Juniors to watch in 2014: What happened ? Part III

Here's the final part of my review of "Juniors to watch in 2014". Below you can read a little about two guys from 1997 who will start their second season as a junior but were already hyped as big cycling prospects a year ago.

Adrien Costa (USA, 1997)

You could already read a short review of Costa's season in my junior ranking list so there is no point to repeat the list of  his results here again. Just in addition I can predict that if nothing bad happens and Adrien will keep improving he can easily dominate every mountain stage and possibly also a time trials in junior category this year. In 2015 young American climber will ride for California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized elite team based in Northern California. He will begin with few smaller races in California before heading to the first big event: Redlands Classic in April. Later, as he states, he should ride Course de la Paix and will be back to similar schedule like last year: Tour du Pays de Vaud,  Trofeo Karlsberg, NC and Tour de l'Abitibi. Finally, the big goal will be the Worlds in Richmond, as he's aiming for gold medal in time trial.

Nicola Conci (Italy, 1997)

Young Italian rider from U.C Giorgione Abito Team was a total sensation in 2013 winning every kind of race in under 17 category in Italy. A year later, we could actually notice that Nicola Conci could turn into great climber. He won seven races last season in Italian amateur scene including some impressive performances in mountaintop finishes like in the one day race from Pinerolo to Sestriere where he climbed all the way up to the mountaintop finish getting amazing solo win. Other impressive result came from Sandrigo Monte Corno classic where he has beaten Edoardo Affini in two man sprint at the top of Monte Corno. But that's not all. He continue with solo win at the top of Mezzomonte during 73rd edition of Trofeo Bottecchia before another win at Cittadella Colli Alti. Again solo, again uphill. In international level he didn't win any races. His best result came from Trofeo Buffoni where he finished second, this time Affini has beaten him in sprint. He was also in front group of Trofeo San Rocco (fnished seventh) and G.P. dell'Arno (5th) but both races din't fit Conci's characteristics since both of them finished with small group sprints. It's also worth to mention that Conci was one of the attackers in Ponfferada but he was very unlucky and crashed at the descent and couldn't fight for a medal. Next year Conci will probably continue to dominate Italian amateur mountains and hopefully we can see him fighting against the top juniors in Basilicata or Lunigiana if those races will be back to the calendar. In 2015 Nicola Conci will switch the team and ride for Team LVF where he will probably fill the spot of climber Davide Plebani who finished his second year as junior.