No less than five young British riders are set to join the professional ranks in 2017, making their way out of the amateur and under-23 categories after years of continued success.
Unsurprisingly, Team Sky have snapped up two of the most prominent under-23 riders of recent years in Owain Doull, 23, and Tao Geoghegan-Hart, 21. Doull, a member of Team Wiggins, was third overall at the Tour of Britain last year, and as well as a host of other results was also in the winning Team Pursuit team at the Rio Olympics. It was announced in the summer that Doull would stagiaire with Team Sky for the remainder of the 2016 season, and he's since already lined up in Team Sky colours at Paris-Tours.
Geoghegan-Hart meanwhile has spent the previous four seasons at the Axeon Hagens Bergman development team and its previous iterations, basing himself in the USA. He's notched up some impressive results at major US stage races like the Tour of California and USA Pro Challenge, as well as at major under-23 stage races such as the Tour de l'Avenir. Like Doull, he joins Team Sky on a two-year contract until the end of 2018.
Elsewhere, another double-header means that both Jon Dibben and Hugh Carthy, both 22, will be riding for Cannondale-Drapac next year, with the US WorldTour team snapping up both riders for their varying abilities. Carthy is very much a climber, and will go to the team after first riding for Rapha-Condor JLT, where he won the Tour de Korea, and then Caja-Rural Seguros, where he was 9th in GC at the Volta Catalunya and won the Vuelta Asturias. Dibben meanwhile has spent the previous few months as a stagiaire at Cannondale, signing after two years with Team Wiggins. He's the reigning points race world champion on the track, and on the road has been up there in the U23 Paris-Roubaix and won stages at the esteemed under-23 stage race, Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux.
Finally, after spending two years with the under 23 Lotto-Soudal amateur team, 20 year old James Shaw has signed for the WorldTour team for two years. Shaw spent the second half of the 2016 as a stagiare, putting in an impressive ride at the Tour of Britain in support of Andre Greipel, after a season that also included 5th at the under-23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege and 3rd at the very testing Fleche Ardennaise.
Dibben, Geoghegan-Hart and Shaw are all riding the men's U23 road race at the World Championships in Doha tomorrow, after Dibben and Geoghegan-Hart finished 15th and 26th respectively in the time trial on Monday.