THOSE SUMMERS… It was at age 10 when the young Iván Romeo, propelled by his younger brother Sergio -now also a promising cyclist- as he joined the Club Ciclista Juan Carlos Domínguez from Arroyo de la Encomienda in Valladolid (central Spain), discovered the passion for bike racing instilled to Sergio by two avid cyclists: his dad and his uncle. From those early steps and previous holidays in the Pyrenees, watching the Tour de France live, came the love for this sport of the Spanish powerhouse, who has turned that passion into a job in the WorldTour with the Movistar Team.

BREAKTHROUGH. As Romeo grows -he’ll end up at over 1.90m tall-, he will soon shine in the youth stage and catch the attention from the MMR Cycling Academy, with which he covers his junior years and even conquers both Spanish national road race + time trial titles in 2021. A lot is spoken and fantasized about Romeo’s jump into the under-23 category being actually a leap towards the biggest peloton of them all. However, with great counsel from those around him, Iván goes to the Americas and embarks himself in 2022 into a foreign project: the Hagens Berman Axeon team in the US.

THE RIGHT STEPS. At what’s arguably the best development team in the world, supported by two of the best experts in talent nurturing (Axel Merckx and Koos Moerenhout), Romeo covers his year prior to the WorldTour adventure. He becomes the best young rider of the Tour of Rhodes in Greece; becomes fundamental to Leo Hayter’s victory in the Giro Baby; takes 8th in the U23 European ITT Champs -and 9th in the Spanish elite race-; and is selected again twice for the Spanish national team in the late season, at the Tour de l’Avenir and then the Wollongong Worlds – where illness severely hampers his performance. A great rouleur and an excellent allrounder, he has a lot to show starting in 2023.