Cycling is often about the winners, those who throw their hands aloft at the end of Tour de France stages and Monuments. However, behind the upper circle of champions lie over 400 names on the WorldTour.
While it can seem difficult to stand out among this huge contingent of pros, some riders remain underrated in the cycling ecosystem, whether they be domestiques, sprinters or climbers.
Today, we’ll shine a light on ten of the unsung heroes of the 2025 pro season. To make the cut, these riders need to have improved on previous years without the fanfare handed to our usual household names.
Related questions you can explore with Ask Cyclist, our AI search engine.
If you would like to ask your own question you just need to , or subscribe.
Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla)
Jayco-AlUla/Tour of Oman
Paul Double slipped onto the WorldTour at the start of 2025 after being embedded in the Italian second division for half a decade. His name was relatively unknown coming into the year, but he left an impact on mountaintop finishes in 2025, claiming three victories on uphill finales.
He made his Giro debut in the spring, but he would later pick up two stage race titles in 2025, including the WorldTour-level Tour of Guangxi in the autumn. Even his team have struggled to put faith in Double though, having sent him to only a couple of WorldTour races this year.
Perhaps he’ll be offered more leadership roles in 2026 as Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper leave Jayco for Q36.5. Maybe a Giro breakaway win is on the cards next spring.
Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
Xavier Pereyron
Unibet Tietema Rockets soared through the UCI rankings this year, leaving them in pole position to receive a Tour de France invitation in 2026.
The talisman for the French-Dutch team has been sprinter Lukáš Kubiš, who was picked up by the squad in 2024 as an untapped talent. In 2025, he took a massive step up, scoring his maiden pro victory outside of Slovakia and a first WorldTour top ten at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Along with these headline feats, the Slovak was a frequent visitor to the podium in second-order sprints, scoring nine top three finishes in stage races throughout the year. These came on a variety of profiles too, proven by his close calls with overall titles at the Tour de la Provence, Tour of Holland and Tour of Denmark.
After some maverick years, he should be a marked man in 2026, when the team changes name to Unibet Rose Rockets.
Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Harry Talbot
Giulio Pellizzari had a very Fabio Aru-esque season. By that, he remained quiet for most of the year, but rode impressive Grand Tours.
That said, the Italian had to nurse Primož Roglič through the first two weeks of the Giro, which left him several minutes behind the main bulk of GC contenders by the final rest day, lying in 18th place overall. After the Slovenian abandoned, Pellizzari shot up the standings and finished the Corsa Rosa in an exceptional sixth place. He didn’t have to go in breakaways to achieve that either, his climbing prestige was enough to claw back enough time to rub shoulders in the meat of top ten.
His Vuelta was equally convincing. Freed of babysitting duties, he spent the majority of the race inside the top ten overall. A stage atop the Alto de El Morredero handed the Italian his first triumph on the WorldTour, helping him to secure another sixth place in the final GC standings.
While many of his Red Bull teammates underperformed or lacked consistency through the calendar, Pellizzari was one of the most reliable. Time will tell whether this warrants him more leadership positions at the Grand Tours in 2026 once Remco Evenepoel jumps on board.
Katrine Aalerud (Uno X Mobility)
A.S.O/Thomas Maheux
Uno X overperformed this year. In a season fraught with a relegation battle, the Norwegian squad jumped up a level and scored their biggest combined UCI Points haul since the team’s creation in 2022. The team’s top scorer Linda Zanetti deserves a shoutout here, but I’ve chosen to highlight the squad’s GC leader Katrine Aalerud.
At 30 years old, Aalerud shot up the UCI rankings to her highest ever position. This came courtesy of a consistent stage race programme. In fact, she finished every multi-day race this year – bar the Vuelta Femenina – inside the top ten overall. This includes a top ten at the Giro d’Italia, UAE Tour, Vuelta a Burgos and Volta a Andalucia.
She also delivered in one-day races, finishing inside the top 15 at Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne as well as both the World and European Championships. She was also narrowly pipped to podium finishes at both those championships in the time-trial, proving her versatility once more.
Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling)
A.S.O./Billy Ceusters
Though Michael Storer has been riding among the top ranks of pro cycling for some time now, 2025 is his best season to date if you look at UCI points alone. In fact, he accrued twice as many points this year as he did in any season between 2021, when he burst through at the Vuelta, and 2024.
