If you take a moment to look beyond the spotlight-grabbing rivalry of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar at this Tour de France, you gain an insight into the future of bike racing. It’s true that after his dominant performance on stage 12, the world champion looks to have almost secured the yellow jersey, and that 2022 and 2023 Tour winner Vingegaard is his closest next challenger. Below that duo, however, is the next generation of superstar climbing talents executing breakthrough performances that should not go unnoticed.
Eventually, when the Pogačar era comes to an end – and who knows when that may be – there are a number of riders waiting in the wings to become the focus of our attention. Grand Tour racing might be dominated by one person right now, but there is an exciting chapter to be written once that stops happening. The likes of Florian Lipowitz, Kévin Vauquelin, Oscar Onley, Tobias Halland Johannessen and to an extent, though he is already an established rider, Remco Evenepoel, are the new wave.
Lipowitz, for example, who now sits in fourth place on the general classification after a career-best third-place finish on the Hautacam, came to the Tour as his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team’s ‘plan B.’ The German squad’s first option was an experienced Primož Roglič, but as the Slovenian rider has failed to live up to expectations, his younger teammate has firmly proved he is every bit the general classification rider. He showed this already at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Tour has only further cemented it.
“We had both open cards,” the 24-year-old said after stage 12 atop the Hautacam. “I pulled the first part quite long, and I tried to keep the pace high, and then I tried my own, and the gap opened. I took my chance and went all out until the finish line. I think we can be super happy. We have two guys who are super good on the GC, and I think that gives us a lot of opportunities for the next few days.”
It is not only Red Bull who have a fresh superstar in their ranks. Team Picnic-PostNLhave also fostered a potential Grand Tour winner in Oscar Onley, who is exceeding expectations during this Tour. He started the race by telling the media that he was not riding for the general classification, but his consistency throughout the 12 stages so far puts him in sixth place going into the second time trial. The British rider fought hard on Hautacam to maintain that position, visibly exhausted at the top of the mountain.
“I feel tired, it was a hard day, I felt good, I just went a bit over my limit halfway up but it was an okay day. I was quite surprised on the first climb when I saw Remco and [Matteo] Jorgenson getting dropped, they probably suffered in the heat,” Onley commented. “It is a long way to Paris still, though, so they are certainly not out of it. If I can recover well, I will give it a good shot tomorrow too.”
Another product of steady development, and a rider who showed their potential in the under-23 ranks and is living up to it, is Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility. The Norwegian talent has been on the radar of those who can spot potential climbing prowess for some time now, but his performances at this Tour are proving he can mix it with the general classification group on the biggest stage of the season.
“I'm super happy with fourth place,” Johannessen smiled after stage 12 of the Tour. “It was a hard day and I decided straight away that I needed to go at my own pace on the final climb. Lipowitz was really strong, so I just had to make them do most of the turns, and in the end it was just a fight between my mind and my legs, I think, so I just went all I could and in the end I could catch Oscar right on the line and we had a nice sprint. I'm super happy.”
We can add Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels to this list, too, who now sits fifth overall as a rider who is breaking through at the Tour. His name is being announced on a world stage to the delight and excitement of French cycling fans everywhere – no one wants a Tour winner more than the home nation.
While we can’t really place Evenepoel in this same cohort of future Grand Tour winners – he already has a Vuelta a España victory to his name – the Belgian certainly fits into the category of those who are nipping at the heels of Pogačar and Vingegaard, ready to take up the mantle as soon as it comes his way. While he struggled on the first climb of the day on stage 12, the Soudal Quick-Step rider was able to avoid panic and regain contact with the GC group and maintain his third place on the general classification – a sign of a level-headed and mature climber.
The overarching link between Evenepoel, Lipowitz, Vauquelin, Onley and Johannessen after stage 12 of the Tour – the first real mountain test of the race – was that they all are still learning how to do this. None of them have yellow jerseys yet to their names unlike Pogačar and Vingegaard, and they are in a process of development as riders, making mistakes and changes along the way. Their peak is yet to come, and this is exciting for bike racing fans everywhere. The future of our sport is bright.
