The junior to WorldTour pipeline – too much, too soon or a pathway here to stay?

In 2019, Remco Evenepoel made an – at the time – somewhat unorthodox move straight from the junior ranks into the WorldTour, his youthful exploits more than enough to impress the then-Deceuninck-Quick Step team. In the six years since then, the Belgian has been world champion three times, become double Olympic champion, won a Grand Tour, and racked up countless victories. It’s fair to say that for Evenepoel, and his team, making that jump when he did has been an unbridled success.

The Evenepoel signing seemed to open the floodgates for riders, teams and agents, and since 2019 the number of juniors turning pro straight away has steadily grown, with more and more riders skipping the under-23 ranks. On the women’s side of cycling, the professionalisation of women’s WorldTour teams briefly saw a lull in younger riders moving up to the top level so quickly, but these days, women’s teams are very much on board with the trend of securing talent early.