The post-Cavendish generation – The young sprinters who are building Britain's future in the WorldTour

The retirement of Mark Cavendish at the end of last season marked the end of an era for British cycling and the sport as a whole. The void left behind cannot be understated, as the Manxman had been one of the faces of the sport in the UK for well over a decade.

As more and more of the country’s ‘golden generation’ begin to hang up their wheels, with Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome both set to retire at the end of this season, there has been an emerging narrative that the sport may once again fade into obscurity in the UK.

However, there are several emerging British talents beginning to make a name for themselves in the WorldTour, and recent successes have rightfully got fans very excited for what is to come. Among these talents are a few young sprinters looking to continue the Cavendish legacy of going toe-to-toe with some of the fastest riders in the world.

Here is everything we know about this new generation of British sprinters and their careers so far.

Matthew Brennan

• Age: 19 years old
• Team: Visma-Lease a Bike

At 19 years old, Matthew Brennan already looks to be one of the top neo-pro talents in the professional peloton this season. A product of the Visma-Lease a Bike development team, the young British rider has made the step up to the WorldTour outfit for 2025 and it’s fair to say that he’s made an instant impression.

After some strong results in sprints at the Tour Down Under earlier in the season, his abilities as a one-day racer and adeptness in the Classics came to the fore at the Grand Prix de Denain, as he made the front selection on the cobbled sectors and comfortably took the victory in the sprint from the eight-rider group at the finish.

The teenager then followed up that performance with two stage wins at the Volta a Catalunya. 

On the opening stage of the race, he showed incredible resilience to chase down Tibor del Grosso with Kaden Groves on his wheel, as he powered up the incline in the final few hundred metres to snatch the victory on the line, shattering all hopes of a win and a possible 1-2 finish for Alpecin-Deceuninck.

What was perhaps most impressive about that victory was the fact that Brennan remained perfectly calm throughout the finale, as he had spent the previous evening studying the finish from the previous year’s race. "I watched it last night and as soon as Alpecin went off the front I knew it was a replay from last year," he said in his post-race interview.

This level of commitment to his craft is what sets Brennan apart from many other riders his age, and his ability to read a race situation is certainly well beyond his years.

Brennan has also demonstrated his ability to learn from his mistakes, as in the sprint to Figueres on stage 2, he found himself boxed in and unable to find a way through until it was too late. He still managed to finish in second place on the day, but that problem was ultimately what cost him the victory.

In the following sprint on stage 5, Brennan made the crosswind split and ensured that he rectified his mistake in the sprint, picking his line and making sure to leave himself enough space, before launching out of the wheel in front with a ferocious sprint, in a style that was reminiscent of Cavendish.

All of these attributes make Brennan a very promising and versatile talent, with the ability to compete in both one-day races and stage race sprints. His young age also means that he will continue to develop and improve over the next few seasons, making him an extremely exciting prospect for the future.

Ethan Vernon

• Age: 24 years old
• Team: Israel-Premier Tech

The only man to beat Brennan in a sprint at the Volta a Catalunya was another British sprinter in the form of Ethan Vernon. In the aforementioned close-fought finish on stage 2, the Israel-Premier Tech rider managed to hold on to take the victory ahead of his fast-finishing compatriot, showing his immense power to best the rest of the field and take his first win of the season.

That raw strength that he possesses comes from track racing, where Vernon is an Olympic silver medallist in the team pursuit, a discipline where he has been World and European Champion in the past. He is also a former World Champion in the elimination race, an event well-suited to Vernon, as riders have to sprint repeatedly over the course of the race.

His background of racing on the velodrome has not only given him good race craft, especially in a sprint, but also an impressive seated power, as he can often be seen sitting back in his saddle during the final few hundred metres of a race.

At 188cm in height, Vernon towers over his frame and can often be seen wrestling it from side to side in a sprint, in a similar style to Jonathan Milan or André Greipel in the past. His size and stature also allow him to muscle his way through the bunch and position himself ahead of a finale.

These attributes would traditionally make him much more of a pure sprinter, only able to compete on pan-flat courses, but he has proven himself capable of getting over smaller climbs on sprint stages in the past.

His victory at the Volta a Catalunya marked the twelfth of his professional career and his fifth WorldTour win. His first came at the same race three years ago whilst racing for Soudal Quick-Step, with his other major successes coming at the Tour de Romandie and the Tour of Guangxi.

The next step for Vernon seems to be a Grand Tour stage victory, as his big target for this season will be the Vuelta a España in August. It will be just the second Grand Tour of his career and will form part of an intense end-of-season schedule that he has planned.

If he were able to snag a win or two over the course of the three-week-long race, then it would certainly establish him as a sprinter to contend with for major races in the future, as Vernon certainly has the talent to compete with the very best at the highest level of the sport.

Ethan Hayter

• Age: 26 years old
• Team: Soudal Quick-Step

As the reigning British National Champion Ethan Hayter has previously been known to pack a punch in a sprint. However, he is yet to show his capabilities in a bunch finish this season, as his move away from Ineos Grenadiers to join Soudal Quick-Step has not gone quite as well as he would have hoped and he is still looking for his first win with the team.

