The 12 biggest breakthrough riders of 2025

Even in a era at times dominated by superstars like Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, cycling always has room for new talents to rise to the top.

For some in the peloton, it's been about turning a corner and reaching new heights, while others have broke through at the first attempt, as neo-pros finding their way in the upper echelons of cycling.

Breakthroughs take on different forms, with a first professional victory, a best-ever GC finish or a consistent run of performances all possibly constituting a step up in performance, and this list shows that with a mix of now-established stars and those on a rapid rise.

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Cyclingnews has taken a look back from the Tour Down Under in January, right the way through to the Tour of Guangxi in October to see who we thought had made a name for themselves most in the 2025 season.

Here are our top 12 breakthrough riders of 2025:

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Isaac del Toro actually made this list last year but if we thought 2024 was a break-out year for the young Mexican, we weren't ready for what we were going to achieve in 2025, which was another huge step up worthy of celebrating again.

From looking like a solid talent last year, this year Del Toro almost won a Grand Tour, stepped into the top riders at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and tallied 16 victories during the season, plus a bonus two at the revived national championships in Mexico. That was more than just confirmation of the potential he showed last year – it was a breakthrough to a completely new level.

In 2026, it's hard to predict exactly what will be on the cards for Del Toro, but it isn't inconceivable that he might get a proper shot at a Grand Tour campaign – rather than accidentally finding himself the leader halfway through as happened at the Giro d'Italia – but at the very least he should be given more opportunities in week-long stage races, as GC racing is clearly in his future. [MP]

Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ)

To say Maëva Squiban came from nowhere in 2025 would be disingenuous, as she had already won bike races as a professional at the Tour de l'Ardèche and Extremadura Feminas, alongside finishing second on a Tour de France Femmes stage last season from the break.

But what the young French rider did on her third appearance at her home Grand Tour was nothing short of remarkable in 2025, soaring to two memorable solo victories in a row on stages 6 and 7, first from the GC group and then out of a breakaway, before also helping teammate Dominika Włodarczyk to fourth overall.

Squiban sent the French fans into frenzy who lined the roads in Ambert and Chambéry, bringing France their second and third ever stage wins at the Tour de France Femmes. But it also showed just how dangerous she can be – as an attacker or from a breakaway – with the necessary time trialling and descending skills to keep her away from any would-be chasers.

Her breakthrough may have gained her more fame and riders will certainly try to not let her go after what she did at the Tour, but she may simply be too strong for them by the time she develops into her mid and late twenties. [JM]

Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL)

Oscar Onley is a rider who has shown a lot of potential and talent for some time now, so didn't totally burst onto the scene from nowhere in 2025, but he did take huge leaps in his progression, jumping from possible GC contender to a confirmed one. In what was only his third Grand Tour ever, the Scottish rider finished fourth in this year's Tour de France, after a supremely impressive ride that saw him as one of the few riders who could be at the level of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.

For young riders who are touted as GC talents, development is often very tempered, with likely some setbacks along the way, so to ride to fourth at just 23, against such a strong field, was the definition of a breakthrough, as he broke his way into the upper echelon of GC riders. The question for Onley is how he maintains and improves on this level, to prove 2025 wasn't any kind of fluke, but with the belief he has behind him, he's certainly on the right path. [MP]

Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ)

Upsetting the established elite core of GC riders in the women's peloton is a hard enough jobs for the fastest rising talents at any race, but what Dominika Włodarczyk managed to do in 2025 was do exactly that, and at the biggest stage race on the calendar no less – the Tour de France Femmes.

After sitting 15th after five stages, Włodarczyk only got better as the racing got harder and headed into the higher mountains, netting stage results of fifth, fifth, seventh and fifth on the final four days of racing which amounted to fourth overall, only behind overall winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and two former yellow jersey winners, Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney.

Not only was this outstanding on its own, but this was the 24-year-old Polish rider's debut at the French Grand Tour, proving the potential she has a GC racer and just how deadly a combination UAE Team ADQ can have in years to come with her, Squiban, Elisa Longo Borghini and several other rising talents.

The rest of her results throughout 2025 aren't nearly as impressive, but the level she reached to finish fourth at the toughest stage race proves just how big a breakthrough the Polish rider has made. [JM]

Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)

This list was always going to include Paul Seixas, after the quite outrageous neo-pro season he's enjoyed with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, much of which he raced as an 18-year-old, and he's perhaps placed himself as the top prospect in cycling as a result.

Stepping up from the French squad's development team early, Seixas had significant pressure on his shoulders, with one of cycling's top nations desperately looking for their next GC superstar and his talents seeming to fit the bill.

A crash at the UAE Tour got things off to a rocky start in February, but Seixas soon got back in a groove at the Tour of the Alps, twice finishing as a stage runner-up, but it was at the Critérium du Dauphiné where he fully came to life, finishing eighth on GC against a stacked field led by Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Seixas proved he was ready, but his team, wisely, didn't rush him into a Tour de France debut, instead allowing him to build up carefully for overall victory at the Tour de l'Avenir. He followed this up with more ridiculous results, finishing in the top 16 of both the elite road race and ITT at Worlds in Rwanda, before finishing on the podium of the European Championships, only losing out to Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel.

