The 2024 men’s road campaign saw an unprecedented number of pre-race favorites take convincing wins in the biggest events, making it feel like a year of unparalleled dominance for a tiny cadre of elite riders – but just beneath the surface, a handful of up-and-comers made their presence felt across the season.
Even as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won nearly every race he targeted while Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and a few others mopped up the rest of the biggest wins, there was still room for surprises at the top of the standings in some races, and just a little ways down the leaderboard in others.
With the men’s peloton settling into off-season mode, it’s the perfect time to consider which up-and-comers took that big leap forward this season, muscling their way into the conversation of contenders who might hope to challenge the superstars in the seasons to come. After all, Pogačar and Van der Poel were themselves just promising up-and-comers at one point, at least until they compiled some solid road results along their way to becoming the dominant riders they are today.
Here are a few (among the many) of the up-and-comers who stepped it up in 2024.
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates)
Del Toro is probably the most obvious quantum leap candidate of the year, although by the middle of the season, the hype around him was already strong enough that he managed to seem underwhelming at the Vuelta a España by not doing much in the general classification. But let’s rewind to the very start of the season. In early January, Del Toro was a WorldTour debutant, a new member of UAE Team Emirates fresh off a win at the Tour de l’Avenir.
At just 20 years old, he could reasonably be expected to require a year or two of seasoning in the top division before making good on his promise – if he did at all. It’s worth pointing out that plenty of Tour de l’Avenir winners never really pan out as stars, but Del Toro showed the world at the Tour Down Under that he is probably not going to be one of those riders. He took a stage win in the second day of WorldTour racing of 2024 and went on to finish on the overall podium, and then he cemented his status as an already-legit GC contender in the European spring.
Riders as young as Del Toro frequently find themselves out of their element in their first few WorldTour races in Europe, but Del Toro climbed with the world’s best at Tirreno-Adriatico en route to fourth overall, and then he added yet another WorldTour GC top 10 at the Itzulia Basque Country, where UAE was riding for eventual winner Juan Ayuso. All that early success made it a bit of a surprising turn of events, then, when Del Toro had the sort of Grand Tour debut that is perfectly normal for most riders, looking good on a few stages but not particularly dominant. Viewed as a whole, his 2024 campaign was an absolute breakthrough that likely led to him feeling a bit fatigued by the time the end of the season rolled around.
Expect plenty more from Del Toro in 2025, when he heads into the year with a full season of experience under his belt and more opportunities for leadership on the horizon.
Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech)
The 28-year-old Welshman stands out as an oddity in this list because he was born all the way back in … *gasp* … the ’90s. He’s not some young whipper-snapper with a sterling under-23 record to convince sports directors to give him his opportunities. He is a veteran already on his second pro team who has been grinding his way to a point in his career where he was finally able to put it all together in 2024.
Like Del Toro, Williams put on a show early at the Tour Down Under, where he took a stage win and the overall title. Also like Del Toro, he made sure to keep the show going further on into the season to prove that his Tour Down Under showing was not just a flash in the pan at a smaller event. He looked great going for stage wins, albeit unsuccessfully, at the Volta a Catalunya, and then he stunned the field at La Flèche Wallonne, where he became the first ever British man to win the race. It wasn’t close either; Williams exploded away from his rivals on the Mur de Huy and had time to celebrate at the line. It was a demonstration of raw power and of grit, too – atrocious conditions assaulted the peloton in the Ardennes that day, and Williams seemed to thrive despite the challenges.
Williams rode a relatively quiet Tour de France, but then he found a second run of form in August, where he seemed unstoppable at the Tour of Britain, taking two stage wins and the overall. One of those stage wins came just ahead of a resurgent Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), and another came ahead of some very promising youngsters (Alaphilippe’s teammate Paul Magnier, Edoardo Zambanini of Bahrain Victorious, and others). Williams will be in the conversation for Ardennes-style one-day races and hilly Grand Tour stages in 2025 and beyond.
Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL)
Okay, last Town Down Under stage winner on the list here, we promise. The 22-year-old Scotsman, like the aforementioned rider from another corner of the same island, put on an early display in January and then backed it up with solid showings throughout the whole season.
Onley topped Williams himself to win the iconic Willunga Hill stage of the Tour Down Under, ultimately taking fourth overall, and then was constantly in the mix in big races from that point on. He came close to a few big wins, and he also showed that he was comfortable riding with the world’s best on several occasions. He finished eighth overall at the Tour de Suisse over the course of a very consistent week there, summitting the Gotthard Pass ahead of Enric Mas (Movistar) and other known climbing stars. The following month, he looked good in the break on stage 17 of the Tour de France in what was first career appearance in that race.
