Paul Magnier explodes onto the scene with huge watts - GCN Racing News Show

Soudal Quick-Step’s Paul Magnier was riding his first professional race last Thursday, and not only was the Frenchman able to win Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx, but he did so with a performance worthy of stealing the headlines in this week’s instalment of the GCN Racing News Show.

There have been plenty of impressive showings across the board in professional cycling over the last week - more on that soon - but Magnier’s outing was so eye-catching that it left Dan Lloyd raving about the 19-year-old to everyone who would hear him out at the GCN megabase.

It did not take long for Dan to take a deep dive into Magnier’s Strava file on X (formerly Twitter) last week, and what he discovered trawling through the Frenchman’s power data will certainly have the rest of the WorldTour sit up and take note. The next sprinting superstar may be here.

With a peak five-second power of a little under 1,400 watts and an average of almost 500 watts for the final 5km of racing, it is not hard to see why Dan is excited. Patrick Lefevere exclusively revealed to GCN last week that Magnier had outsprinted Tim Merlier in the team’s sprinting drills on a few occasions last season, so it is safe to say that we’re going to be keeping a close eye on the Frenchman in the weeks and months to come.

Read more: Patrick Lefevere: I don’t care who wins, as long as they’re wearing our jersey

As Dan took stock of the other results from the past seven days of racing, it soon became apparent that Magnier was on trend with many of the week’s winners, in that the final week of January seemed to be fertile ground for a youthful takeover of the podium places.

The winners of the men’s and women’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Races were 21 and 19 years of age, respectively. A 23-year-old Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) triumphed at the Surf Coast Classic and the 22-year-old Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) outsprinted Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) to win Trofeo Serra Tramuntana, much to the latter’s annoyance.

Read more: Vlasov vents after Trofeo Serra Tramuntana downhill finish

With these displays of youthful brilliance and the recent handful of national championships, there is plenty for Dan to go at as he runs his finger over the latest result sheets. Check out this week’s GCN Racing News Show above to discover everything you need to know about last week’s big stories.