Too much too young
As Worldtour teams compete to attract the best teenage talent, riders in their early twenties can find themselves dropped if they fail to win races. Cyclist looks at the hard task facing young pros
It has often been said that 40 is the new 30, or that 50 is the new 40, usually by people who would like to believe they’re ten years younger. The reverse trend has been true in cycling in the last couple of seasons. For professional cyclists, 20 is the new 25, and 25 the new 30.
‘Juniors are the new under-23s,’ says Tom Southam, sports director at Worldtour team EF Education-nippo.
Perhaps it started with the 18-yearold Remco Evenepoel, who in 2019 leapfrogged the under-23 category to turn professional with DeceuninckQuickstep. Jonathan Vaughters, boss of the EF team, was critical of Deceuninck’s recruitment of Evenepoel. Although the Belgian was clearly a phenomenon, Vaughters didn’t believe that it was healthy for juniors to go straight into the Worldtour.
And yet it became difficult to argue that it had been a mistake when Evenepoel won a prestigious Classic, the Clásica San Sebastián, in his first year. He followed that with a silver medal in the time-trial at the World Championships in Harrogate.
That same year, Egan Bernal won the Tour de France at 22. Twelve months later, Tadej Pogačar won the Tour at 21. Then João Almeida, 22, led the 2020 Giro d’italia for 15 days and finished fourth overall. The trend appeared to accelerate this year with Pogačar adding a second Tour and two Monuments: Liège-bastogneLiège and Il Lombardia. There are lots of other young phenoms too. Olav
Kooij, 19, stepped up to the JumboVisma Worldtour team mid-season and promptly won the second stage of the Cro Race, where Tim van Dijke, 21, won
Stage 6. Quinn Simmons, 20, won the Tour de Wallonie for Trek-segafredo. For Ineos Grenadiers, Tom Pidcock, 21, won Brabantse Pijl, as well as the gold medal in the Olympic mountain bike cross-country race.
The list goes on: Andrea Bagioli, 21, won the Royal Bernard Drôme Classic; Mauro Schmid, 21, won one of the most spectacular stages of the Giro d’italia over the strade bianche of Tuscany; Biniam Ghirmay, 21, won the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs.
The scramble for youth
It’s no longer seen as exceptional for a leading Worldtour team to sign a rider in their teens or early twenties, or for those riders to begin winning stages and races immediately.
‘It’s getting pretty crazy. The Junior Worlds road race is what the under-23 race used to be. The under-23 race is effectively a pro race now’
Yet look beyond the headlines and dig into the statistics and an interesting fact is revealed: the average age at which a professional male rider wins their first race has remained almost static for the past two decades. In
2002 it was 25.5. In 2021 it was 25.4. Indeed, in the 20 seasons in between it has only fluctuated between 24.4 (2020) and 25.84 (2006), according to procyclingstats.com.
This suggests that, beyond the performances of a number of wunderkinds, there has not in fact been fundamental change. Another stat that hasn’t altered is that riders typically peak at 28. According to Procyclingstats, that’s still the age at which professionals score most points.
But perceptions are powerful, and they can be seen in the recruitment strategies of the biggest teams. For 2022, Ineos have a 19-year-old and three 20-year-olds; Bora-hansgrohe have two 18-year-olds; Quickstep have an 18-year old; UAE Team Emirates have two 19-year-olds. And there will be two other teenagers in the Worldtour: 19-year-old Arnaud De Lie at Lotto Soudal and 19-year-old Marco Brenner at Team DSM.
While it’s true that teams and agents are looking at junior riders with a keener eye, the recruitment of such young riders is, says Southam, more apparent at the ‘big five’ teams, which means the those first four plus Jumbo-visma.
‘We at EF are not really in the arms race of trying to sign the best juniors,’ says Southam. ‘I mean, the big teams seem to be in a pitched battle to sign these guys on long contracts. It’s getting pretty crazy. For me, the Junior Worlds road race is what the under-23 race used to be. The under-23 race is effectively a pro race now.
‘But our team is a bit different,’ Southam adds. ‘We’re not signing riders who are 19, 20 and expecting them to perform. We’re finding guys who are maybe not that young. James is the perfect example.’
Past it at 22
‘James’ is James Shaw, the 25-year-old British rider who, after a rollercoaster few years, will step back into the Worldtour in 2022.
Shaw’s is a remarkable story, one that offers an interesting counterpoint to the prevailing narrative. Indeed, he could become a case study in the flaws of recruitment strategies that put youth above all else, and which further down the line result in riders in their early to mid-twenties being discarded.
Shaw had just turned 20 when he signed for Lotto Soudal, initially as a stagiaire, in August 2016. In his first full year he was thrown into big races: the Tour Down Under, Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné in year one; the Tour of Catalonia, Tour of Poland and then a Monument, Il Lombardia, in year two.
And then he was let go. If it seemed like some sort of cruel joke that his last race for the team was his first
Monument, and what made it worse was he crashed and broke his shoulder.
It was the end of his career with
Lotto Soudal. He was 22.
