Neo-pros to watch out for in 2024: Luke Lamperti - sprint talent who prefers to ride classics
Sebastian Lindner
· 03.02.2024
Luke Lamperti has been travelling on two wheels since he was three years old. Initially, however, with "motor doping". His father was a motocrosser and put his son on a dirt bike at an early age. He only gave up the power assistance later on. Together with his brother Gianni, who was almost a year and a half older and initially the more motivated of the two, he then switched to bikes. It was to pay off. By the age of 15, he had already collected eight national championship titles.
So fun became serious. Lamperti moved to Europe with the support of the American Cycling Federation and joined the LUX Cycling Development Team for juniors, which operates from there and competes under a US licence. In his first U19 year, the Californian proved to be extremely versatile, parallel to high school, which he did not complete entirely online but partly in person. 10th place in the junior race at Paris-Roubaix, podium places on numerous sprint stages of various top-class junior races and finally a stage win at the Grand Prix Rüebliland - ahead of his compatriots Quinn Simmons and Magnus Sheffield, who are now both World Tour pros with Lidl-Trek and Ineos Grenadiers.
Luke Lamperti celebrates success with Trinity after corona
His second year, however, was a complete washout. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, he did not complete a single competition at UCI level. Nevertheless, finding a team for his time in the U23 was not too difficult. His agent is Andrew McQuaid, son of former UCI president Pat McQuaid, manager of the British continental team Trinity Racing. Trinity, which was only founded in 2019, has already brought Ben Healy, Ben Turner and Thomas Gloag, among others, to the World Tour.
Lamperti quickly achieved success for the London team, his first UCI victory in May 2021 at the Tour d'Eure-et-Loir (2.2), in the sprint before Timo Kielich, who is also riding his first professional season this year, and a handful of riders who have also already arrived in the World Tour. And he kept going. At the age of 18, he became the youngest ever rider in history to win the US Pro Criterium, which is highly regarded, especially in the States. The fact that he repeated this success - as an individual rider without a team, mind you - in the following two years explains the hype surrounding the young sprinter overseas.
Shortly afterwards, he also made his first mark in Europe. At the Tour of Britain (2.Pro), he sprinted to fourth place in a stage in a world-class sprinter's field behind Ethan Hayter, Giacomo Nizzolo and the Brit Daniel McLay - ahead of Mark Cavendish, who celebrated four stage wins at the Tour de France that season.
Stage win at the junior Giro brings Lamperti a contract in the World Tour
Remarkable for a first year in the U23. His first 2.1 victory at the Tour de Taiwan followed in the second. And then came the third - and with it nine victories. The most prestigious of these was a stage win at the Giro Next Gen. Anyone who hadn't had Lamperti on their radar by then would now have to pay attention, but it was probably already too late.
At the beginning of August, shortly after the point at which changes could be publicly announced, Soudal - Quick Step announced that they had signed Lamperti to the World Tour team for 2024 and 2025. If Lamperti's words are to be believed, the chances for other teams were not too good anyway.
"I looked up to the team when I was a really young boy," he said of his signing. "Soudal - Quick Step is known for developing young riders and that had a huge influence on my decision to come here." And then there's the fact that Lamperti is a pretty good sprinter, but actually prefers to ride other races, where the Belgian team is traditionally well-positioned. "I see myself racing more in the classics again in the future, I love the one-day races with cobblestones. And I'm glad that I can ride them with the 'Wolfpack'."
Perfect start for Luke Lamperti in the Lefevere team
The fact that the combination of Luke Lamperti and Soudal - Quick Step can bear fruit was already evident in the youngster's first race for his new team. Lamperti, who turned 21 on New Year's Eve, sprinted to third place in the Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx (1.1), the first race of the Mallorca Challenge, behind Alberto Dainese and the victorious Paul Magnier. Incidentally, the Frenchman was also riding his first race for Quick Step - and came from Trinity Racing.
The Tour of Oman will soon show whether he can continue his success. Lamperti will be at the start there before he gets to ride his beloved cobblestones at the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne opening weekend.
Luke Lamperti
- was born on 31 December 2002
- holds a US passport
- is 1.80 m tall and weighs 74 kg
- previously rode for LUX Cycling (2019 and 2020) and Trinity Racing (2021 to 2023)
- will ride for the World Tour team Soudal - Quick Step from 2024 and has signed a contract there until the end of 2025
