With the Spanish economy still struggling, many races and teams have disappeared from the calendar from the nation. To make matters worse, one of the country’s finest generations of climbers are beginning to close their careers, with Alejandro Valverde, Alberto Contador, Dani Moreno, Sammy Sanchez and Joaquin Rodriguez all likely to end their careers in the coming few seasons.

For a country so steeped in cycling history, it is paramount they find new climbers immediately. Basque stars Ion Izagirre and Mikel Landa are stepping up to the plate, as is Jesus Herrada, but there are still eyes wandering to the future. Marc Soler of Movistar and Jaime Roson of Caja Rural are perhaps the saviours of the nation.

CyclingQuotes recently spoke to neo-pro and former U23 Sapnish RR Champion Roson about going pro and his hopes and ambitions for the future.

“The season until now I'm doing fine. At the beginning of the season I did many races and it was quite hard because I was not used to the rhythm of competition. I had a good base but when the race went over 4h I had no more strength. The big problem was in Tirreno, where I not only lacked strength at the end of the stage, but I even struggled to do a good job. From there, the races I've done have been at a high level. Since January I told the coaches I wanted to play at Castilla y Leon and Turkey and so I did. I had a great level in both and even win a stage in Turkey and nearly one in Castilla y León,” Roson exclusively tells CyclingQuotes while he is on his midseason break from racing.

The 23-year-old talent’s victory in Turkey was very impressive. On the Elmali climb, noted as the Eastern European Alpe d’Huez, he used its savage gradients to attack relatively early and gap some good riders. He then sprinted past Przemyslaw Niemiec on a 20% gradient, who is a former top ten rider in the Giro and Vuelta stage winner, to take a fantastic debut win, taking ninth overall to go with fifth on GC in Castilla y Leon. Roson spoke about his special day in Turkey.

“It was incredible. I had been three months watching on YouTube to learn the climb by memory and even the day before the stage I saw it again. I knew where I had to attack and I did. It was a very hard stage because it went very fast. Luckily we had a great team and were able to keep the situation under control. This victory gives me a lot of confidence now to prepare the following goals of the season and also to be quiet because I know I've won a stage already.”

Thinking about the future is something Roson told us he had already done. At the minute, he is a climbing specialist but he hopes to improve his time trialling so he can target GCs in future seasons.

“At the moment I'm going well, especially on the climbs. I want to improve in the time trial for future GCs to contest the races. I'm still young and I have much scope for improvement in all areas.”

For his Spanish team, the Vuelta a Espana is always the highlight. They are without a stage win since 2012 and it shows jus how classy Roson is as a rider that he still is in the running for a spot on the nine-man team. For now, around six spots are open with three being filled by Pello Bilbao, Luis Mas and Hugh Carthy.

“Yes it is possible, I am working hard for the coaches to trust me and I can show what it takes to ride the Vuelta. Any rider on the team deserves to go but only nine can be selected. Hopefully I can be in the starting line-up but I still do not know.”

One thing Roson did know was his future race programme, which he exclusively revealed to CyclingQuotes. He has been provisionally selected to ride some fairly large races in Spain.

“My next step this season is still to be decided. I will ride the Classic San Sebastian, Circuito de Getxo and Vuelta a Burgos. They are to be confirmed but if all goes as it should. I’ll ride those. After I do not know, we will find out in the coming weeks.”

Winning on a climb as hard as Elmali prompyed CyclingQuotes to ask Roson if he felt hard climbs suited him best, or if he could do the job on lighter cat 3 and 4 climbs as well.

“The types of races that fit me are the hard mountain stages especially. I hope to continue with the evolution that I am having, and my performance improves in the next future on these types of days.”

There is no doubt that this man can be the future of Spanish riders and at 23, he has already done some big races and taken some nice results, polite, quiet and blindingly quick up a hill, he may just be the rider that makes cycling fans worldwide forget all about Contador and co. very soon.