Cyclist
Record-breaking and heartbreaking: The 2024 pro cycling season review
Another year of pro cycling has passed us by, featuring historic performances and long-lasting memories from the one-day Classics to the Grand Tours. Whether it was Tadej Pogačar becoming the first man in 26 years to complete the Giro-Tour double, Kasia Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering’s monumental battle for the yellow jersey on Alpe d’Huez or Mark Cavendish’s record-breaking 35th stage victory at the Tour, it has been a season for the ages.
There has also been tragedy. Cycling has once again been in mourning with the deaths of Muriel Furrer, Bas van Belle and André Drege, all riders taken far too soon.
Before we turn to the new season, we’ve taken a last look at the year that was, including the highlights and the lowlights.
A season of dominance
Tadej Pogačar
Tadej Pogačar continued his one-man crusade to win every race possible in a season defined by his Giro-Tour double, where he became the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to achieve the feat, and later his ‘Triple Crown’, adding the World Champion rainbow jersey to his collection. Like in most races he enters, it was simply a case of everyone else fighting for second place as he rode into the maglia rosa after Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia and never looked back.
The same can be said about the Tour de France. The race that has evaded him in recent years due to the impressive strength of Visma-Lease a Bike and Jonas Vingegaard again bore witness to the force of Pogačar. He wore the maillot jaune after Stage 3, enjoyed a brief day of respite thanks to Richard Carapaz, then sunk his claws in to cross the line in Nice as a three-time victor. At the World Championships, he once again pushed the limits of what we thought he was capable of with a 100km solo attack for victory.
He shone in the Classics too, with yet more crushing attacks left unanswered by the peloton. Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Il Lombardia. The only Monument he attempted that he didn’t win was Milan-San Remo – not for want of trying, he said the course was ‘not hard enough’ for him, a third place this year all he could muster. Don’t write him out for next season.
Demi Vollering
This is not so much about her dominance, but rather a lack of this season. The once perfect formula of Demi Vollering and SD Worx-Protime has spoiled, whether it was her surprise at the team prematurely announcing her plans to leave or an unprofessional looking response to her crash at the Tour de France. Vollering is leaving the squad she has been a part of since 2021 for pastures new, hoping the grass will be greener over at FDJ-Suez, where she will join the likes of Évita Muzic, Juliette Labous and Elise Chabbey.
Vollering had a winless Classics campaign, unable to defend her titles at Strade Bianche, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It’s hard when you set the bar so high as it’s all the more noticeable should you experience a rough period. Especially when you consider she has consistently been the one to beat in the peloton since the retirement of Annemiek van Vleuten.
However, she brushed that drought off and turned full speed ahead towards a maiden Vuelta Femenina victory and collected stage races like infinity stones, from Itzulia to the Tour de Suisse. Then came the Tour de France Femmes.
The eight-stage race got off to a flying start. After back-to-back sprint stages, Vollering won the Stage 3 individual time-trial and pulled on the maillot jaune as a result, narrowly missing out on doubling up on the following day. She continued to sit atop the standings until a calamitous Stage 5. A late crash caused multiple riders to hit the deck, including race leader Vollering, who took her time remounting and rode on alone. Teammate Lorena Wiebes said she ‘saw something yellow on the ground’ while another teammate Blanka Vas won the stage, later saying her radio was not working.
Vollering plummeted to ninth overall and, despite victory on a dramatic final day on Alpe d’Huez, she couldn’t claw back the deficit to Canyon-SRAM’s Kasia Niewiadoma. In the end, she finished second overall by only four seconds.
A season highlighted by the Tour de France Femmes
Take someone that knows nothing about professional cycling. You have one stage to show them. It’s hard to look past the deciding final day of the Tour de France Femmes.
With the SD Worx-Protime calamity that saw Vollering tumble down the general classification standings on Stage 5, Canyon-SRAM’s Kasia Niewiadoma stepped into the maillot jaune thanks to her second place on the day. She continued to lead the race until the final day, which shaped up perfectly for a dramatic showdown on Alpe d’Huez.
SD Worx-Protime and Vollering had to throw absolutely everything at Niewiadoma to try to retain the title and immediately went on the offensive. Vollering sat in the peloton alongside Niewiadoma before launching a ferocious attack on the Col du Glandon that could only be answered by Pauliena Rooijakkers of Fenix-Deceuninck.
Niewiadoma, meanwhile, was riding on with no teammates and losing time with 54km between herself and a first Grand Tour victory. The Tour de France Femmes hung on a pendulum that looked to be swinging in Vollering’s direction as she had grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck.
When Vollering approached the foot of Alpe d’Huez she had 45 seconds on Niewiadoma, with 1min 15sec separating them overall at the beginning of the day. Halfway up the climb, the gap had been pushed to over a minute. Vollering was so close to yellow she could practically see it on her shoulders once again, and yet…
The punishing slopes of Alpe d’Huez saw a display for the ages, the battle between Vollering and Niewiadoma was a true display of grit and determination by the two riders. To have a race decided on the final day, with the added drama of just a handful of seconds separating all riders on the overall podium, is a dream to both organisers and fans. Vollering crested the summit to win the stage and collapsed after the line. She had done all she could. It became a waiting game. Niewiadoma found a second wind and came speeding around the final bend giving it everything, sprinting and gritting her teeth as the clock ticked past the one-minute mark.
