I see Alexandre Vinokourov mentioned a couple of times. I wouldn't get my hopes up, he is not bad. He is godawful. Now, some actual interesting youngsters are to be found elsewhere. I don't know how they keep landing them despite a lot of riders departing, but DSM is bringing Ilian Barhoumi. He is a former mountainbiker who came through the AG2R program and who we'll see shine in the classics in the future. Last year he dominated, and I mean dominated, in the Coppa Andrea Meneghelli, which is the junior equivalent of the Strade Bianche. We're talking minutes, into world class competition. He also defended himself really well on the Grand Colombier, despite his massive frame. DSM also brings Jacob Bush, who came through the highly rated Fensham Howes program. He is more of a climber, which is kind of obvious given he weighs about 55kg. Mees Vlot is also on that team. He was on BORA's junior team as a first year, then all of a sudden was on Watersley. Bit of a weird rider. Every time you think he's taken off, he falls back. Very decent results in the big races though.
UAE have Anze Ravbar, who put himself on the big map by becoming European Champion on Col du VAM. He was 4th in the mentioned Coppa Andrea Meneghelli, but also showed promise elsewhere in big races such as the Peace Race. There's also Pablo Torres, who had some decent results in the national scene of Spain, but I ain't too high on him tbh. I could point you towards a multitude of Spaniards who are effortlessly better, including Adria Pericas, who appears to go to UAE next season, fyi. There's also Owen Cole, a mountain biker with little road experience. He became Collegiate national champion, only to become U23 a week after too. Fun fact, he's combining racing and studying Exercise Science.
FDJ went Brit a couple of years ago and now they have Josh Golliker. Another climber, though a bit bigger than Bush. He impressed me last year when he went on two huge raids in Valle d'Aosta. Put minutes into everyone on Courmayeur, then dropped minutes (13(!) to Fenis, only to put minutes into everyone again to Cervinia. Of course, there's also Aklilu Arefayne of Intermarche with the Eritrea national team, who appears to be the next great hope after Girmay.
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