With this in the bag, his seventh-place finish at Il Lombardia wasn't as surprising, but just capped off what was one of the most impressive neo-pro seasons in recent memory. [JM]

Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)

2025 was Isabella Holmgren's second year in the WorldTour, but a much fuller road season than in 2024, where she was still balancing a lot of mountain biking. She did still ride MTB this year, though, which makes it all the more impressive that she was able to achieve what she did on the road. Holmgren's crowning achievement was surely her overall victory at the Tour de l'Avenir, where she dominated to win three stages and the yellow jersey, but it's her consistency in elite races that really cemented her breakthrough.

The 20-year-old kicked off the year with victory at the Durango Durango one-day race in Spain, and followed that with a good Tour de Suisse and a great Giro d'Italia, finishing seventh overall with three top 10s across the week, including third atop Monte Nerone. Though she was second at l'Avenir last year, we've been waiting to see how that might translate to elite stage races, and she answered that clearly this year: she's definitely going to be a serious GC contender in years to come. Her win at Durango, fourth at the Giro dell'Emilia, and becoming double World Champion on the mountain bike shows she's no slouch in a punchier race, either. [MP]

Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Just as Britain's and cycling's best-ever sprinter, Mark Cavendish, retired at the end of 2024, along came a new fast men for the Brits to root for, and a very good one at that – Matthew Brennan – with the Darlington-born rider hitting the ground running in his first WorldTour season.

Brennan stepped up from Visma-Lease a BIke's development team, having impressed as a Baby Giro stage winner and Classics prospect, but even the Dutch team couldn't have been expecting the immediate success Brennan would bring.

He only had to wait nine days until he'd won a race and just more than a week later, he'd already taken a professional victory at the GP de Denain, which he then backed up with a maiden WorldTour stage win at the Volta a Catalunya's opening stage, also taking home the fifth stage.

The winning only continued for Brennan, at the Tour de Romandie, Rund um Köln, Tour of Norway, Tour de Pologne, Deutschland Tour and finally his home Tour of Britain. He racked up 12 pro wins at a rate a knots and only seemed to be getting stronger and more versatile as the year went on – a huge success for Visma and a new sprint/Classics hope to rally around. [JM]

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ)

Sprinting in the women's peloton was the domain of one woman this year – Lorena Wiebes – but if you were watching closely, you would have noticed a certain Irish rider bursting into the top five on many occasions, and showing her Classics strength, too. That rider is UAE Team ADQ's Lara Gillespie. She stepped up from the team's development squad last June, and has been on a rapid ascension, bringing her speed from the track into the road to some impressive results.

In the first two months of this season, she racked up eight top 10s in big races, including second at Omloop van het Hageland, third at Le Samyn and third at Nokere Koerse, all tough sprinters' Classics. She then rounded out her spring with fifth at Brugge-De Panne and sixth at Gent-Wevelgem, pretty hardy results.

In the summer, she made her Tour de France Femmes debut, taking third on one sprint stage, and after a year of maybes she finally grabbed her first win of the season at A Travers les Hauts de France. It was then two more second places at La Choralis Fourmies Féminine and Binche-Chimay-Binche, both behind Lorena Wiebes.

Though sprinters thrive on wins, and Gillespie only scored one this year, to be going up against Wiebes is a huge indicator of ability, and she arguably sprinted better than names like Elisa Balsamo this year, so should definitely be considered among the upper echelon of sprinters in 2026. [MP]

Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ)

Frenchman Romain Grégoire is a rider who perhaps doesn't have the mainstream buzz and excitement around his name that other riders on this list have, but he's definitely a rider you should be aware of. Hype has been brewing around Grégoire for a while, but in 2025 he really confirmed his talent, taking consistently good results instead of just the odd success like he did last year, and improving his stage racing record, too.

His year began with winning the youth classification and finishing fourth overall at the Volta ao Algarve, then winning the Faun-Ardèche Classic, and the results really just kept coming, with two seventh places in the Ardennes Classics, a stage win and two top fives at the Tour de Suisse, a well-earned Tour de France debut, and then overall victory at the Tour of Britain Men. He capped off his season with 10th at Euros, and a top 10 at the Giro del Veneto.

Given how much Grégoire always seemed to be in the action, it's actually a wonder he didn't win more this year, but he has certainly established himself as one of the foremost puncheurs in the peloton, built in the mould of his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe, and definitely a name to keep an eye on. [MP]

Viktória Chladoňová (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Viktória Chladoňová may have been one of a very talented group of juniors who stepped straight up to the Women's WorldTour in 2025, but she perhaps wasn't expected to be as instantly impressive as the likes of Cat Ferguson or Célia Gery.

