Youth in revolt
When Egan Bernal won the 2019 Tour de France at the tender age of 22, he became the youngest Tour winner in 110 years. He appeared to be a once-in-a-generation talent, but with the emergence since of Tadej Pogaĉar (an even younger Tour winner last season at just 21), Remco Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert it appears that Bernal was just leading the way for perhaps the most exciting generation of cycling talent in the sport’s history.
“I think it is,” agrees David Millar, the first British rider to wear the leader’s jersey at all three Grand Tours. “I’ve never been more excited to watch bike races, these are the most amazing riders. It’s like I’ve been watching cycling in black and white and now this generation has come along and it’s gone technicolour.
“The sport is also so much cleaner now than in my day, which means you aren’t going to win the biggest bike races in the world unless you are a genetic freak with an amazing work ethic and you’re also a multidisciplinary rider.”
Five-time British cyclocross champion Ian Field, now coaching riders at all levels via Veld Coaching, helps us to compare, in classic Top Trumps fashion, these incredible young riders. He reveals what makes them so special and ponders whether there’s anything us mere mortals can take from the way they go
