The WorldTour is getting younger and younger, or not?

There is a clear feeling that riders are bursting onto the scene at an increasingly younger age, and thus, the average age of the WorldTour peloton naturally decreases. That has been the case in recent years, when we look at the numbers.

For example, in 2018, the average age in the WorldTour was 27.46 years old, and by 2025, this figure had dropped to 26.76. However, 2026 has seen a buck to the trend, and the average age has increased to 27.24, the highest it has been since 2020.

Possible reasons for this increase in average age are the demise of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and the merger between Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty. 

Consequently, plenty of riders from the two WorldTour sides Arkéa and Intermarché would have been left without contracts for 2026 and with a limited number of places available, perhaps more teams have looked to experience rather than potential with the final spots remaining on their respective rosters, though the average age of the Lotto-Intermarché merger of 25.45 for 2026, is actually younger than Intermarché-Wanty’s 26.3 in 2025.

The average age of Arkéa’s squad in 2025 was 25.8, making the French side the fourth youngest in the WorldTour. Additionally, the promotion of the NSN Cycling Team to the WorldTour has contributed to the increase in average age, as the Swiss registered team has the third-oldest squad in the WorldTour for 2026.

For the second consecutive year, EF Education-EasyPost will boast the youngest squad in the men’s WorldTour. In 2025, the American squad’s average age was 25.7 years old, and this figure has dropped further heading into 2026. The average age of the riders that make up EF Education-EasyPost’s squad is 25.31.

Of the five riders that EF have signed for 2026, Luke Lamperti is the oldest at 22 years old, and two of those riders actually make the top 10 list of youngest riders in the WorldTour for 2026, but more on that later.

The team’s standout rider in 2025, Ben Healy, represents the average age of the team well, as the Irishman is 25 years old himself. Healy enjoyed a sensational Tour de France in the summer, which saw a stage win, stint in yellow and 9th in the general classification in Paris. He rounded out the season with a bronze medal at the World Championships.

Conversely, Lidl-Trek once more has the oldest squad in the WorldTour for the third season in a row. Experience has served the team very well, finishing 3rd in the UCI rankings in 2025, with 46 victories. There are 20 years between the youngest rider on the team, Albert Withen Philipsen, who is 19 and the oldest rider, Bauke Mollema, who is 39.

In an age where riders are continuously jumping straight from the junior ranks to the WorldTour, some of the youngest riders are making big impacts from the get-go. The most recent case in point is Paul Seixas, who was the youngest rider in the WorldTour in 2025. 

Seixas, who only turned 19 in September, illustrated his potential and high levels already on many occasions in 2025. An eight place at the Critérium du Dauphiné amongst a stacked GC field confirmed his potential as a GC rider, before going on to win the prestigious under-23 race, the Tour de l’Avenir. 

Seixias’s final block of 2025 was even more impressive, finishing 13th in his debut at the elite World Championships on an attritional course in Kigali, Rwanda, before finishing on the podium alongside Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel  at a home edition of the European Championships the following week. To round out an exceptional debut professional season, Seixas added a 7th place in his debut monument at Il Lombardia. 

However, the Frenchman will pass the mantle of youngest WorldTour rider to another prestigious talent in Mattia Agostinacchio. The 18-year-old Italian is the latest multidisciplinary star in the pipeline to pique interest, having become the junior cyclocross world champion in 2025. 

It was announced back in September that EF Education-EasyPost had secured the long-term future of Agostinacchio, and the Italian would jump straight from the junior ranks to the pro team, first embarking on a cyclocross project in the winter, where he has become under-23 European champion.

The American team also confirmed that whilst he will be part of the WorldTour team next season, Agostinacchio’s calendar will also see him link up with the EF-Education-Aevolo development team, to not push him too hard, considering his age. It’s safe to say that there are already plenty of eyes on the young Italian, and that number will only increase as he embarks on his debut professional season on the road as the youngest rider in the men’s WorldTour.

In total, there will be seven riders contracted to WorldTour teams for 2026, who will begin the calendar year still as teenagers, which is actually a decrease from eleven in 2025.

On the other end of the scale, Simon Clarke will have the honour of being the oldest rider in the WorldTour, taking over from one of his former teammates, Alessandro De Marchi, after the Italian hung up his wheels at the end of 2025. The 39-year-old Australian, currently racing for NSN Cycling, has started 20 Grand Tours during his career, taking two stage wins at the Vuelta a España and winning a memorable photo finish on the cobble stage in the 2022 Tour de France. Clarke has also raced 33 monuments and racked up seven professional victories in total.

However, Clarke won’t be the oldest for too long, as the former Tour de France stage winner will only race twice more as a professional, both on home soil in Australia. Clarke will line up for the Tour Down Under, before pinning on a race number for the final time as a professional at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on February 1, before officially retiring. 

When Clarke does retire, it will mean that fellow 39-year-old and former Il Lombardia winner, Bauke Mollema, will become the oldest rider in the WorldTour. 

Coincidentally, Clarke claimed his second Vuelta stage win in 2018 in a three-man sprint from the breakaway, beating both Mollema and De Marchi.

Mollema, who has lined up for 22 Grand Tours, including two Tour de France stage wins and a Vuelta podium finish, will hang up his wheels at the end of the 2026 season, bowing out from the sport as one of the best from his era.

Data via ProCyclingStats and Velofacts