EF Pro CyclingDevelopment Team

Nineteen-year-old Jenthe Verstraete is EF Education-Aevolo’s Flandrien. He grew up in Belgium’s bike racing mad region – Flanders – and has been riding kermis races and youth classics over the climbs of De Ronde van Vlaanderen ever since he was a kid. Jenthe’s first sport was swimming though, and then he took up triathlon, before deciding that the bike was his favorite sport of the three.

He went to a cycling school that allowed him to combine his studies with racing. He and his schoolmates would train together on the the track in Gent, dreaming of making it to the pros.

Jenthe is well on his way. He had a banner year in 2024 when he won Roosdaal-Pamel, the mountains classification at Aubel-Stavelot Juniors, a stage and the GC at Triptyque Ardennais Juniors, and stood on the podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The previous season, he had won the GC at Elewijt, Wijnendale-Torhour, and Mesen,taken the points jersey at Penn Ar Bed-Pays d’Iroise and got the victory on the first stage of La SportBreizh Juniors. Last year was Jenthe’s first season with EF Education-Aevolo and he proved himself as a valuable teammate.

He is an attacker, who loves a big, aggressive day out in the mountains. This year, he is really looking forward to racing the top U23 stage races, where he wants to show what he can do and earn a WorldTour contract.

He has put his sports science studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel on hold for now to pursue his dream of racing the Tour de France.