Scroll test: The breakthrough ten stepper

Finding your way as a professional cyclist is never easy. Some succeed and some don’t. Some go on to have wonderfully decorated careers and others work tirelessly for others. Some take the long path and others explode onto the scene. This year has seen a little bit of both.

Paula Blasi (UAE Team L’IMAD) entered her first bike races in 2024 for the club team of Massi-Baix Ter. In 2025 she joined UAE’s development squad before moving up to WorldTour that same year. This season she won Amstel Gold Race and the Vuelta Femenina, and she heads our ranking of the riders who broke through in 2026.

Our list counts down from 10th to first and covers the full season for each rider from the start of the year all the way to the end of the Tour of Guangxi on October 18. This is purely based on how they have performed throughout the year and nothing to do with the UCI points ranking or how many wins (although that does, of course, help). Some riders have shone at U23 level but also in pro races while others have flown high in the WorldTour. This is a mix of men and women who have had a fantastic 2026.

10. Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies)

Davide Donati may be a U23 rider but he has been shining bright in professional races as well with wins in both halves of the season against some of the world’s top pros. Before June he took two stages of the Giro di Sardegna and in late September he powered to victory on the final stage of the CRO Race in the Croatian capital of Zagreb where he outsprinted Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep).

Between those victories he thrived in the U23 scene with a win at the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, followed by stage 2 of the Giro Next Gen in Crotone ahead of Aldo Taillieu and Aubin Sparfel. The organiser recorded a stage average of 48.597km/h, the fastest in the race’s history. Bonus seconds put Donati level on time with Kasper Haugland, and his better stage placings gave him the maglia rosa.

“To wear the Maglia Rosa means a lot – especially as an Italian rider,” Donati said in the team’s announcement. “It’s a really big moment for me and I have to thank everyone – my family and my girlfriend.”

The 21-year-old raced for Biesse-Carrera in 2024 and took his first stage win against a professional field at the 2025 Tour de Wallonie. His team lists sprinting, timing his effort and staying in contention over difficult terrain as his strengths. In 2026 he showed all three, against under-23 and professional fields.

9. Henrique Bravo (Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team)

Just two years ago Henrique Bravo was fully focused on mountain biking. Brazil had a World Cup race so it was a clear attraction. He had hardly even considered road with just a handful of road races ridden before 2024. When that year rolled around he went fully into road racing and won the junior Vuelta a la Ribera del Duero, including a solo victory on its climbing stage, and joined Soudal’s development team in 2025.

This year was his real step up with the 20-year-old taking his first professional victory on stage 7 of the Tour du Rwanda. He then won the Tour of Antalya and the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt overall, taking a stage at each.

His best ride came in September at the Tour of Slovakia, racing with Soudal’s senior team. On the final climb to Kráľova hoľa, 12.6km at an average of 8.7%, Bravo attacked repeatedly. He finished second on the stage, five seconds behind Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) and moved up nine places to finish second overall, 19 seconds behind the Belgian.

He was also among the best under-23 climbers of the summer: third overall at the Giro Next Gen, behind Lorenzo Finn and Matéo Ramírez, and fifth at the Tour de l’Avenir. In July he became the first Brazilian to win the Giro della Valle d’Aosta. He took the lead by winning the opening 10.5km mountain time trial to Passy Plaine-Joux in 25:25, one second ahead of the runner-up. Soudal said it was his sixth win of the season. Before the Giro Next Gen, he had told the team that his only previous time trial was at the Brazilian national championships.

“It was for the first time in my career that I raced a mountain ITT and I am delighted that I took not just the win, but also the beautiful yellow jersey,” Bravo said in Soudal’s announcement, dedicating the victory to Samuele Privitera, who died at the race a year earlier.

The 20-year-old’s future is unresolved: Pinarello Q36.5’s interest in signing him is complicated by a reported Soudal contract that runs to 2028. But nothing has been confirmed.

