Jarno Widar is the new, great, promise of Belgian cycling. The rider from the Lotto Dstny development team won the Giro Next Gen 2024, making him the youngest triumphant Italian youth race in the various denominations it has had throughout its history. Widar turned 18 years old last November, but he has already had a chance to show himself on more than one occasion: this year, in addition to the Giro Next Gen, he also took home the general classification of the Alpes Isère Tour 2024 and was second at the end of the Ronde de l’Isard 2024, other very challenging youth level stage races. Widar, moreover, is the first Belgian to win the youth version of the Giro d’Italia.

“The youngest to win the Giro Next Gen? That’s incredible, I didn’t know that – Widar’s words collected by WielerFlits after the final award ceremony of the pink race – I, however, have the ambition to always win, that’s why I ride bikes. I don’t particularly feel the pressure, because I know what I’m capable of. Now I am very happy, but I have to thank my team for this success. The victory belongs 99 percent to the team and 1 percent to me. They did everything. Then, I had confidence all week, even though at the start I was not the big favorite for the final success. I believed in it.”

The last stage of the Next Gen 2024 Giro featured an attack from afar; among those who tried was Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), who was not that far behind Widar in the overall standings: “When I felt the advantage they had, I asked the people from the other teams if they wanted to collaborate, but they said no. I was a little stressed at that moment. I also took the power meter off the bike so that I would have 300 grams less to carry on the climb.”

From 2020 to the present, the youth version of the Giro has been won by, in order, Tom Pidcock, Juan Ayuso, Leo Hayter and Johannes Staune-Mittet, before Widar. Inevitable, then, to think about the Belgian’s short-term transition to “upstairs.” “I, however, am still fairly new in the peloton,” Widar’s thoughts, “I don’t know if I’m ready to compete with the pros yet. Of course, if you go strong among the young guys, you can do well among the big guys. For the kind of rider I am, though, I need to be able to tackle the climbs head on, which I don’t know how to do yet.”