Teen Supertalent Lorenzo Finn Pushes 7w/kg to Join Pogačar as Winner of ‘Baby Tour de France’

Lorenzo Mark Finn reasserted himself as the king of the under-23s on Wednesday by sealing an emphatic overall victory at the Tour de l’Avenir.

The 19-year-old Italian joined a wild roll of honor by winning the prestigious development race that’s anointed multiple Tour de France champions.

Greg LeMond, Miguel Indurain, Egan Bernal, and Tadej Pogačar are all part of Tour de l’Avenir’s very elite club of winners. Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas are also members.

Finn, who’s already won junior road race worlds and is reigning U23 world champion, delivered a Pogačar-esque performance through the back of the mountainous 7-day race.

His final winning margin of 2:34 is the biggest in more than 10 years.

The rangy climber took the yellow jersey by winning the stage 5 time trial, padded his advantage the next day, and put an exclamation point on it Wednesday by winning the final mountaintop finish while wearing yellow.

“I couldn’t have finished this Tour de l’Avenir any better,” Finn said after the final stage into the Italian Alps. “The final climb was very hard, and I’m super happy that I managed to finish it off.

“The fact that the race ended in Italy makes it even more special – on that last climb and all day long, there were so many people cheering me on,” he said.

Belgian duo Niels Driesden and Matteo Vanhuffel rounded out the GC podium.

Finn boasts 7w/kg power and a WorldTour contract

Finn joined the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe “Rookies” devo team last year and has dominated the U23 ranks since.

He won U23 worlds in Kigali last autumn and doubled back for a home win at the “Baby Giro” 8-day race this June.

Finn has also seen racing with the senior Red Bull team of Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič in advance of him joining the WorldTour ranks in 2027.

This was the first year that the Tour de l’Avenir (perhaps controversially) opened up its start list to conti-level WorldTour development teams. And it showed – all 20 of the top spots went to development team riders. Athletes from national teams were left chasing the scraps.

But that shouldn’t take anything away from Finn – the kid’s very good.

Online data sleuths estimate the 19-year-old hit close to 7w/kg for 25 minutes on Monday when he blitzed the mountain TT.

So if you don’t know it already – remember the name Lorenzo Mark Finn. Tour de l’Avenir history suggests you’ll be seeing it a lot more over the next 15+ years.

Tour de l’Avenir 2026: Final GC