Red Bull promote Paul Magnier conqueror and Paris-Roubaix Espoirs winner to WorldTour

The German WorldTour team has confirmed two more promotions from its development squad, with Italian sprinters Davide Donati and Alessio Magagnotti to join ranks in 2027.

Red Bull have already confirmed that Lorenzo Finn will step-up to WorldTour level in 2027 after winning the Giro d'Italia Next Gen and the Tour de L'Avenir.   

Donati and Magagnotti have enjoyed breakthrough seasons, with 19-year-old Magagnotti already showing he can beat some of the fastest sprinters in the professional peloton, while 21-year-old Donati has combined sprint victories with success in the Classics.

For Magagnotti, the clearest indication of his potential came at the Deutschland Tour in August. Racing alongside the WorldTour squad, the Italian surprised pre-race favourite Paul Magnier in a bunch sprint to claim his first professional victory.

It was a remarkable result for a rider in his first season at under-23 level. Magagnotti had already impressed on his debut with the senior team in February, finishing third at the Trofeo Palma in Mallorca, and continued to collect victories with the Rookies throughout the year. 

He recently rode for Italy at the UCI track world championships, as a new member of the team pursuit squad alongside Francesco Lamon, Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Milan. 

Donati arrives with a different but equally promising profile. A fast finisher who can handle demanding terrain, he has shown the versatility to compete in both reduced bunch sprints and one-day races.

His victory at Paris-Roubaix Espoirs in April was one of the highlights of his 2026 season. He also won a stage at the Giro Next Gen, briefly wearing the pink leader's jersey before helping teammate Lorenzo Finn secure the overall victory.

Donati had already demonstrated his ability against professional opposition with a stage victory at the Tour de Wallonie in 2025. He added another success at ProSeries level at the CRO Race this season.

Donati and Magagnotti are far from the first riders to make the jump. The Rookies team was established in 2025, with Adrien Boichis, Luke Tuckwell and Callum Thornley becoming its first graduates when they joined the WorldTour squad for 2026.

The latest announcements bring the number of riders promoted for 2027 to four, with Donati and Magagnotti following Sebastian Putz and Lorenzo Finn.

Finn is perhaps the standout name among them. The Italian won the junior world road race title in 2024 and the under-23 title a year later, before adding overall victories at the Giro Next Gen and Tour de l'Avenir in 2026.

Having previously raced for the Grenke Auto Eder junior squad, Finn has progressed through every stage of Red Bull's development structure. His rise is a good example of what the team hopes to achieve with its younger riders.

Red Bull's ambitions also extend beyond road racing. The team has recently expanded into cyclocross, bringing in former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout to oversee a new programme focused on junior riders.

The idea is to identify promising riders at an earlier age while encouraging them to develop across different disciplines. The success of riders such as Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock has shown how cyclocross can provide a strong foundation for a career on the road, something Red Bull hopes to benefit from in the coming years.

Junior world champion Delano Heeren is among the first riders involved, with the team focusing on the long-term development of young talent. The project adds to Red Bull's wider youth setup, which also includes the Junior Brothers scouting initiative, launched in 2023 to discover promising riders outside traditional racing structures, alongside its established junior and under-23 squads.