Outshining established players, mid-season promotions and Grand Tour victories – Taking a closer look at 10 stand-out neo-pros of 2026

The first year as a professional cyclist is often one of finding a footing in the intensely competitive pelotons, where the dream of being paid to race a bike can become a brutal reality. There are some, however, that do just more than learn and survive in that first year – they step up to the challenge and thrive.

Some neo-pros entered the 2026 season with the weight of expectation already on their shoulders, such as Jarno Widar and Jakob Omrzel after steadily laying foundations and building blocks via years of racing in Europe through the junior and U23 ranks, accumulating results that put them in the spotlight along the way.

Others took a more unconventional path, such as Sandrine Tas, Lennart Jasch and Lauren Dickson, starting out in another sport and then discovering a talent for cycling later on. Then there are those, like Jasch and Talia Appleton, who at the start of the season were actually not yet even neo-pros but made such a splash in the development teams that a mid-season promotion to the next tier came early.

From the surprise breakthroughs to the long watched new stars of the professional peloton, we take a look at the achievements and path of 10 riders who have made such a big mark in their first season as a professional that it seems likely you'll be hearing about them on an increasingly regular basis through coming seasons.

Lennart Jasch (Tudor Pro Cycling)

This German rider wasn't on anyone's radar as one of the neo-pro's to watch at the start of this year for one simple reason, at that point he was still listed on the Tudor Pro Cycling development team roster.

Lennart Jasch came to cycling late, coming from speedskating, but has been quick to make a big impression since he signed up with a regional cycling team in 2024. After a year with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies in 2025, Jasch made his potential crystal clear at the 2.Pro ranked Tour of the Alps when, having stepped up to take on an event with the senior team, he claimed victory on stage 4 from among a field packed with WorldTour riders. Not surprisingly after that he was quickly bumped up to that squad for the rest of the season. That, however, is not where his winning run ended with a stage win at Il Giro d'Abruzzo to prove his early season efforts were no fluke.

That left him heading into his final stage race of the season with what he said was 'absolutely no pressure' but undoubtedly a big opportunity. The newcomer to the world of cycling who had only just stepped up into the ProTeam level was being given a chance to take on a general classification tilt as team leader at Le Tour de Langkawi with the pre-race objective outlined as his team being a top five overall. He well and truly overshot that goal.

After the very first climbing challenge to Gunung Jerai on stage 2, Jasch was already in the overall lead with a 20 second margin, though other teams had multiple options lining up behind. There were no shortage of attempts to find ways to wear down the leader, but even as the temperature of the competition and environment continued to rise, Jasch kept a cool head. He displayed the patience and composure that many far more experienced players often find it hard to muster. Plus, while he was prepared to rely on his team, Jasch was also ready to take responsibility for jumping on a dangerous move and could also finish off the team effort in a way that meant he could not only hold onto, but also add to, his leading margin. It was a race that Jasch said would provide a 'first answer' as to how he may fare as a GC rider and that first answer is one that is bound to make his rivals sit up and take notice.

Sandrine Tas (Lotto–Intermarché Ladies)

Sticking to the theme of skaters turned cyclists, let's take a look at Sandrine Tas. The 31-year-old this year turned a childhood passion and one time training tool into a profession this year. Tas switched from the ice to the road with her debut at this year's La Flèche Wallonne just months after competing in the speedskating at the Winter Olympics.

She had already made her cycling capabilities clear, coming eighth in the elite women's road race at the Belgian National Championships in 2025 and also winning two national level races. However, the first real test was launching into the professional peloton in the tough and talent packed one-day Women's WorldTour race, and Tas came through it with flying colours. She finished 57th, 3:35 off the winning time of Demi Vollering in a showing that clearly demonstrated an ability to manage the chaos of a top-tier peloton.

What's more, on just her sixth race day in the professional peloton the first win came on stage 1 of the Bretagne Ladies Tour. Then she followed it up with another on stage 3 which landed her in second overall at the three day 2.1 tour. A win, let alone two in a first season as a professional, is an impressive beginning, though more podium appearances and a Tour de France Femmes start were yet to come. In fact Tas even managed another top step before the season was over, with victory ahead of Charlotte Kool on stage 1 of the Eneco Tour to round out one extremely successful first year.

Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Australian rider Luke Tuckwell certainly wasn't heading into his first year as a professional without eyes on him, his second place overall at the Giro d'Italia Next Gen and top 10 at Tour de l'Avenir in 2025 made sure of that. He started the year at home at the Santos Tour Down Under, where he came fourth in the youth classification, and then as the season built so did the results.

