Cyclist
The 8 young riders to watch at the Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España is underway, running from 17th August to 8th September 2024. The young talent is aplenty, among a the start list packed with National Champions and former stage winners at the race.
We look at eight young riders that should already be on your radar.
Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers): 20 years old
Despite being only 20 years of age, Josh Tarling’s palmarès include being a two-time British ITT Champion, the European ITT Champion and joint-youngest winner of a WorldTour race. He’s a phenomenal force to watch on the bike and is making his debut at the Vuelta a España, which is also his first Grand Tour.
The race is bookended with time-trials and Ineos Grenadiers will be looking for Tarling to make a mark on the Stage 21 time-trial trip around Madrid after he finished sixth on the opening stage. He has already been fighting on the front, making an early move on Stage 4 too.
- Best result so far: 6th, Stage 1.
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates): 20 years old
Another exciting youngster, Isaac del Toro won the Tour de l’Avenir last year and swept all the classifications in the process while racing for AR Monex Pro Cycling Team. He caught the eye of many, including UAE Team Emirates, who he signed a three-year contract with.
Del Toro made an immediate impact this season with his WorldTour debut at the Tour Down Under, winning Stage 2, the best young rider jersey and finishing third overall. Such is his pedigree, UAE Team Emirates then added another three years onto his contract, taking him to the end of 2029. Like many on this list, he’s racing his Grand Tour debut and is working to help leaders João Almeida and Adam Yates.
- Best result so far: 9th, Stage 6.
Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost): 21 years old
Irish road race champion Darren Raffery rode his way to a comfortable second place at the Giro Next Gen last season for Hagens Berman Axeon, being the only rider within two minutes of winner Johannes Staune-Mittet (riding at the time for the Jumbo-Visma Development Team) and turning professional with EF Education-EasyPost for 2024.
Prior to his debut at this Vuelta, Rafferty said that he sees himself as a GC rider in the future, so these three weeks will be a useful experience for him to build on as he races in support of Richard Carapaz, especially with former co-leader Rigoberto Urán now out of the race. The team has been one to light up many a race this season with some freedom given to riders to go up the road in breakaways, which is a thriving environment for any youngster to find themselves in.
- Best result so far: 37th, Stage 1.
Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich PostNL): 21 years old
This is not Max Poole’s first rodeo here, having finished second on the opening stage TTT last year. He arrives to the Vuelta having taken second on GC at the Vuelta a Burgos behind Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), who is the defending champion of the Spanish Grand Tour.
Poole is thrust into an important role at DSM-Firmenich PostNL with the squad supporting him as ‘he tests himself for the first time in the GC at a Grand Tour’, a huge responsibility for a 21-year-old but one that holds limited pressure, this doubling as an important learning experience for the man from Scunthorpe.
- Best result so far: 31st, Stage 1.
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike): 21 years old
Cian Uijtdebroeks enjoyed a brilliant debut Vuelta last year, highlighted by a strong fifth place on the Col du Tourmalet stage that boosted him into the top 10 on GC. He would end the race in eighth place overall and second in the youth classification, before departing Bora-Hansgrohe for Visma-Lease a Bike for 2024.
The young Belgian has free reign to tackle GC this year while Visma-Lease a Bike work to support Sepp Kuss in his defence of the title.
- Best result so far: 29th, Stage 4.
Pavel Bittner (DSM-Firmenich PostNL): 21 years old
Pavel Bittner has had himself some Vuelta already, and we’re not even a week in. The 21-year-old shocked the cycling world when he beat none other than Wout van Aert in a sprint finish on Stage 5 in Seville. Van Aert might have misjudged where the finish line was but take nothing away from Bittner, who won his first Grand Tour stage victory in brilliant fashion.
He’s part of the DSM-Firmenich PostNL team supporting Max Poole on GC, but as we can see, they have some free reign to hunt for stage victories wherever possible.
- Best result so far: 1st, Stage 5.
Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek): 22 years old
The Czech ITT Champion came punishingly close to victory on the very first stage of his Vuelta debut, ultimately being pushed off the hot seat by winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) by just two seconds over the 12km time-trial.
He’ll have another shot in Madrid on the final stage, a flat 24.5km ITT. But between those time-trials, he’ll be helping co-leaders Tao Geoghegan Hart and Mattias Skjelmose.
- Best result so far: 2nd, Stage 1 & Stage 7
Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny): 23 years old
The UAE Tour winner is another young star that has narrowly missed winning a stage at the Vuelta. A strong sprint finish on Stage 2 resulted in a fifth place for the Belgian but it was just two days later that he would find himself in even more of a winning position on the road. Immersed in the leading group in the final kilometres, he chased down Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and powered to the line on Pico Villuercas.
He raised his arm in premature celebration, only to fall victim to another example of ‘Roglification’ in which Primož Roglič snatches victory at the line. It’s a painful loss but it has happened to a few throughout the years. Still, Van Eetvelt has the potential to go one better over the rest of the three weeks to Madrid. There’s also the bonus that he won’t make the same mistake twice.
Teammate Thomas de Gendt knew his potential, tweeting before the race that Van Eetvelt would win a stage – later quoting this to add ‘he needs to keep sprinting ‘till the line.’
- Best result so far: 2nd, Stage 4.
For more news, visit our Vuelta a España hub page.
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