8. Aubin Sparfel (Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team)

Aubin Sparfel is one of the most exciting young talents coming out of the U23 rankings with the Frenchman taking wins across the professional and U23 rankings. His professional-field victory was the Lotto Grand Prix de Wallonie in September where he beat the likes of Romain Grégoire and Milan Fretin in a sprint. He also finished sixth overall at the Boucles de la Mayenne and sixth at La Roue Tourangelle.

In his own age group he rarely went a week without a result. He won the Tour de Bretagne overall and its fifth stage, and placed second twice and third twice across the seven days. At the Giro Next Gen he finished fourth overall and won stage 7 at Piana delle Mele. He bridged to the front with a small attacking group, accelerated 3km from the finish and beat Elliot Rowe in a two-rider sprint. At the Tour de l’Avenir he recovered from a painful crash on the opening stage to win stage 4 at Semur-en-Auxois. That finish included a 700m cobbled climb, and the stage was raced at an average of 48.7km/h.

He finished fourth in the under-23 world championship road race in Montréal, missing a medal. Ashlin Barry won alone, and the two medallists came from the chasing group with Sparfel.

The 20-year-old was European junior cyclocross champion in 2023, and his 2025 road season brought victory at the Tour du Finistère, the Alpes Isère Tour overall, third at the Tour de Bretagne and the Giro Next Gen points jersey. He is now listed with Decathlon’s WorldTour team.

7. Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)

Isabella Holmgren has had a superb season, with the Canadian climber finishing in the top 10 of the Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes this year. She finished seventh at the Giro for the second year running, took the white jersey and put on a superb display throughout the whole week.

She took eighth overall in her debut Tour de France Femmes which included a terrific tenth on Mont Ventoux. On the final stage she attacked on the third of four ascents of the Col d’Èze and reached the top with about a minute’s lead, before she was caught on the final climb with 19km to go.

In Montréal, Holmgren’s attacks on the final climb cut the leading trio to two. After 134km and 2,690m of climbing, Viktória Chladoňová beat her in the sprint.

The 21-year-old came to the road from cyclocross and mountain biking and joined Lidl-Trek in 2024. Her contract runs to 2028.

6. Andrew August (Netcompany Ineos)

This may be Andrew ‘AJ’ August’s third year at WorldTour level but the 21-year-old has only now started to show his potential. The American jumped from the junior ranks straight to WorldTour at just 18.

He took his first pro win on stage 3 of the Volta Comunitat Valenciana on February 6. At Itzulia Basque Country he took his first WorldTour victory on stage 6 after attacking on the Alto de Asentzio, holding his lead on the wet descent into Bergara, having also finished seventh in the opening time trial. At the Czech Tour he won consecutive summit finishes at Ještěd and Dlouhé stráně, finished second on the final stage to Pustevny and won the overall, points and young rider classifications.

He was seventh overall at both the Tour de la Provence and the Coppi e Bartali, and sixth overall and best young rider at the Tour of Austria. Late in the year he finished 17th at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal and 17th overall at the Tour of Guangxi.

He had shown the beginnings of his talent coming through in previous seasons with top 10s in the Czech Tour in 2024 and Tour of Austria in 2025 while also taking second on a stage.

“Winning the Czech Tour was a confirmation for me,” August said when Pinarello Q36.5 announced his signing. “I’m still discovering my limits and what kind of rider I can become. Right now, I just want to keep discovering that and win as many races as I can.”

However, this jump up in form has come too late for Netcompany-Ineos to really capitalise on as he is moving on from the British team to pastures new. His three-year Pinarello Q36.5 contract starts on January 1, 2027.

5. Lorenzo Mark Finn (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies)

It has been a truly magnificent year for Lorenzo Mark Finn with the Italian U23 star winning the Giro Next Gen and Tour de l’Avenir in the same season, becoming the second Italian in history to achieve the feat after Gianbattista Baronchelli in 1973.

