Juniors to watch in 2014: What happened ? Part I

A year ago, one of the first posts on my blog was a list of riders that you should take a closer look at during 2014 season. After a year I've decided to write a review of what actually happened with them and what results did they achieve on junior scene.

Igor Decraene (Belgium, 1996-2014) 

My review starts from the worst of information. Igor Decraene, 2013 World time trial champion has passed away on 30th of August. Before that Igor managed to score national title in time trial and third place in time trial stage during Course de la Paix. He was preparing to defend his rainbow jersey when the sad news arrived. From 2015 there will be a special award called Trofee Igor Decraene for the best Belgian junior time trialist. Hopefully Igor will never be forgotten.

Nikolay Cherkasov (Russia, 1996)

 

In 2013 Cherkasov managed to defeat Igor Decraene in time trial at European Championships and won the title. A year later he started his  season pretty good with overall win in Tour of Arad, rising amateur race in Israel. Unfortunately, later came a crash during Paris Roubaix but young Russian was quickly back in action and scored his best result of the season a month later. Cherkasov finished second in overall classification in Le Trophée Centre Morbihan after also being second in time trial behind Erlend Blikra. After that, unfortunately, Cherkasov didn't achieve any results in uci races unless we count 12th place in Trofeo Buffoni as a solid results. I have no info about the team that Cherkasov will ride in 2015 (if you have any info please let me know) but hopefully he won't disappear totally in u23 as he was one of the best time trialists in his first junior season.

Zeke Mostov (1996, Hagens Berman u23)

After exceptional 2013 season with series of decent gc results and third place in Worlds time trial, in the first part of 2014 season Zeke Mostov focused on riding for his team, Hagens Berman u23 in American amateur races. He managed to grab few solid results in smaller events like  Madera County Stage Race where he finished second overall, behind Adrien Costa. Mostov finally joined US national team for Canadian Nations Cup event Tour de l'Abitibi and had a chance to prove his great abilities at the highest level. Race went great for Zeke as he finished third in time trial (behind his teammates: Costa & Barta) and once he completed all the rest stages in peleton and grabbed few bonus seconds he managed to finish second overall. Finally he finished fifth in World Championships but I have to say it was a great result (comparing to his bronze medal in 2013) considering how exceptionally high was the competition level. In 2015 Zeke Mostov will continue his career in California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized team. I see Mostov as one of the most promising riders born in 96/97 and together with Costa and Barta he might develop into great stage racer and for sure we will hear about his results in time trial already in near future.

 Patrick Müller (Switzerland, BMC Development Team)

Patrick season was limited because of mononucleosis that forced him to end his season in August. But before that Patrick managed to score pretty decent amount of great results. He started with second place in GC of Tour de Leman where he was beaten only by French climber Vicotr Lefay. Later on, he faced strong competition in Tour de Pays de Vaud where he finished eighth in general and won the final stage after a sprint. Just a month later Patrick managed to win national title in road race. But it wasnt' the end of success as Patrick finished fifth in gc of prestigious GP General Patton before heading to European Track Championships where the best result was vice-European Champion title in Madison race where together with Nico Selanti. In 2015 Patrick will continue to develop in BMC Development Team. Because of the mononucleosis Patrick didn't have a chance to fully show his potential in 2014 and might be a little bit underrated in comparison with top juniors from '96 but as he already signed with BMC Devo Team I'm more then sure we won't have to wait for a big result from Müller either on track or road.