Since Mark Cavendish retired in 2024 – and even during his long reign at the sport’s top – Britain hasn’t had another top-tier sprinter capable of winning Grand Tour stages. But Ethan Vernon is aiming to change that, starting at this month’s Giro d’Italia. “I want to hopefully win a stage of the Giro and even next year maybe I can win a stage of the Tour de France. OK, it’s a big ask, but with the Tour starting in the UK it’s got to be a goal, hasn’t it?”
Vernon is right to be talking himself up. The NSN rider has won four races this year (including two WorldTour stages), firmly establishing himself among the second-tier of fastmen who win regularly but aren’t yet threatening Jonathan Milan, Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen for the title as the sport’s top sprinter. Yet is the operative word in that last sentence. 25-year-old Vernon is doing everything he can to knock on the door of the aforementioned trio – and could even take the 2026 Giro’s first maglia rosa, with stage one likely to finish in a sprint. “What [Kaden] Groves has done is gone to the Giro and the Vuelta a España and racked up mass wins and that’s the next step I want to take,” Vernon tells Rouleur. “My short-term goal is to win as many stages as I can in Grand Tours.”
Since joining NSN from Soudal Quick-Step in 2024, where he spent his first two years in the WorldTour, Vernon has made incremental steps every year, mixing his road aspirations with his track cycling ambitions – he’s a two-time Olympian, winning silver in the team pursuit at Paris 2024, and is likely to compete for Great Britain at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, too.
Groves claimed second on two stages at last year's Vuelta a España (Image credit: ASO/ Unipublic)
As he prepares to race the Giro, just his second Grand Tour, Vernon does so with the belief that he’s never been better placed to take what would be the biggest victory of his road career. At last year’s Vuelta, he finished second in two sprints. “I’ve had condition like this before, but it’s the momentum of the wins that’ll be the biggest help for me,” he says. “I said to the team at the start of the year that I just wanted to win as many bike races as possible and that’s what we’ve done – we’ve gone to every stage race and won except in the UAE Tour where we were second [on stage four to Milan].
“So the season has been a success for me as a sprinter. Whether it’s Pays de la Loure or at WorldTour level like Tour Down Under or Volta a Catalunya, I just want to win bike races and when I win it gives me more and more confidence to keep winning. We’ve seen the snowball effect of that happening this year and I’m hoping it continues to roll into the Giro and I win a stage there as well.”
Vernon will certainly not be short of chances. There could be as many as nine stages ending in a bunch sprint at the Giro, though Vernon says a few of those stages might suit his teammate Corbin Strong more than him. “There are a lot of opportunities and we’re excited,” he says. “We’ve taken a strong sprint team everywhere we’ve gone this season and we’ll have a strong sprint team in the Giro as well. Between me and Corbin there are maybe nine chances which is almost half the Grand Tour, so you’ve got to have good support around your leaders for those stages because there are nine opportunities to get a victory.”
Milan, who has won the Giro’s points jersey two of the past three years, is predicted to rack up a number of wins, but Vernon doesn’t expect the Italian to dominate the sprint finishes. “He’s obviously one of the big favourites alongside [Dylan] Groenewegen who’s been really good in Belgium this spring,” Vernon says. “But there’s also [Paul] Magnier who is one of the best guys in the world as well. Ok, you’re missing some of the top guys in Merlier and Philipsen, but aside from that it’s a really strong sprint field. This is my chance to prove myself. If I win a stage there then it means I’m beating the top guys and that is definitely what I want to do.”
Career-best shape can be attributed to a change in schedule for Vernon, with the Bedford-born rider believing that focusing on stage races more than one-day races has benefitted him. “I’ve always done Nokere Koerse, Bredene Koksijde, all of these one-day races, and you always have an easy day before and after the races. Before you know it you’ve done a couple of months and you’ve not trained that well,” Vernon adds.
“Whereas when stage racing you do five to seven-day stage races and you come back, recover and do another training block like this last one which has been another really good training phrase for the Giro. So that different approach has worked for me. But I also think I've developed as a rider, my power numbers are way better than before, I’m reading races better too.”
As optimistic as Vernon is, he’s certainly no shoo-in to win a stage of the Giro – there are plenty of other riders who also have designs on winning the exact same stages the Briton does. But he’s not going to stop dreaming, and most definitely not going to stop believing. “It'd be a dream – I don’t think I ever imagined winning a Grand Tour stage when I started road cycling when I was 15 years old,” he says.
“You almost get lost in everything. If I look back, this would be a big moment to win a stage of the Giro. but the mindset I’m in at the moment is that it’s just another bike race. I’ve already won four this year, now let’s go win a fifth one. You get lost in how big it would be to actually win.
“My short-term goal to back up mass victories in Grand Tours and I think once that’s accomplished then I’ll look at something like the green jersey in the Tour if that’s still an option and even eventually venturing into the Classics and looking at other areas like time trialling again at the end of my career.”
First goal though: win a stage of the Giro. “It’d be one of my lifetime goals. It’d mean a lot,” he smiles.