In spite of that, the still 18-year-old has more than proved she was ready for the jump to cycling's top division at Visma-Lease a Bike, and looks set to be one of the Dutch team's top climbers in future.

While she supported several others' GC ambitions throughout the year, such as Eva van Agt, Femke de Vries and Pauline-Ferrand Prévot, Chladoňová also won the best young rider's jersey at the Tour of Norway and finished third in the same classification at the Giro.

Her highlight, however, came from home races in Slovakia, and completing the double at nationals means she will be donning both the elite road race and time trial jerseys in 2026. She also impressed at the World Champinships in Rwanda, where as one of only two 18-year-old's racing in the under-23s, Chladoňová finished as runner-up to both Zoe Bäckstedt and Géry in the TT and road race. [JM]

Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep)

You could argue that Paul Magnier had his breakthrough last season while debuting in the WorldTour for Soudal-QuickStep, but something has to be said of his jump up from five victories to 19 in a season – the second most of any men's rider behind only Tadej Pogačar in 2025.

Magnier was a very good neo-pro, who showed great promise as a sprinter and Classics hope, but he made it seems all the more likely with his step up in quality this past season, dominating several stage races and scoring his first WorldTour win at the Tour de Pologne.

The young Frenchman struggled through a Giro d'Italia debut and endured something of a Grand Tour reality check, but after this and into the final few months of the season, Magnier became seemingly unbeatable at times.

Magnier dominated the Tour of Slovakia and the CRO Race, taking four out of five stage wins at each, before he headed to the WorldTour season finale in Guangxi and absolutely destroyed the opposition, winning all five sprint stages and only losing on the Queen stage, which was much too difficult for a rider of his characteristics.

With Remco Evenepoel departing and Magnier stepping up already, he's ready to lead the Belgian team, along with the likes of Tim Merlier and Jasper Stuyven, into the toughest one-day Classics and the sprints where the Belgian side used to be a dominant force. [JM]

Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ)

Paula Blasi is a rider I've been banging on about all year, and a name that did seem to come from nowhere to some big results pretty quickly, including a maiden WorldTour win and a European title. Starting the year on the UAE Team ADQ development team, Blasi impressed her employers pretty quickly, and was moved up to the WorldTour team officially in March after racing for them in the first part of the year. She took a string of top 10s in the spring, plus wins at the Gran Premio della Liberazione and the Pointe du Raz Ladies Classic, showing some real grit, strength and aggressive racing.

In the summer, she missed out on the Tour team, but picked up a win at La Périgord Ladies instead, and then won the opening time trial of the Tour de Romandie, albeit in strange conditions given five teams had been disqualified, but a win nonetheless. She went on to finish fourth overall there after a consistent three days, then sixth overall at Tour de l'Avenir. She also took third in the inaugural under-23 road race at World Championships, before turning that into a win at the same event at European Championships.

Blasi had the definition of a breakout year, in many ways, starting the year as an unknown straight out of the club ranks, and ending it with some seriously good results to her name and firmly in many people's radars as one of the riders to watch next year. [MP]

Honourable mentions

At 26, Monica Trinca Colonel has made a huge leap, up to a consistent contender in the Women's WorldTour and a rider to watch every time she takes a start. Seventh at the Vuelta España Femenina, Trinca Colonel also finished eighth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, but also finished fourth on GC at the UAE Tour and broke through to her first pro win and first GC win at the Tour de l'Ardèche.

Tom Pidcock has little room on a list like this, given his multi-disciplinary talents and the high-profile wins he already has, but his Vuelta a España podium finish can be described as little other than a massive breakthrough after struggling to progress as a GC rider in recent years.

In April, Paul Seixas 'gifted' a win at the Tour of the Alps to Nicolas Prodhomme, reasoning that his teammate has never won as a pro before, and might not get the chance again. In fact, that win opened the floodgates for Prodhomme, who has been grinding away for some time – he's 28 – and he took five more wins in 2025, including a stage of the Giro. From no pro wins to a regular victor? Now that's a breakthrough.

If you look beyond the Women's WorldTour, Lauren Dickson really stands out as a rider who shone this year, and has earned herself a contract with FDJ-Suez as a reward for a string of top results in 1.1 races this year. If her steep upward progression continues, 2026 could be her breakout year.

Ben Turner is probably one of the oldest riders we considered for this list, but had a real step up this year, building on several seasons of consistency and progression to take some very impressive wins, including a surprise sprint victory at the Vuelta a España in front of none other than Jasper Philipsen. With added confidence and proven ability, we should see more from Turner next year.

With everything else going on at QuickStep, including Evenepoel's departure and Merlier and Magnier's big win haul, it would be easy to forget about Junior Lecerf, but we shouldn't. He was an important teammate for Evenepoel earlier in the year, and then showed his own stage racing ability in the second half, climbing to 11th overall at the Vuelta a España.

As is always the case, there are several others who could've had their spot on this list, such as Lukáš Kubiš, Albert Withen Philipsen or Christian Scaroni, having all taken significant jumps from their previous best in 2025.