We've been watching the up-and-coming riders and have chosen our ‘Top Ten Young Guns’ for 2023. Our rider choices for 2022 included some top performers so let’s look at the ‘Men to Watch’ in 2023.
Here at VeloVeritas we keep our eyes on the new talent coming through the peloton and this time last year we picked eleven men to watch in 2022. So, let's see how they got on.
After a strong season with the Swiss Racing Academy, Edinburgh’s Sean Flynn will be joining his countryman Oscar Onley at the Dutch World Team DSM, riding alongside big name riders like Romain Bardet and John Degenkolb.
VeloVeritas soothsayer and mentor has been on to me for a while; ‘you should be speaking to that Zak Coleman laddie, he’s on the VolkerWessels team in The Netherlands, that’s a top team and he’s the only non-Dutch boy on it! They ride a lot of the UCI European Tour races, the likes of the Baloise Belgian Tour.’
It was our mentor, Viktor who pointed out to us that Englishman, Callum Macleod had spent season 2022 with the Dutch ABLOC CT squad and that his contract is renewed for season 2023; of the 19 riders on the squad 16 are Dutch, there’s a Latvian, a Finn - and Callum.
For 2023 Harrison Wood, the 22 years-old from Devon will be part of the much improved Cofidis équipe. We find out more about how he secured his contract.
We’ve been following 20 years-old Kelso man, Oscar Onley’s progress for a few years now and so when recently the news came that DSM had signed him on a five year deal it was no surprise; the Dutch squad obviously recognise a good thing when they see one.
I for one imagined that Kyle Gordon’s 2018 Scottish 100 mile time trial record of 3:36:10 was going to be ‘on the shelf’ for a long while but records are there to be broken and Spokes Racing Team’s Lee Rosie did that very thing in the Scottish 100 Mile Time Trial Championship, taking two minutes from Kyle’s time with a stunning 3:34:10 ride.
Young Englishman Paul Double is a wee bit of a ‘forgotten man’ - out there in an Italian continental team racing against some of the world’s best - but not by VeloVeritas. Paul’s results this year are all the more commendable given he was hit by a car early in the year and had to fight back to fitness.
When CC Etupes' Christophe Andre gets in touch from la Belle France to tell me that he has a young man from the Emerald Isle on the team books who he thinks I should be speaking to, I pay attention. Dillon Corkery is the young Irish gentleman in question...
Mason Hollyman, the 20 years-old ex-‘Zappi Man’ from Huddersfield riding for Israel Cycling Academy continental team took fourth in the Italian u23 classic Trofeo Piva and fifth in the extremely tough u23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He’s also been riding at the highest level with the Israel – Premier Tech World Tour team in races like the Coppi e Bartali where the big teams joust with gung-ho ProTeams desperate for recognition.
At French WorldTour squad Groupama FDJ, Lewis Askey has come close to a French UCI 1.1 semi-classic win and is always in the thick of the televised action. Unfortunately, his progress has been pulled up short by a crash at Paris-Roubaix – most likely caused by the dreaded disc rotor. We caught up with him as he recuperated back in England.
In the u23 version of Gent-Wevelgem, which is a UCI Nations Cup 1.Ncup rated event, Britain’s Sam Watson beat the cream of Europe’s u23 talent to win a race which boasts the likes of Fons de Wolf, Eddy Planckaert, Niko Eeckhout, Greg Van Avermaet and Mads Pedersen among previous winners.
Ed gets it all off his chest in our latest Rant; do we really need aero front lights? What difference does a tricked out 'pain cave' make? Some clever innovations that aren't April fools, and should Tomeke take over from Patrick at QuickStep?
As road racing in Scotland and the UK thinks about making a start to the year, over in mainland Europe the season is already well underway. Young Scot and Rayner Foundation man, Morgan Bown has been racing in France with his EC Saint-Etienne Loire team since early February.
The New Guys in the Peloton; another season and a new tranche of young professional riders in the peloton. We have been keeping our eyes on the ‘young guns’ and give you our top 11 all under 22.
Since we spoke to Toby Perry in April things have moved on apace for him and by happy coincidence we caught up with his coach, former British champion on road and track, Dean Downing at the Hawick start of the Tour of Britain stage. ‘Deano’ advised us that it might be a good idea to ring Toby in Spain - he had some good news to share.
When we look through our articles for the year we're struck by how many of our interviews featured young Scottish riders, going through the National teams or 'just doing it' as we put it - making their own way with development squads around Europe and the world. We've featured riders such as Matti Dobbins, Stuart Balfour, Hamish Strachan, Sean Flynn, Matthias Barnet, Callum Thornley, Calum Johnston, Finn Crockett, Cameron Mason and Oscar Onley on our pages, and Oscar's interview encapsulates the potential, the drive and ambition these youngsters exhibit and therefore is our pick for 2021 for ‘The VeloVeritas Years’ collection.
Despite an interrupted season thanks to Covid and visa tribulations, Calum Johnston's results came and so did a contract for season 2022; he joins the full Caja Rural ProTeam and will joust in the same arena as the likes of Alejandro Valverde and Enric Mas.
The last time we spoke to Scotland’s top endurance track rider, Mark Stewart he’d just added to his growing medal collection at the European Championships with bronze in the team pursuit and silver in the scratch. Some nice road results in the Ronde van Oost Vlaanderen followed where he made his breakthrough from riding as a domestique and/or ‘getting round’ to being a serious contender for stage and overall honours.
If there’s one thing we admire here at VeloVeritas, it has to be enthusiasm for the sport. Scottish road scene stalwart, Gary Hand - Herbalife has it in spades – so when he emails to say that he’s joined a new team for 2013 and has big goals for the next two seasons, we best get right back to him and get the story; even if it is Boxing Day.
Our recent chat with 70’s pursuit king, Hugh Porter having been well received we thought you may like to hear what another ‘man of the 70’s’ - Les West had to say to us a year or two ago. "West is best!", that's what his fans used to say and most of the time they were right; twice British amateur road race champion and twice British professional road race champion.
Arthur Doyle, (Dooleys) comfortably retained his Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championship 2010 title with 52:54 on a cool but mostly dry Sunday morning around the verdant Howe of Fife, second was the man on the big fixed gear who was the surprise of the 2009 ten mile champs, Peter Ettles (Sandy Wallace Cycles) with 54:07-surprise this time was Philip Kelman (Deeside) with 54:44 off an early number 45 start.
VeloVeritas didn't arrive until number 92 was on the line, so apologies to Mr. Kelman for the lack of photographic evidence.
However, we were up at 06:00 am on Sunday to edit yesterday's road race pictures; we weren't slacking...
Visé"Tomorrow is a sprinters’ stage – Lotto showed real motivation today, GreenEDGE look good too. But love Cav or loathe him, he’s special." . . . was what we said yesterday. Lotto were motivated and GreenEDGE were good – but Cav was better.
Viktor calls; "That home page on the site hasn't changed for days. There's a Scottish pro called Alex Coutts out training in Spain, trying to get ready for the season, why aren't you talking to him?" Just one of the things that bugs about Vik, is that he's actually right a lot of the time!