He beat Paul Seixas as a junior. Now Finn bounces up to the WorldTour with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe packing massive grand tour buzz.
Lorenzo Finn, 19, bumps to the WorldTour team after dominating the U23 ranks. (Photo: Twila Federica Muzzi / Red Bull Content Pool)
Updated November 2, 2026 12:23PM
Lorenzo Finn, cycling’s latest teenage sensation, is jumping to the WorldTour in 2027.
The 19-year-old steps up with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe into cycling’s top league after a dominant junior and U23 career that saw him beat Paul Seixas at the 2024 junior road worlds and then follow in his footsteps to win the Tour de l’Avenir this summer.
Finn will line up alongside Remco Evenepoel and Jai Hindley with an eye on continuing his meteoric development that has some tongues wagging that he could become a grand tour contender.
The expectations are already piling up, but Finn wants to keep his feet on the ground.
“You have to take a moment to pause and tell yourself: I haven’t reached my ultimate goal yet, but I’ve made it as a pro. It’s something I’ve wanted since I was a child,” Finn said. “Now I must not put too much pressure on myself. First, I need to get used to the level.”
Finn, who turns 20 in December, already tested himself against the pros in a handful of races this season.
This summer he won two stages and the overall at the Sibiu Tour, a four-day Romanian stage race whose previous winners include Egan Bernal and Matthew Riccitello.
Crushing the U23 ranks: ‘100 percent ready for next step’
Finn makes the jump to the WorldTour. (Photo: Twila Federica Muzzi / Red Bull Content Pool)
After winning the U23 world title in Kigali in 2025, Finn stayed in the development ranks for another season but raced the elite men’s worlds in Montréal with 55th.
His 2026 haul in the U23 ranks included the Giro Next Gen and Tour de l’Avenir titles, becoming the first rider since Gianbattista Baronchelli in 1973 to win both in the same year.
Bernal and Tadej Pogačar each won the Tour de France two years after their Avenir victories. Isaac del Toro and Seixas are other big names with the “mini Tour de France” on their palmarès.
“I don’t have any specific expectations for my first year as a pro. I want to keep developing throughout the season and help the team,” Finn said. “I still have time. I’m a long way from reaching my full potential. But I’ve reached a level where I can be confident in myself. Now I feel 100 percent ready to take the next step.”
None of that guarantees Finn a yellow jersey.
But it does help explain why his promotion comes packed with more buzz than the usual bounce from a development team.
Red Bull’s development bet pays off
Finn is the first rider to graduate to the WorldTour from inside the team’s development program. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
The son of an English father and Italian mother, Finn speaks both languages fluently and races under an Italian license.
A former footballer, he didn’t take up cycling seriously until he was 15. Within just a few years, he’s rocketed up the rankings.
Finn also becomes the first rider to climb every rung of the team’s development ladder, progressing from the grenke-Auto Eder junior squad to two seasons with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies to the WorldTour.
Chief of sports Zak Dempster said the promotion is bigger than signing just one more über-talent.
“Developing our own riders is a central part of our strategy. Our goal is to provide young athletes with a clear pathway to the WorldTour,” Dempster said. “Lorenzo is the first rider to have followed that pathway from the junior ranks onwards. It confirms that our concept works. At the same time, it sends a clear message to the best young talents around the world: if you want to develop over the long term, Red Bull offers the right environment to do so.”
Finn has been crushing the past two seasons in such Pog-like fashion he’s already being called cycling’s next big teen sensation.
In 2027, he will find out how far he can go against the real deal.