At the Tour de Romandie, Tuckwell delivered his first WorldTour overall top 10, taking sixth among a strong field led by none other than Tadej Pogačar. That was impressive by itself, but it also opened up another opportunity, as it led to the decision to send the Australian to the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. That's when an already great season as a first year professional turned into a phenomenal one.

After a solid start to the race, stage 6 delivered an opportunity that Tuckwell wasn't going to let slip through his fingers. A huge break got away, with Tuckwell part of it, and while he helped his teammate Maxim Van Gils claim the stage win the Australian also finished third with a margin that comfortably shifted the rider up from twelfth overall to the very top spot.

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) did manage to pull back the margin and take overall victory, though Tuckwell had two days riding in the yellow leader's jersey and held on to second overall – a result that neither he or anyone else will be forgetting in a hurry.

Federica Venturelli (UAE Team L'IMAD)

It was a step up from the UAE Development Team for Federica Venturelli in 2026 straight into the world's top team, and while track was still a focus – which delivered plenty of success – there was no hiding in the peloton on the road. The Italian's very first race of the season was the 1.Pro Clásica de Almeria in late February and she went straight to the top step of the podium with a winning sprint from a reduced group of six.

There was then another victory at Dwars door de Westhoek in June, quickly followed by a second place in the opening stage of the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées. At the end of three stages of racing she also walked away with the points classification. It's an impressive tally from just 16 days of racing as a professional and bodes well for what's to come when the all-rounder adds some more in 2027, particularly if the 2025 U23 European time trial champion manages to add some more races against the clock into the mix.

Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious)

It was Jakob Omrzel who beat Luke Tuckwell to the top spot at the Giro d'Italia Next Gen in 2025 and the 20-year-old also delivered strong GC results as he stepped into the a new tier. That began with sixth overall at the Tour of the Alps in April, a top 10 at the Tour de Hongrie, third at Tour of Slovenia.

Then in the second half of the season it was time for the rider from Slovenia to take on his first Grand Tour, as the youngest rider at the Vuelta a España, and he did way more than just survive it. First there was a fourth place on the challenging uphill finish of stage 7. Then on stage 12 Omrzel got into a 30-man breakaway and then also rode away from it to cross the line solo and claim his first WorldTour win, and at a Grand Tour no less. In doing so he became the youngest Slovenian to win a Grand Tour stage, no small feat given this his compatriots in the peloton include Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič. Also in that moment he became the second youngest ever stage winner at the Vuelta, after Celestino Prieto who took his win in 1981.

The rider who is signed with Bahrain Victorious through till the end of 2029 also walked away from the Spanish tour with second in the youth classification and seventh overall. Though, perhaps, more importantly he left his first Grand Tour having gathered experience and tested his limits, which look set to stretch to considerable heights through the years ahead.

Mackenzie Coupland (Liv AlUla Jayco)

For Liv AlUla Jayco, there is plenty of pride wrapped up in the Australian summer, as it is the one time of the year when the nation's only Women's WorldTour Team gets to perform at home. There, too, is plenty of effort put into making the team is also taking the green and gold stripes of the national champions jersey back to Europe. Ruby Roseman-Gannon may have been the favourite from the squad to do just that, but Mackenzie Coupland, who had just stepped up from the Liv AlUla Jayco development squad at the start of the year turned out to be the one to claim the jersey after making a late move that stuck.

That meant a neo-pro year in the distinctive national champions kit for the first year professional, a big enough achievement on its own delivered in one of her very first races with the Women's WorldTour team. She was also the squad's top finisher at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race later that month, narrowly missing the podium with fourth and then in March, joined the development squad for a race and claimed a stage and the overall victory at Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina. A third place at La Périgord Ladies when then followed up with a spot on the Tour de France Femmes squad and a strong fourth at Chrono Féminin de Gatineau to help round out a first year in the professional peloton for the 21 year old.

After starting with such a strong opening round in Australia in 2026, there is no doubt there will be plenty of eyes on her to see what she can deliver in round two in 2027.

