Romain Bardet has described the up-and-coming generation of riders including the likes of Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar as «bike geniuses». Pogacar had won his first Tour de France by the age of 21 in 2020, and backed it up by taking the 2021 edition, with his extraordinary racing taking the cycling world by storm. Ad Evenpoel is a shade younger than Pogacar at 22, but won his first Grand Tour this year at the Vuelta a Espana, and also picked up the World Road Race title in the same month of September, becoming the youngest rider to do so in 29 years.