Southam is at a loss as to what happened with Shaw and the Belgian team: ‘When he turned pro he was super-young. It was unusual then to sign a guy that young. He rode some big races and seemed to do well. I was surprised that they let him go after two years. Why would you sign a guy at that age and then let them go when they’re still really young?
‘Most people in that situation, they might come back and race in the UK but they’re not going to get out again,’ adds Southam. ‘They’re not going to get another crack at it.’
Shaw, who does not have an agent, did return to the UK. He put together a CV, used Linkedin to contact team managers and managed to find a place on a small domestic team, Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling.
In May 2019, with only three races in his legs, including one stage race, he rode the Tour de Yorkshire and, in a field containing several Worldtour teams, finished fifth overall.
He only raced 25 days that year but did enough to earn a move to a Danish professional team, Riwal Securitas. It was a step back in the right direction and it started well: he rode two stage races in February 2020. Then coronavirus brought racing to a halt. Although
Shaw was able to do a few more races when racing resumed, the pandemic effectively spelled the end. He was out of a job again.
Last winter tested his resolve. His team had stopped paying him in August and then his partner, with whom he bought a house at the start of the year, lost her job too.
‘I’m in the unfortunate position at 24 of the finances determining what I can and can’t do,’ said Shaw at the time.
‘I’m in a sticky situation,’ he added.
‘If I can’t afford it, do I have to turn to something else? That’s not the way I want to pick my future. Much as I’d love to ride for the joy of it and the privilege of racing, I need to pay my mortgage and put petrol in the car. Unfortunately the Shell or BP garages don’t accept morale as a valid currency.’
Even then, Shaw was well aware that there was a tide of young riders being signed by Worldtour teams – and
James Shaw was well aware there was a tide of young riders being signed – and that to some, at the age of 24, he might be already past it
that to some observers he might be regarded as already past it.
‘But I’d still class myself as a young rider worth investing in,’ he protested. ‘At 24 I’m not going to write myself off.’
Return to the big league
Finally Shaw found a place with a British team, Ribble Weldtite, and in June he rode the Tour of Slovenia. On the key stages he was sixth, sixth and fifth, and he finished fifth overall. The winner was the reigning Tour de France champion, Pogačar, and on the tough, hilly stages, Shaw was surrounded by Worldtour riders. One place ahead of him on GC was Rafał Majka; behind him were
Tanel Kangert and Matej Mohorič, who the following month would win two stages at the Tour.
‘For him to do that without the race programme that our guys have is pretty incredible,’ says Southam. ‘He only has one or two shots at big races and he goes away and thinks: “I need to be as prepared as the guys who are racing a full Worldtour calendar.” He did it all on his own, that’s what’s so impressive.’
Shaw puts his survival in the sport down to his ‘stubbornness and awkwardness. I don’t want to be in a position where I’m being forced to retire. And I wasn’t ready to accept that my career was over. So I had to keep going, and 100% I knew I wanted to race.’
Two years ago he got in touch with Charly Wegelius, the senior sports director at EF: ‘I just went to him to ask for advice. We had a good chinwag and he gave me some good advice.’
It meant Shaw was on Wegelius’s radar, but at the end of 2020 there were no vacancies at EF. If he was going to catch their eye it had to be in 2021. He also knew ‘negotiations on contracts are largely done off the results you have in the first half of the year. At the beginning of the year a lot of races got cancelled, but we got invited to Slovenia. Originally the team was going to turn it down and do something else but I pushed for it.
‘I was confident in my ability but I didn’t really know what my form was like. The others had all ridden Grand Tours and other big races. I did feel a bit out of place. I was the only one in the top ten on a tiny Continental team with a tiny little salary, but I think a lot of people actually recognised and respected that.
‘The penultimate day was a summit finish and the guy behind me, Kangert [Team Bikeexchange], came to see me the next day and said, “I tried my best to catch you yesterday but I was really hoping you stayed away because I’ve read your story, I’ve seen that you’ve had a bit of wobble, and I really wanted you to get a good result.”’
Plenty of other people noticed Shaw’s performances in Slovenia, then at the Tour of Norway where he also finished fifth. Suddenly it wasn’t just EF who were interested.
‘Yeah,’ says Shaw, ‘by the end of July, early August, there were a few offers on the table.’
The alternative route
It was always going to be EF, though. As Southam says, they have an alternative way of doing things – and they look for riders, like Shaw, who have not followed a conventional path.
‘I don’t know how to describe the feeling when I signed the contract,’ says Shaw. ‘When I verbally agreed to it I worried that things could still go wrong. But once I got the email with the four signatures all signed I slept so well that night. It was unbelievable. I had the feeling of going to bed and it was almost like I had fallen into a coma. It was such a deep quality sleep.
‘I like to think that I’ve still got my best years to come,’ he adds. ‘And I feel like I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, to guys my age, and to get back to where I believe I should be.
‘The hard work almost starts now, you know? Not many people get a second chance, let alone a third opportunity to go back to a big team.
So, yeah, my motivation to make sure this one doesn’t slide is pretty high.’
Shaw will turn 26 in 2022. And he will be out to prove that after being cast aside twice there can be second and third acts in professional cycling. Richard Moore is a cycling journalist and author, former racer and co-founder of The Cycling Podcast