From a Tour of Britain water bottle to Visma's junior team: 17-year-old Scot Xander Graham is following his pro cycling dream

Graham is just 17 years old, so for now we won’t be seeing him compete in the U23 ranks, let alone the WorldTour. But Visma | Lease a Bike will certainly be keeping a closer eye on the British rider from now on. After all, Graham proved he can ride five years ago in the Tour of Britain, a home race for the then-12-year-old rider.

On the right side of the road, Graham took a hard fall in 2021, riding what was perhaps still a bike that was just a little too big for him at the time. His helmet was still a bit too big, but the kid was pedaling impressively hard. He kept up with the pack—which certainly wasn’t slowing down at that point—for quite a while, and when he ran out of steam, his reward came.

Pascal Eenkhoorn had also seen Graham riding, and the Dutchman—who was still with Jumbo-Visma at the time—handed him his water bottle. No one could have imagined at the time that, five years later, Graham would sign with JEGG-SKIL-DJR, a junior team from the Netherlands, with which Visma | Lease a Bike shares its expertise and equipment.

And just like that, we suddenly saw Graham ride by on a Cervélo, wearing the black-and-yellow colors of his new team. This year, he’s still riding for the Prologue Racing Team from Great Britain, including at the club level. Maybe in a few years we’ll see him in the yellow and black of the team that, unbeknownst to him, gave him a water bottle in 2021.