“That’s a massive disappointment,” said Moritz Mauss after the U23 road race at the World Championships in Montréal. He was the highest-placed German in 21st place, whilst Paul Fietzke finished 42nd; it was others who launched the decisive attacks. Yet the team had been regarded as strong ahead of the race, and there is no shortage of talent. However, only the overall results this year will reveal just how good the German young riders really are.
The benchmark: Emil Herzog
Emil Herzog won the Junior World Championship title in Wollongong in 2022, becoming the first German junior to do so since Jonas Bokeloh eight years earlier. His start in the professional ranks, however, got off to a bumpy start: in 2025, he had to return briefly to the rookies’ category following illness and a crash. He now focuses on stage races rather than classics and is demonstrating his versatility. At Unbound Gravel, he finished eighth on his gravel debut; in July, he claimed the German Gravel Championship title; and at the European Championships in Slovenia, he was the highest-placed German in seventh place. At 22, he is proof that the path for German talent via the junior teams into the professional peloton can work. Gradually, his team, Red Bull – Bora – hansgrohe, is fielding him in increasingly important races. Following his strong performance at the European Championships, all that’s missing now is a top result on the WorldTour. This has us looking forward to the next season with Emil Herzog.
The stage race talents: Fietzke and Bock
Paul Fietzke (20) won silver at the 2023 Junior World Championships in Glasgow but then struggled in his first year in the U23 category, whilst peers such as Paul Seixas really took off. He’s back in 2026: at the Trofeo Laigueglia, he spent around 130 kilometres in the breakaway group; at the German Championships, he finished second in the U23 time trial; and in early September, he won the new Sauerland Tour, taking the points and young rider classifications as well.
Max Bock (21) took a detour via France, spending two years in Groupama-FDJ’s development team, and has been riding for Red Bull’s Rookies since this year. He finished eighth in the 2025 Tour de l’Avenir. At the 2026 Tour of the Czech Republic, he finished sixth overall against WorldTeams and ProTeams, and in the Sauerland he won the second stage solo, his first U23 victory. It wasn’t long before his next victory. He recently won again at the Coppa Città di San Daniele. Bock and Fietzke both come from the Red Bull system and stood side by side on the podium there. However, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Bock in 2027.
Against the clock and on the track: Keßler, Leidert and Mauss
Alongside the road racers are three talented riders who have made a name for themselves in time trials or on the track: Keßler, Leidert and Mauss. Bruno Keßler (21, Tudor Pro Cycling Team U23) became Junior World Champion in the points race on the track in 2022, and in 2024 he won bronze at the World Championships in the team pursuit. In January 2025, he was hit by a car during a training accident in Mallorca; 18 days later, he finished eighth at the European Track Championships. On the road, he defended his U23 time trial title in 2026 in the heat of Thuringia, ahead of Fietzke. He followed the traditional path via track cycling and, finishing 13th in the junior classification at the World Championships in Montréal, achieved the German team’s best result in the individual time trial.
Louis Leidert (21, Lidl-Trek Future Racing) won bronze in the time trial at the 2023 Junior World Championships and triumphed in the Trofeo Saarland. He himself described 2025 as a “solid year of learning”, and at the 2026 German Championships he finished fourth in the U23 time trial. He currently ranks behind the two young Red Bull riders, Fitzke and Bock; his next move is likely to set the course for his career. For now, he is set to ride for another year with his current team.
Moritz Mauss (19, UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) is an all-rounder on both the road and the track: a two-time World Championship silver medallist on the track in Apeldoorn and the top-placed German in Montréal. In April, he survived a crash during a Madison race in Ghent, in which a 50-centimetre-long splinter of wood pierced his hip and thigh. A few centimetres either way, and his career would have been over. As it is, however, he can look ahead again and is preparing for another season with the Emirates team’s junior squad.
Talent: The next generation
Karl Herzog, Emil’s younger brother, was already U19 European Champion (2025) and German Junior Champion (2026) at the age of 17. He narrowly finished second in the Course de la Paix in 2025, and this summer he won the queen stage of the Ain Bugey Valromey Tour, the unofficial ‘Tour de France for juniors’. It stands to reason that he, too, will follow his path through the Red Bull system. This season, he has put in strong performances for the junior team grenke – Auto Eder and could move up to the team’s U23 squad in the near future.
Conclusion: Width – yes; tip – still an open question
German cycling boasts a depth of promising talent that it hasn’t seen for a long time, and in Emil Herzog there is a rider who has made it to the top at the age of just 22. Whether this breadth of talent will produce top-class riders will be decided during the phase in which Herzog made his mark and Fietzke temporarily faltered: the transition to the U23 category and then to the professionals. Montréal was a setback, but not a final verdict. Perhaps these are precisely the names that, in a few years’ time, will be securing stage wins in the very biggest races, or even triumphing as overall winners of a Grand Tour.
Leon Weidner
Editor