Written by Hennerie of Brokenchain
It has been quiet for some while, but here are the new young guns.
The last "Young Guns" article was in season 30 and first we will have a quick review of who they were and if they have lived up to their hype since then.
Bjarne Dandanell
- After his second spot and YC jersey in the Germany Tour of season 30 he hasn't won anything significant.
Verdict: no hasn't lived up to his hype.
Santiago Campelo
- Won a lot and became a icon in the game, yet he only just won his first classic (Helsinki GP Mini) after his YC win in Vuelta de los Castillos season 30.
Hasn't won any Jerseys or classics in between.
Verdict: has lived up to his hype, yet should have won more jerseys/trophies.
Lech Wieckowski
- After his YC win in Volta ao Porto he has only got a second spot in World Championships ITT as big result. Other than that just a 3 results per season average.
Verdict: hasn't lived up to his hype.
Philippe Starkey
- 1 result in season 34, also was in a cheating team so hasn't been used since October 2015.
Verdict: hasn't lived up to his hype. Even though is in a cheaters team it would've been unlikely that he would get big results with only average sprint.
Hunter Samuels
- 4 results in low divisions since season 30.
Verdict: hasn't lived up to his hype. Seems to have mainly been used as LO too.
Rodolfo Gomez
- Most notable result is a 3rd spot in Tweedaagse van Antwerpen GC in season 31. Should have done better with his qualities even though he raced in div. 1 and 2.
Verdict: got some results in div. 1 and 2 cobble classics and tours, but no wins. Didn't live up to his hype.
Francois Gasana
- a 3rd spot in Norway Tour season 31 is his most notable result after season 30.
Verdict: hasn't lived up to his hype. But we do have to say he raced in div. 2/3 in a team of only riders from Burundi.
New rule for determining who is to be a young gun
New rules for the young guns. The previous young guns article contained riders of 24 years of age or younger.
Since we now have an u23 competition | | and many very good u23 riders already, the current article will be about u23 riders.
Tour rider:
It was hard to pick a rider to win the title of Young gun - tour rider season 36, because there were two superb candidates.
First we have Shawn Husum, who already has a Classic and a two jerseys under his belt from the current season.
Secondly we have Erhard Ryba who seems to just lack some real results.
The winner however is Erhard Ryba due to his superior Flat Road ability, his better climbing and overall skill.
His team is now in division 3, but we see him able to compete for the general classification properly in Norway, Volta and Germany Tour in the future.
Time Trialist :
Adônis Lourenço
A traditional Brazilian TQ TTer, to the likes of Jairo Mirandola(29) and Edmundo Andrade(27).
He's still young and doesn't have overwhelming results under his belt yet, but he is without a doubt the greatest TT talent currently around in OCM.
At first sight he doesn't look that impressive as a 218TTer with 64Sprint, but what Adônis lacks in skills he makes up for in experience.
At 20 years old he has lvl4 experience already, similar to Edmundo Andrade who is 7 years his senior. If his manager doesn't forget to set tactics we will hear a lot about this guy.
Sprinter:
The title of Young Gun - sprinter of season 36 was a close race between Eloi Costa And Ivo Hilhorst.
Unfortunately for Ivo Hilhorst, Eloi Costa beats him in both pure skill and experience.
Even though Eloi Costa has only 2 u23 results in 2 seaons under his belt. We know this is going to be the next big thing!
Climber:
The title for Young gun - Climber of season 36 was a lot easier. There is only 1 real contender here and that is Sylvan Berton.
Rumours go
| | that this powerhouse is still in training. At 223 climbing points, it however seems unlikely that this can still be improved. But we are looking forward what his full potential will be.
With his high CL skill he will be able to do well in pure climbing races as well as hill climbing and maybe even win Norway Tour eventually.
Cobbler:
One of the first candidates that was in sight to be the shining cobbler star today was Rolf Snow.
However this lasted until we met this wonderkid from Turkmenistan, Aristarkh Ukhov.
His strong point, obviously, is cobbling but he's still got a pretty decent power on flat roads and has a good technique for his bulky posture.
At the moment his team is ranked pretty low in div. 5, but with this new cobble star they should be able to rise ranks pretty soon.
Hill sprinter:
Have we found the new Folkert Gerrits? It certainly looks like it!.
Meet Darie Mitu, a young hill sprinter from Romania.
Mitu is an allround hill sprinter that might do well in straight forward sprint races that lack TQ.
At 22 years old this talent has yet to achieve any results, but with the right manager we see him capable of doing great things.
His new manager, since he's for sale, has his work cut out as he lacks some experience.
If he achieves to get this up to par he will have a real gem in is hands that can compete tours as FoW, GdS or maybe even Nederlandse.
Downhiller:
Three candidates for the downhill title. Despite being very good or inhuman racing down a mountain the title doesn't go to Colin Tomhave or
Peter Langeveld but to Orest Baranowski.
Why? Well because Orest is not just good in racing off a mountain he's also pretty decent going up a mountain. Racing up a mountain is a quite useful skill if you want to race down a mountain.
Besides that he's also an explosive rider which will give him an edge in the finale of race.
What do you guys think about the season 36 young guns? Feel free to discuss or criticise them in the comments.
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