Jarno Widar (Lotto Intermarché)

There was no shortage of focus on Jarno Widar in 2026 as he stepped up to the Lotto Intermarché WorldTour team from the development squad, having won the Kristallen Fiets young talent of the year award for a second year running plus delivered results that included victory at Liège–Bastogne–Liège U23, stage wins in the Giro NextGen and the Tour de l’Avenir as well as the European U23 road race title. It was a results list that meant he was ushered into the team with considerable fanfare, with the expectation that he would be doing far more than learning the ropes but would be supported to chase key results, in fact the 20-year-old even entered his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España, as team leader.

The first half of the season had its challenges, with illness and lingering knee injury keeping him away from racing for 16 weeks, though he made a solid mark soon after his return with fourth on the final stage of Tour de Suisse. He then upped the ante in his Vuelta debut, coming second on stage 4 behind Tadej Pogačar. There was also a fourth on stage 13 of the Spanish Grand Tour.

It was, however, the closing month of 2026 when Widar stepped up to deliver on the promise and to the top step, with a win Tre Valli Varesine and then his first WorldTour stage victory in the final day of racing at the Tour of Guangxi, which also clinched him the overall win. Those strong closing weeks are bound to help make the challenges of the early season feel like a distant memory and set the rider up as a focal point for the team in 2027, a year where the squad will be losing its former great hope, Arnaud De Lie.

Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez)

Lauren Dickson is another of the later entries to cycling, initially finding her way into the sport via triathlons but only a couple of years after her first race finding a spot on one of the world's top teams, FDJ United-Suez. It may have been a fast progression but there could be little doubting that the British rider who turned 26 this year was ready for it.

Less than three months into her professional racing career and she already managed to find her way onto the podium the Spanish 2.1 ranked race, the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina, when Dickson snared second behind new Australian champion Mackenzie Coupland on stage 3 and also second overall. Impressively she then also followed that up with podiums in the Women's WorldTour race of Itzulia Women, where her third place on stage 3 once again also secured her the final spot on the overall podium. Then it was fourth at Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria and 11th overall at the Giro d'Italia. There was another second on stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse Women, though her run was halted by a broken collarbone later in the race. Still the momentum was recaptured later in the season and she moved up to the top step at the Faun Tour. The late season win will make sure that even though she may be a new rider at one of the world's top teams, there will be no disappearing into the background when plans for 2027 are being formulated.

What's more, she did all this while also proving her value as a domestique, delivering a prominent support role in Demi Vollering's Giro d'Italia victory.

Brady Gilmore (NSN)

Brady Gilmore succinctly summed up his year at the top level of the sport in a social media post as "a season I'll never forget" with "a lot to be proud of". He may not have entered his neo-pro season with quite the same fanfare as some of the others on the list but with multiple wins while racing with the development team, including two Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta stage victories and a Circuit des Ardennes stage and overall win, there was plenty of reason for optimism that he could make some kind of impression in his first season with the NSN Cycling WorldTour squad.

There was certainly no waiting around, as he did just that in his very first races with the squad, twice missing the podium by just one spot on stage 4 and stage 5 of the Tour Down Under and then landing on it with a third at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. It wasn't long then until he found the top step, beating Dorian Godon and Remco Evenepoel over the line in a reduced group sprint on the final stage of Volta a Catalunya. From there the top tens continued to roll in through the season. Given the home performance at the start of 2026 as Gilmore was just integrating with the team, it will be intriguing to see just what the 25-year-old can deliver if we see him on the start line again for the Australian summer season in 2027.

Talia Appleton (Liv AlUla Jayco)

Talia Appleton had well and truly proven her ability in Australia and beyond in 2025, claiming a number of victories across the top-tier domestic series, the ProVelo Super League and also coming second overall, plus also stepping up to the podium on three stages and in the overall of the Tour de l'Avenir. It was a season that earnt the rider a place in the Liv AlUla Jayco development squad for 2026, but she quickly proved that she was capable of even more. An early season run of results that saw her take seventh at both the GP de Chambéry and the Clásica de Almería as well as third overall at Vuelta a Extremadura meant by May she had been promoted to the WorldTour team.

Once there the solid results continued to flow, with the 20-year-old consistently near the front section of the field despite the then 20-year-old rider's very recent introduction to it. Regularly a top five performer in the youth classification, and also finishing 14th overall at the Tour de Suisse, Appleton also broke through with her first professional win in June, making the most of her climbing strength to claim the 1.1 ranked Alpes Gresivaudan Classic. With that win and a results list through the season that paints a picture of consistency and strength, the rider from Victoria not only clearly justified the fast track to the Women's WorldTour team, but delivered more than a small hint of her GC potential.

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