team are no longer content to make up the numbers. They were a constant threat at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, with several riders making waves including new signing Pablo Castrillo and the aforementioned Romeo, and another new signing, Javier Romo, made good on his promise taking a stage victory at the Tour Down Under, and with two wins already on the board, Movistar’s attacking flair could stand them in good stead this season both in terms of victories, and of winning the hearts of the fans.

Dessert: Calling it a Comeback, v2

I wrote about comebacks in a recent article and was immediately reminded that I’d forgotten to include Lennard Kämna, and vowed I’d make up for it. The young German suffered a training accident back in April 2024 and has been absent from the peloton ever since as he seeks to recover from the injuries he sustained. In the meantime, he transferred to Lidl-Trek who put their faith in him despite his setback, and we have yet to see him race in his new colours. This week, Kämna posted images of himself on the track, the road and the turbo trainer, in Lidl-Trek colours, preparing for the new season. Rumour has it he’ll begin his stint with the team at the Volta Catalunya in March, and it will be so great to see his refreshing, attacking style back on display, once he re-finds his feet and settles into his new environment.

Speaking of comebacks, Egan Bernal’s double win at the Colombian National Championships was cause for widespread celebration as cycling fans lauded the INEOS rider’s return to form which has been gradual but steady since his life-threatening accident in January 2022. INEOS will surely hope they can come to rely on their new national champion to shine in his new jerseys in 2025, as it’s been a torrid 7 months since their last UCI victory, at the Tour of Austria in July 2024.

If Bernal can come anywhere close to the kind of form that saw him clinch the Giro d’Italia in 2021, that really would be the cherry on top of this most excellent of cakes.