Dutch wonderkid knows the strength of rival Brennan all too well: 'I’m going to struggle with him a lot in the future'

What a season it was for Tibor Del Grosso. The Dutchman from Alpecin–Deceuninck made his full WorldTour debut in 2025 and regularly showcased his potential. He impressed in the Spring Classics, won a stage at the Tour of Turkey, but there was one moment where he came close to doing something truly extraordinary. It didn’t quite happen - but it nearly did.

It was 24 March 2025. Earlier that month, Del Grosso had made his WorldTour debut at Paris–Nice, finishing a modest but valuable first week at that level. Ahead of the spring - his main target - he was also set to ride the Volta a Catalunya, working for sprinter Kaden Groves. But the rain-soaked opening stage suddenly presented him with the opportunity of a lifetime.

In the hilly finale, the 21-year-old cyclocross specialist emptied himself for his Australian leader. But on a descent made treacherous by the rain, he used his renowned bike-handling skills to perfection. Suddenly, in the final kilometers, he had a small gap. His teammates cleverly stopped chasing. Del Grosso was gone, and the rest had to react.

It was smart and instinctive, but it hadn’t been the plan. “That day my job was actually to help Edward (Planckaert) and Kaden (Groves),” Del Grosso tells Wieler Revue. “I’d already pulled for a very long time on the coastal section. My finish line was basically there. But then I exited a corner first and had a gap on Edward. Suddenly I heard: ‘go go go go!’ on the team radio.”

"Then I thought for a moment: 'guys, what should I do now, I don't have the legs for this at all," Mathieu van der Poel's teammate laugs. But there was only one option: keep pushing. And he did. For a long time, it looked like it might actually succeed. But in the gradually rising final kilometer he stalled, and Matthew Brennan passed him with an ultimate jump.

It hurt, of course. Del Grosso had been painfully close to his first pro win, and a WorldTour one at that. “Looking back it was so close, and maybe I could’ve done some small things differently,” he says. “And then there was also that motorbike. But overall, I was mainly satisfied.” If nothing else, he had announced himself to the WorldTour peloton.

And Brennan? He went on to win 11 more races that year. The Brit took full responsibility in the final kilometre, with Groves on his wheel. But even from the slipstream, the Australian couldn’t come around. It was a sign of what was to come. “I’m going to struggle with him a lot in the future, and so will many others,” Del Grosso says. “What a strong guy he is.”