Twenty-one-year-old British rider Noah Hobbs celebrated his first pro win at Heistse Pijl in Belgium today.
The EF Education-EasyPost rider came out of a charging bunch to narrowly take victory in the sprint.
The race had been led out by Unibet Rose Rockets who had brought the peloton into the finish but they were pipped by the young Brit as a blanket sprint unfolded.
Filling out the podium were Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) in second and Milan Fretin (Cofidis) in third.
Today's result marks the biggest win of Hobbs’s young career. He has previously won stage of the Tour de Bretagne in France and the Volta Alentejo in Portugal but both those sit on the UCI-level below today’s Belgian race.
Hobbs first came to the attention of many in the pro world when he won the prestigious Junior Tour of Wales in 2022.
The following year he signed with the Groupama-FDJ development squad before moving to the EF Education-Aevolo development team in 2025.
Before he moved up to the WorldTour team this year he told Cycling Weekly: “[I want to] get stuck in, really, show myself and prove to myself that obviously doing all this under-23 is carried over into the WorldTour, and that I’ve taken all that experience and actually used it.”
Hobbs has been close to grabbing his first pro win at several points this year.
He was on the podium on stage three of the Volta Catalunya, placing behind stage winning French veteran Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) and fellow Brit Ethan Vernon (NSN).
Then just over a week later he was again on the podium while Vernon won.
Though it has not all been smooth sailing, the Brit also managed to get lost while racing Omloop Nieuwsblad in February.
"It was going well, and then I got a puncture,” the EF Education-EasyPost rider explained in a video on Instagram. “I came back, broke my front wheel, then went to go back, but I don't know where I was. Then this guy helped me out and took me [to the finish],” he said.
"He's a good guy. Without him, I think I'd still be somewhere in Belgium," he added.
