Lorenzo Mark Finn’s future in cycling

Lorenzo Mark Finn has achieved what he set out to do this year. Or rather, he has almost achieved it. Because there is still that thought of the World Championships at the end of September buzzing around in his head: to climb onto the top step of the podium at the world championships in his category for the third time, having done so in the Juniors two years ago and in the Under-23s a year ago, in his first year in that category. Lorenzo Mark Finn won the 2026 Tour de l’Avenir, the most important and prestigious stage race amongst those reserved for young riders – those who were once called ‘amateurs’ but who have been living the life of professionals (or almost) for quite some time now. He donned the yellow jersey after winning both the time trial and the mountain stage, at 2,243 metres above sea level at Lake Surrù, beneath the Nivolet. A striking demonstration of his superiority on the bike. Yesterday, on the Iseran, he had instead demonstrated that he possessed steady nerves and the ability to analyse the race. And at nineteen, that is a rare commodity, a sign of cycling intelligence. And cycling intelligence is one of the few things that cannot be easily improved.

Lorenzo Mark Finn won the French race after triumphing in the 2026 Giro d’Italia Next Gen in June. Before him, only Gianbattista Baronchelli – known for short as Tista or Gibì – had managed to win both France and Italy in a single season.

The Italian rider could already have been racing amongst the professionals, just as Paul Seixas decided to do. The Frenchman felt ready to take on the best. So did the Italian, but he had a score to settle with the races which, whether through inexperience or bad luck, he had failed to win. Lorenzo Mark Finn is in no rush; he knows that certain opportunities – and the Tour de l’Avenir and the Giro d’Italia Next Gen are among them – may not come round again, and that it is therefore better to avoid regrets and try to enjoy what he can have right now, before it inevitably fades away. After all, time is on his side. At not even twenty years old, he has at least fifteen seasons ahead of him, full of cycling and big goals. Perhaps even more. Years in which he will have to battle against the strongest rider – certainly of this era, and perhaps not just of this era – Tadej Pogačar. Then even the Slovenian will have to come to terms with the passage of time.

Lorenzo Mark Finn has decided to take things at a slower pace in order to enjoy the present; he has opted for a winning sense of calm rather than the anxiety of having to prove he is a potential front-runner.

‘There’s time,’ they said.

There is time, yes, you’re right. And above all, there is time to take in hand the ambitions of a country, Italy, which still considers itself the gravitational centre of European cycling, despite the roads suggesting otherwise. Lorenzo Mark Finn will need broad shoulders and a great deal of resilience, because what we have come to realise is inevitable will happen: years of disappointments and frustrations, of dream victories and lived-through disasters, will be heaped upon him. The rider is intelligent, he’s fast, and he’ll know how to handle it all.

In the meantime, there’s another World Cup dream to chase. But there’s time until the end of September.