It’s no secret that the top riders in men’s cycling are getting younger and younger every season. Just look at the recent Strade Bianche, for example, with four riders in the top six still being 23 or younger, and 19-year-old Paul Seixas grabbing everyone’s attention by taking second behind Tadej Pogačar.
Riders often speak of a post-Covid-19 pandemic boom, with the peloton’s level since 2020 exploding upwards and only continuing to rise as advancements are made to training methods, equipment, and nutrition, but also as a more professional generation of juniors look to pave their way into the WorldTour.
There’s little time to bed yourself in as there may have been in eras gone by – the best talents have to be ready at 18, and if you aren’t performing at the expected level scouts pick you for and team signs you to reach, then top prospects can quickly get left behind and forgotten.
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‘Breaking power records left, right and centre’
Adam Yates finished on the podium of the Tour de France less than three years ago in 2023, riding as a domestique for Pogačar on UAE Team Emirates-XRG. He has long been one of the best pure climbers in the world, winning one-week WorldTour stage races, hilly one-day events and Grand Tour stages during his career.
He’s raced through the various booms and busts of pro cycling’s past 15 years, and to this day, admits he is continuing to set new power records year on year, but even still, it just isn’t enough to beat the best guys anymore.
Yates managed three victories in 2025, none at WT-level, which isn’t to say he isn’t among the top climbers in the world still. The bulk of his work is as a domestique and a luxury one at that, helping the likes of Pogačar, João Almeida and Isaac del Toro on several occasions since he joined UAE in 2023. But the fact of the Brit not challenging in a similar way to how he was even two years ago does give a look into the harsh reality of keeping up in today’s peloton.
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