He took l’Avenir by a large margin gaining around two minutes on most of his main rivals by stage one. He went on to win two more stages before taking the GC by over two and a half minutes over Niels Driesen with Matteo Vanhuffel taking third. The Giro Next Gen was similar with two stage wins and a superbly strong display against his rivals with his GC victory over Mateo Ramírez and Henrique Bravo being over two minutes once again.

He didn’t just win in the U23 ranks, though. The Italian took the overall and two stage wins at the Romanian UCI 2.1 race of the Sibiu Tour, a race that Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has dominated with Finn being the fifth overall win at the race for the team in the last seven years.

The 19-year-old was junior world champion in 2024 and under-23 world champion in 2025. In 2026, his second under-23 season, he also won the Giro del Belvedere for a second time and the GP Palio del Recioto.

“I’ve got to know my body better and learned how to manage races and training camps more effectively,” Finn said in Red Bull’s account after l’Avenir. “I’ve come full circle and now I feel ready to make the leap to the big time.”

Finn made the step up to the elites early as he lined up for the elite race at the world championships for Italy. He could’ve easily raced the U23s again and probably won it but he stepped up and now can never look back with the WorldTour awaiting him in 2027.

4. Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez)

Célia Gery started 2026 as under-23 world champion and won four times against senior fields. She won Brabantse Pijl on April 17 and the GP Féminin de Chambéry two days later. That followed ninth at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, 18th at the Tour of Flanders and 11th at Paris-Roubaix. At the Giro d’Italia Women she won stage 7 from a six-rider breakaway, coming past Lucinda Brand in the sprint with the peloton eight seconds behind. She also finished fourth on stage 6 and eighth on stages 1 and 3, and third in the points classification.

Her fourth win was the French road title, taken alone after a move on the final climb, five seconds ahead of Cédrine Kerbaol.

She finished second overall at the Volta a Catalunya Femenina, including second behind Paula Blasi on the La Molina mountain stage. She was integral at the Tour de France Femmes as she worked for Demi Vollering, still finishing seventh on stage 3 and fifth on stage 6, where she took the combativity award.

“I gave everything I had to try to create opportunities and go for the win,” Gery told the Tour organiser afterwards. “Since I didn’t come away with the victory, there’s inevitably a bit of disappointment, but I know I gave it my all.”

She kept placing into the autumn: eighth at the Classic Lorient Agglomération, third at Pointe du Raz and the GP de Wallonie, and seventh in the elite world championship road race at 20.

Gery also attracted controversy with some as Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM) accused the French champion of pushing her out of a key corner and then blocking her as Vollering attacked. Niewiadoma-Phinney would lose yellow that day and never take it back. No wrongdoing was found to have been committed, though.

3. Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez)

One of the more amazing routes to the WorldTour has been taken by Scottish rider Lauren Dickson. She first appeared on the scene with an amazing second place at the Lancaster GP in 2024 while riding for Edinburgh Road Club after Googling earlier in the year how to get into racing. She had broken a bone in her foot in 2019, bringing her running career to an end. She went into triathlon and then duathlon before finding road cycling.

From Lancaster she jumped up again to the Handsling-Alba Development Team, taking two more key top 10s in the British Cycling National Road Series at the challenging Ryedale GP and Curlew Cup. In 2025 it kept getting better, with her winning the Lincoln GP as well as finishing third overall at the Tour of Norway against WorldTour opposition. That performance saw her earn a two-year contract with FDJ United-Suez, which brings us to 2026.

This year must have been a whirlwind for the 26-year-old. She took second overall at the Vuelta a Extremadura, where she won the mountains classification, then third overall at Itzulia Women and fourth at both Chambéry and Durango-Durango. On her Giro d’Italia Women debut she finished 11th overall, with sixth in the uphill time trial at Nevegal, seventh on the Finestre and eighth on the final stage.

She also rode for Demi Vollering. On Giro stage 5 she joined the early breakaway, then worked for her leader when the favourites caught up, and Vollering won the stage. “She did amazing work after on the flat and on the first part of the first climb again,” Vollering told Velora in her post-stage interview.