In September, he clashed with Williams again, settling for second at the Tour of Britain, and then he rode to second overall at the Tour of Guangxi.
Actual victories were hard to come by for Onley after that first one in Australia, but he showed the sort of season-long consistency – particularly remarkable given he fractured a collarbone twice in the space of three months – and an impressive ability to hold his own even amid strong fields that will be extremely encouraging for DSM as the team looks ahead to the future. The Dutch squad is among the lowest-ranked teams on the WorldTour right now, but Onley is one of the bright spots that will have team brass confident in a turnaround.
Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny)
After the first three riders on our list made waves at the first stage race of the WorldTour season, Van Eetvelt did it at the next one. The 23-year-old Belgian won atop Jebel Hafeet to take the overall title at the UAE Tour, following up none other than Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). It wasn’t a total shock in that Van Eetvelt had shown promise in 2023 and was fresh off a win at the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana, but it was a huge step forward probably beyond expectations for Lotto Dstny.
Van Eetvelt then dealt with knee issues and got hit by a driver in May, but he stormed back into form for a great second half of his season. He finished on the podium at the Clásica San Sebastián and then came oh-so-close to a Vuelta stage win that he might have taken had he not celebrated early. After a top 10 at Il Lombardia, he secured the overall victory at the final WorldTour race of the year, the Tour of Guangxi.
Two WorldTour GC wins, even in races that aren’t the highest on the prestige list, make for an undeniable breakthrough season for Van Eetvelt, who is one of several great young Belgians on a team that is suddenly enjoying lots of success after a few quieter seasons. The fact that Van Eetvelt has the punch and the grinta to shine in long one-day races is particularly promising. It’s hard to see many riders challenging the top-tier Grand Tour contenders right now, but anything can happen in a one-day, and in Van Eetvelt, Maxim Van Gils, Arnaud De Lie, and fellow prospect Jenno Berckmoes, Lotto Dstny should have contenders for both cobbled and hilly Classics for years to come.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious)
Tiberi found himself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons very early in his career, but there’s no denying that his 2024 campaign was a breakthrough. Two years after he killed a cat belonging to San Marino’s minister of tourism and former head of state, Tiberi rode to four top 10s in stage races at the WorldTour or 2.Pro level. The first of those was the Volta a Catalunya, where he climbed alongside some of the world’s best in a race ultimately won by Pogačar. Then he rode to third overall at the Tour of the Alps, setting himself up for a leadership role for the Giro d’Italia.
Making his first career start in his home Grand Tour, Tiberi took the best young rider jersey and fifth overall. More than that topline result, it was the sort of showing that will make Bahrain confident in his future, with Tiberi putting in strong performances on nearly every key GC day rather than, say, losing a bunch of time here and there and making it up in the breakaways.
Tiberi abandoned the Vuelta due to heat stroke on stage 9, but he went on to win the Tour de Luxembourg amid, again, a strong field. All told, it was the sort of season that would generate plenty of hype for any young rider, but with the added complexity of Tiberi’s past making it hard for some commentators to be particularly enthused about his step up to a new level. In any case, Tiberi is set to lead Bahrain in stage races moving forward, and given his 2024 results, he will almost certainly be in the mix for the victories too.
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
On the heels of a solid WorldTour debut, Lipowitz had just the sort of sophomore campaign that talent development types want to see. He rode an excellent Tour de Romandie, finishing third overall in a very close race, and then he bounced back from the frustration of abandoning his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia due to illness by winning a smaller race and then shining brightly en route to a top 10 in a Grand Tour.
Romania’s Sibiu Cycling Tour may not be the Tour de France but a handful of big names from the second division (like Van Eetvelt and also George Bennett of Israel-Premier Tech) were in attendance, and Lipowitz bested all of them. Then he enjoyed an excellent Vuelta. He finished as high as third on stage 6, one of several strong placings, and he took seventh overall, all while being a key part of Primož Roglič’s support staff. It’s not easy to ride tempo up a mountain for the race favorite and then keep grinding on to your own result, but Lipowitz did just that on multiple occasions.
Lipowitz is an excellent climber and a decent time trialist, and therefore a GC hopeful to build around for the future. Red Bull will hope that the German all-rounder, who will be 24 through most of the next season, can help lead a youth movement in the team as Roglič rides into his twilight years in the peloton.
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