A lot of this was down to season-long consistency in the mountains. He picked up a stage win and a top five place overall at Paris-Nice before an impressive pre-Giro performance at the Tour of the Alps, where he crushed the opposition to claim a first stage race victory in Tudor colours. He was characteristically consistent at the Grand Tours as well, finishing inside the top ten of the Giro and through his breakaway role at the Tour de France.
Not only that, Storer was able to ride a late-season wave of form, culminating in a podium finish at Il Lombardia, which was Tudor’s first Monument podium.
Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)
Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche
2025 was Monica Trinca Colonel’s first year in the WorldTour. After jumping into the pro peloton at a later age, she was an unknown quantity coming into the season opener at the UAE Tour.
There, she put herself on the map with a fourth place overall, a taster of things to come for the maverick Italian. She’d carry this streak of form into the Classics, where he slipped into the top ten at Monuments Trofeo Binda and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. A top ten overall at the Vuelta soon after would solidify her status as one of the most impressive debutants in the pack.
Trinca Colonel was forced to abandon both the Giro and Tour, but not without a brief stint inside the top ten overall at her home Grand Tour. If she stuck around in those races, she’d be in discussion for our team of the year.
Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)
Luca Bettini/Getty Images
At 28 years old, France’s Nicolas Prodhomme enjoyed his best season to date, jumping up the UCI standings from 347th in 2024 to 70th at the end of 2025.
Prodhomme found his feet after Paul Seixas gifted him a first pro victory at the Tour of the Alps, which was perhaps a short-sighted decision given the direction the Frenchman’s season would soon take.
Indeed, Prodhomme would claim two top five finishes at the Giro before claiming the big cheese on Stage 19. Spurred on by his newfound gold rush, the Decathlon climber would claim a stage and the overall standings at the Route d’Occitanie and a further stage victory at the Tour de l’Ain, where he finished runner-up overall. Throw in a one-day win at La Polynormande and Prohomme’s case gets even stronger.
It’ll be interesting to see whether he can live up to this annus miraculus and continue to score victories in 2026. With Felix Gall and Matthew Riccitello now on the roster, his role could be shifted into something of a domestique next year though.
Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ)
hode Van Elsen/Getty Images
Ireland’s Lara Gillespie was already a known entity coming into 2025 after becoming the first Irishwoman to win a European title on the track. 2025, however, would be her first full year on the road with UAE Team ADQ.
Gillespie was one of the strongest sprinters in the women’s sport this year. She picked up top fives from winter to autumn, notably at Brugge De Panne, Nokere Koers and Le Samyn. These one-day results would be minnowed later in the year after Gillespie claimed A Travers les Hauts de France and finished Binche-Chimay-Binche as runner-up. To add, she would shine on debut at the Tour with a third place behind the insurmountable Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos on Stage 4.
In a world where Wiebes dominates, Gillespie wasn’t too far off. She’s only 24 and has years to develop. Could she be the first Irishwoman to win a Grand Tour stage? I think so.
Orluis Aular (Movistar)
Unipublic/Rafa Gómez/Sprint Cycling Agency
If you take a glance over the UCI rankings, you may be surprised to see Orluis Aular placed above the likes of Pello Bilbao, Antonio Tiberi and Ben O’Connor. How come?
Well, the Movistar sprinter is a reliable and versatile force in stage races. The Venezuelan finished inside the top ten on 12 occasions at Grand Tours this year, translating to a 25% hit rate. Five of these days saw Aular placed on the final podium. Looking at this stat alone, he’s featured on the Grand Tour podium more than Arnaud de Lie, Biniam Girmay, Jordi Meeus and Phil Bauhaus.
As a result of that, he was Movistar’s top sprinter in 2025, easily surpassing Fernando Gaviria to make the start line of two Grand Tours. Who knows, he could be primed for a first WorldTour win in 2026.
Victor Langellotti (Ineos Grenadiers)
Szymon Gruchalski/Tour de Pologne
I’ll be honest and confess that it was a surprise to see a WorldTour team sign Victor Langellotti in last year’s transfer window, not least a team of Ineos Grenadiers’ mitre.
Evidently, I hadn’t given Langellotti much of a chance. I’d soon regret this as he became one of Ineos’s top performers in 2025, with a stage victory and top five overall at the Tour de Pologne and an overall podium at the Tour of Norway. Not only that, the Monegasque rider proved a valuable domestique for his British team and a regular feature in the breakaway.
It was enjoyable watching Langellotti in 2025 and I’m intrigued to see how he will develop into 2026. A more Classics-focussed programme could do him good.