Forget the GC contenders everyone’s already talking about. The smartest fantasy cycling picks for 2026 aren’t sitting at the top of ProCyclingStats rankings—they’re the 17-year-olds with World Championship medals and the dual-discipline athletes nobody’s factoring into their lineups yet.

If you’ve been looking for a fantasy sports game that actually covers cycling beyond the men’s Grand Tours, Peaxel is where the action is. You’re not just picking Pogačar or Vingegaard. You’re building lineups around athletes the mainstream fantasy platforms don’t even know exist.

Here are three road cycling picks that should be on your radar right now.

Oda Aune Gissinger: The Norwegian Time Trial Prodigy

She’s 18. She already has a World Championship bronze medal. And she just spent 110 kilometers in a breakaway at her WorldTour debut.

Oda Aune Gissinger broke through in 2025 with a performance at the UCI Junior World Championships in Kigali that announced her arrival on the global stage. She led the time trial at every checkpoint before being caught by more experienced riders, finishing 37 seconds off gold. That’s not a loss—that’s a statement.

What makes her a fantasy standout isn’t just raw talent. It’s the way she races. At the Tour de l’Abitibi Féminin in Canada, she overturned a 51-second deficit in the final stage time trial. Her power meter wasn’t even working. She rode entirely on feel and still took the overall classification.

For 2026, she’s moved up to the continental circuit with Hitec Products – Fluid Control. At the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas, she attacked solo and held the breakaway for over 110km, taking home the mountain jersey. That’s the kind of aggressive racing that generates fantasy points—time bonuses, intermediate sprints, breakaway classifications.

Add her to your lineup now. Check out her Peaxel card.

Lidia Castro de la Serna: The One WorldTour Teams Are Watching

When UAE Team Emirates starts tracking a 16-year-old, you pay attention. When Jayco AlUla invites her to a training camp before she’s even graduated from juniors, you add her to every lineup you’ve got.

Lidia Castro de la Serna is the Spanish prodigy who swept every stage at the 2024 Vuelta a Cantabria as a cadet. She followed that up by finishing third overall at the Tour de Valromey—the most prestigious junior stage race in the world—and eighth at the European Championships, where she was in the final chase group behind the winner.

She’s versatile too. Bronze at the Spanish National Cyclocross Championships in 2023 means she handles technical terrain as well as she handles bunch sprints. That cross-discipline strength translates to road races with punchy finishes, wet conditions, or chaotic finales where bike handling matters.

Honestly, Lidia is the pick nobody is talking about yet. Multiple WorldTour teams are circling, which means her profile is about to explode. Get ahead of it. Her card is available on Peaxel.

Kristýna Zemanová: The Dual-Discipline Weapon

Five consecutive Czech National Championships. Silver at the U23 Cyclocross World Championships. Second place at a World Cup round behind Lucinda Brand—one of the greatest cyclocross racers of all time.

Kristýna Zemanová dominates the mud, but she also competes on the road. That makes her a fantasy weapon with unique value.

Cyclocross athletes who cross over to road racing bring an edge. They’re technically superior in messy conditions. They know how to suffer through lactate zones that pure roadies avoid. And they’re conditioned to race nearly every weekend through the winter season, which means they enter spring road campaigns with more race sharpness than competitors who’ve been grinding base miles.

Zemanová’s ability to read terrain—developed through years of navigating off-camber turns and slippery descents—translates directly to hilly road stages. When the peloton hits a technical descent in the rain, she won’t be the one losing positions.

For fantasy purposes, dual-discipline athletes like Zemanová offer flexibility. You can slot her into cyclocross lineups during the winter and road lineups in summer without burning multiple roster spots. That efficiency matters. Grab her card here.

Why These Picks Matter for Fantasy Cycling

Traditional fantasy cycling platforms focus almost exclusively on men’s Grand Tours. That’s a narrow slice of the sport. You miss out on the women’s peloton, the junior ranks, the continental circuits where future stars are proving themselves right now.

Peaxel covers over 75 sports, and road cycling is just one piece. But within that discipline, the athlete coverage goes deeper than what you’ll find anywhere else. Athletes like Gissinger, Castro de la Serna, and Zemanová aren’t afterthoughts—they’re the core of smart fantasy strategy.

The best fantasy managers don’t chase last year’s winners. They identify next year’s stars before the price goes up. These three road cycling picks fit that profile exactly: proven results, upward trajectory, and event calendars packed with scoring opportunities.

Build your lineup around them before everyone else catches on.