10 riders to watch at the Tour de l'Avenir 🇫🇷

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The Tour de l’Avenir has long been regarded as one of cycling’s most important proving grounds for U23 talent, with an illustrious list of former winners including Tadej Pogačar, Egan Bernal, Miguel Indurain and Greg LeMond, all of whom used winning performances in the race as springboards towards Tour de France glory.

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This year’s edition looks set to continue that tradition. The route offers opportunities for climbers, all-rounders, puncheurs, and sprinters alike, while several of the sport’s most highly regarded prospects arrive in France in outstanding form ahead of Thursday’s start. From the rider widely considered the best U23 talent in the world to emerging names looking to announce themselves on the international stage, the week promises plenty of storylines beyond the battle for the yellow jersey.

Here are 10 riders worth keeping a close eye on as the next generation of cycling talent takes centre stage.

Daniel 🫶

Finn has established himself as the best male U23 on the planet. This season, he won the Giro d’Italia Next Gen by winning two of the final three stages, and then backed that result up by claiming the overall and two more stages at the Sibiu Cycling Tour while racing for the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe WorldTour team.

It’s well known that Finn will move up permanently to the WorldTour team next year, but before then he’ll want to demonstrate his dominance at U23 level and turn last year’s fourth place in the Tour de l’Avenir into a yellow jersey. For the record, all three riders who finished above him last year have moved into the WorldTour, but that doesn’t mean this race will be a formality. Mateo Ramírez is coming back for more after finishing second overall in the Giro, and Henrique Bravo has been in form all season.

“The Tour de l’Avenir is the race I’ve been building towards all summer. The profile suits me, especially those last three days in the Alps. I’m coming here to fight for the overall win, but I also know this race is long and unpredictable. We’ve got a strong squad here, and I hope we can make the difference across the seven days,” Finn recently said.

No rider has won the Giro d’Italia Next Gen and Avenir double since Gianbattista Baronchelli in 1973, so there’s a strong incentive for Finn to keep extending his palmarès ahead of the chasing pack before he heads to Canada to defend his world road title.

This time last year, the Stamford student was a runner struggling to regain fitness after a string of injuries, and now he’s lining up for the biggest race of his career with a real shot at winning a stage - specifically the uphill time trial between Les Carroz and Flaine on stage 5.

It’s been a meteoric rise for the American, who only really started racing properly this year after drawing attention by breaking a Strava segment back home in the US. Second place in the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt earlier in the season, behind Henrique Bravo, drew plenty of WorldTour-level admirers, but EF Education - Aevolo were the quickest to the draw, offering a U23 contract for this season and an additional two-year period with the elites from 2027 onwards.

There’s a long way to go before we can compare Sherry to someone like Mike Woods - another former runner who did the right thing and took up a proper sport. Avenir might be coming a bit too soon for Sherry, but given how far he’s come in such a short period, he’s certainly one to watch over the next week or so. He still needs to find his feet when it comes to racing at this level and the cut-and-thrust of racing in a European peloton, but power- and potential-wise, he has everything to make it at this level.