Victories have been quite hard to come by for the Londoner for some time now, as he hasn’t won a race outside of last year’s National Championships in almost two years. Prior to that, he had won 18 races in three years as a professional, five of which were at WorldTour level.

It’s quite the fall off for a rider who showed such promise and versatility in his early years as a professional, where he was seemingly able to compete with some of the best in the world in time trials, sprints and on climbs.

Like Vernon, Hayter’s power as a sprinter comes from his background in track racing, where he too is an Olympic silver medallist in the team pursuit, as well as in the madison. Additionally, he is also a four-time World Champion and three-time European Champion, with the majority of his success coming in the omnium.

Though he has shown himself to be far more than just a sprinter on the road, it may help the 26-year-old to go back to basics and focus on something that he is clearly very talented at. Perhaps he is just taking time to find his feet at his new team, but he will have to show a flash of his former brilliance if he wants to make a statement this season.

Matthew Walls

• Age: 26 years old
• Team: Groupama-FDJ

Another rider on this list with a good record on the track, Matthew Walls is without doubt a talented road racer, but he too has struggled to find form after a promising first year at WorldTour level. 

An impressive breakout season in 2021 saw him win the Italian semi-Classic Gran Piemonte, as well as stage 4 of the Tour of Norway. This was then followed by the Tokyo Olympics, where he won gold in the omnium and was a silver medallist alongside Hayter in the madison.

However, a string of crashes on the road the following year culminated in a horrific accident on the velodrome at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where Walls catapulted over the barriers and into the crowd as he swerved to avoid falling riders in front of him.

Though he escaped with no fractures and only a concussion, the mental toll that such a crash can take on a rider cannot be understated, with Walls rarely showing any of the potential from his debut season since then.

Crashes and injuries have continued to plague him, and after his contract was not renewed by Bora-Hansgrohe at the end of 2023, Groupama-FDJ picked him up on a two-year deal for the following year. 

A terrible debut season with the French outfit then followed, with Walls finishing in the top-10 on just two occasions in 49 days of racing, with one of those results coming at the British National Championships.

However, all hope has not been lost just yet for Walls, as there were signs of life at the beginning of this season, with a third place finish on the opening stage of the Tour Down Under, which was then followed up by a further two top-10 finishes at the race. 

Some illness has meant that his form has dipped a bit since then, but there is hope for the rest of the season for Walls as he looks to live up to his incredible potential and continue his career as a WorldTour rider.

Honourable Mentions

There are some honourable mentions that certainly should not be excluded from this list, with Jake Stewart, Fred Wright and Sam Watson all proving themselves to be capable riders in a sprint finish, albeit usually from a reduced group at the end of a hard race or as a leadout for one of their teammates.

Fred Wright has easily been the most successful of these three riders, as although he only has one professional victory to his name, which came in the road race at the 2023 British National Championships, he has finished on the podium of Grand Tour stages on four occasions, as well as runner-up in the points classification at the Vuelta a España in 2022.

Top-10 results at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, as well as a twelfth place finish at last year’s Paris-Roubaix, also means that he is a fairly consistent Spring Classics rider, capable of delivering results in Monuments.

Jake Stewart has also had strong Classics results in the past, as he finished runner-up at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in his debut season as a fully fledged WorldTour rider. However, since his move to Israel-Premier Tech at the start of last season, the 25-year-old has often been used to good effect as a leadout rider for the likes of Vernon.

He has made a strong start to the season and has impressed when he has been allowed to race for his own results, finishing runner-up on stage 5 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and fourth place on stage 7 of Tirreno-Adriatico. He therefore looks in good shape to add to his tally of two professional victories at some point this season.

Meanwhile, Sam Watson seems to have taken another step forward in his development, having left Groupama-FDJ for Ineos Grenadiers at the start of this season. After some strong results in Australia in January, the 23-year-old backed it up by taking fourth place at the Figueira Champions Classic in Portugal, before finishing fifth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad during Opening Weekend.

It’s certainly in Belgium where Watson seems to thrive, as he took his maiden professional victory on the final stage of last year’s Tour de Wallonie and has formed an integral part of the Ineos Grenadiers team for much of their Spring Classics campaign so far this season.

Raw potential and versatility

From the raw potential of Brennan, to the versatility of Hayter and the immense power of Vernon, British cycling fans have quite the variety of sprinting talents to focus on over the next few seasons. It’s also not a bad time to have an abundance of emerging prospects, with the World Championships set to feature a flat course around Abu Dhabi in 2028.

Speaking to Cyclingnews at the Volta a Catalunya, Ethan Vernon voiced his excitement for a future British sprint team, as he said “looking ahead to future European and World Championships, it’s good that we’re starting to get a pretty good sprint team together with me, Matthew [Brennan] and even Jake Stewart as leadout. I think we could field a pretty good sprint squad for flatter Euros and Worlds in the future, so that’s good to see.”

Whilst it is unlikely that any of the riders on this list will ever get close to the sheer prolificness that Mark Cavendish displayed over the course of his 18-year professional career, many of them have already displayed various abilities to indicate that they could become consistent race winners in the future.