After second and seventh on the first two stages of the Tour de Suisse, she did not start stage 4. She returned at the Tour of Britain Women in August and won the mountains classification there, with sixth on the Great Orme stage. In September she took her first UCI victory, on the final stage of the Faun Tour Femmes, and finished third overall with two more third places.

She was still getting results in October: third at Giro dell’Emilia, then ninth at Chrono des Nations on October 18, after 18th in the elite world road race and eighth in the European time trial. Dickson is older than anyone else on this list, but she has only been road racing for three seasons. Her FDJ contract runs through 2027. But she looks like she is very definitely here to stay at the highest level.

2. Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché)

Jarno Widar’s first full professional season looked in trouble by spring. After fourth at the Figueira Champions Classic and seventh on the Malhão finish of the Volta ao Algarve, a virus and then a knee injury from a training crash kept him off the bike for four weeks. He did not race again until June.

However, from there on he has gone from strength to strength with a fourth place on the final mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse. He then completed his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España in 23rd overall, with second on stage 4 in Andorra, seventh at the Alto de Aitana and fourth into Loja.

It was then time to head to the Italian Classics and his first pro win at Tre Valli Varesine on October 6, where he beat Tom Pidcock and Matteo Jorgenson in a three-rider sprint. “He was very quick. I don’t know how much of a jump he got on us but when he went I went immediately but he already had a gap,” Pidcock said after the race. “So yeah, very impressive sprint by him.”

Four days later he finished 13th at Il Lombardia. He ended the season with his first WorldTour victories, winning stage 6 of the Tour of Guangxi to Nongla and then the overall and young rider classifications on October 18.

The 20-year-old has been billed as one of the biggest names coming through cycling at the moment with comparisons to Paul Seixas. This isn’t surprising, either. He won the Giro Next Gen in 2024, and in 2025 added the under-23 European road title, under-23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Giro della Valle d’Aosta, two Tour de l’Avenir stages and second overall there behind Seixas.

1. Paula Blasi (UAE Team L’IMAD)

Similarly to Dickson, Blasi left a career in athletics behind after an injury. She raced for Massi-Baix Ter in 2024 before jumping up to the UAE development squad in 2025. That same year she got promoted to the WorldTour. By 2026 she is winning major Classics and Grand Tours.

It was an excellent and exciting start to the year with the Spanish rider taking third at the Tour Down Under, where she also won the mountains classification. It could potentially have been more but poor tactics led Noemi Ruegg to the finish where she easily beat three UAE riders in the sprint. In the Ardennes she won Amstel Gold Race, then finished third at Flèche Wallonne and fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège the same week.

At the Vuelta Femenina she started the final day second to Anna van der Breggen. On L’Angliru she followed Marion Bunel’s acceleration and finished second on the stage behind a very impressive Petra Stiasny, winning the race by 24 seconds from Van der Breggen and 49 from Bunel, as well as the mountains classification.

She went on to win Durango-Durango, then the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées and the Volta a Catalunya, taking the decisive mountain stage and the mountains classification at both.

She then went to the Tour de France Femmes with a huge amount of expectation from fans and the media alike. However, team orders meant she was in a support role for Dominika Włodarczyk and Elisa Longo Borghini. “I’m here for the experience, usually I prefer coming as the underdog as well. The road speaks but the roles are clear,” she said before the race. She still finished fifth overall, with fifth on Mont Ventoux, ninth on stage 8 and second on the final stage into Nice, and was second in the young rider classification.

Her season tailed off after second at the Pointe du Raz Ladies Classic in September: 18th in the world time trial, a DNF in the elite road race and a non-start at the European championship. By then she had already won six races, including a Classic and a Grand Tour, two years after starting.

Drama then followed as the Spanish rider forced a move away from UAE, with the 23-year-old reportedly signing for Spanish squad Movistar for the 2027 season.

All in all, it has been a wonderful season for cycling fans with some epic races as well as plenty of new names to conjure with for the next few seasons as the talent pool takes another generational refresh.