Kasia Niewiadoma won the Tour de France Femmes by four seconds, exploding into tears when she found out, lifting her bike aloft in triumph. Vollering stayed on the ground, covering her eyes. The two had given everything to deliver a final-day fight that will stay in the memory for some time. And let’s not forget Rooijakkers, who finished third just ten seconds behind Niewiadoma.
A season of setting new highs
Mark Cavendish
How fitting an end to such an historic career, to drag us all through one final tale of tension and drama until the explosion of joy and relief. Mark Cavendish’s one remaining goal has been clear for a few years now, but more-so since he postponed his retirement an extra season. He would end his Tour de France journey on his own terms, not on the side of a quiet stretch of road with a broken collarbone.
Level on stage wins with Eddy Merckx heading into the race, Cavendish just had to add one more to hold the record alone. A simple enough task – one that he had done so 34 times before – but he was faced with immediate difficulties. He struggled immensely on the opening hilly stage in Italy. Needing water poured over him as he was throwing up, Cavendish struggled to make the time cut, finishing 40 minutes down, shepherded by his teammates. He persevered.
The first sprint opportunity came on Stage 3 but a late crash put paid to his efforts. He didn’t hit the ground, but he was too far back to contest. The next chance came on Stage 5. It wasn’t a perfectly delivered finish by any means, Astana Qazaqstan had been swamped and Cavendish lost his leadout man Michael Mørkøv under the flamme rouge, but the Manx Missile expertly weaved from wheel to wheel to find the ideal spot and off he went, like so many times before. He powered away on the front with the finish line in sight. Just one last push.
He won the stage to thunderous applause, standing alone as the man with most stage wins in the Tour de France. Riders lined up to congratulate him long after the race was finished.
Marianne Vos
One of the greatest cyclists of all time, Visma-Lease a Bike’s Marianne Vos continued to hit new milestones in an elite road career inching ever closer to spanning two decades. Arriving at Dwars door Vlaanderen following a victorious Omloop het Nieuwsblad, the peloton dealt with a race neutralisation due to an incident ahead of the course.
After 130km, it eventually came down to a two-up sprint between Vos and Shirin van Anrooij of Lidl-Trek. There aren’t many races Vos hasn’t won, but this was her first victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen. It was also her 250th career win.
What a privilege it is to witness Vos’s talents, not only across road, but in every discipline she takes on. Later in the year, she reigned victorious at the Gravel World Championships to close off her season.
The Olympics
One of the most hotly anticipated moments of the season didn’t disappoint. Under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel almost saw the Olympic gold medal slip from his grasp in the dying kilometres, a puncture leaving him screaming for a new bike.
Fortunately, the double was still on the cards. He had built a solid gap of a minute and was able to cross the line at the finish with no competitor in sight, pulling on his second gold medal of the Games just a few days after winning the individual time-trial. The Midas touch.
The United States’ Kristen Faulkner put on a show in the women’s road race too. A last-ditch attack stuck against a group of big guns including Vos and Lotte Kopecky as she became the first American woman to win in the discipline since Connie Carpenter-Phinney 40 years previously.
In one of the stories of the Olympics, Faulkner wasn’t even meant to be on the start line. The Alaskan stepped into the spot left by Taylor Knibb who withdrew to prioritise the triathlon. Doubling up was clearly a theme as Faulkner went on to win another gold with the American team pursuit squad on the track.
Biniam Girmay
Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay has spent most of his professional career making history. This season was no exception. Girmay jumped at the chance on the first sprint opportunity at the Tour de France on Stage 3, becoming the first Black African rider to win a stage in the history of the race.
He was just getting started. The 24-year-old won a further two stages while resplendent in the green jersey, sweeping up points over the three weeks to win the points classification, another first.
With the top level of the sport almost entirely white, Girmay offers representation for huge number of people, he allows them to dream. As the man himself said, ‘Let me open the door’.
A season-defining crash at Itzulia
Stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country was scheduled to be a relatively straightforward day with a Category 2 climb early on before a trio of Category 3 climbs in the last 30km.
It was on the descent of the second climb that 12 riders crashed on a corner, landing in concrete ditches. This one crash would have ramifications throughout the season. Tour contenders Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel all came down, with some riders taken to hospital in an ambulance. Vingegaard and UAE’s Jay Vine looked the most badly hurt, lying still in scenes broadcast to the world.
The list of injuries was long: Vingegaard suffered a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a collapsed lung; Evenepoel fractured his clavicle; Vine had spinal fractures and went to the ICU; TotalEnergies’ Steff Cras sustained a collapsed lung, broken ribs and fractured vertebrae. It’s remarkable that it was nothing more serious.
There was another large crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Although the seriousness of injuries sustained was not at the same level as during Itzulia, it still ended the Classics campaign of Wout van Aert, who sustained broken ribs, a broken collarbone and concussion, while Jasper Stuyven underwent surgery for his fractured collarbone, and many other riders including Girmay and Stuyven’s teammate Mads Pedersen came down too.
A season of heartbreaking loss
Muriel Furrer
The story of the season cannot be told without the tragic loss of riders in 2024. 18-year-old Muriel Furrer died on 27th September after sustaining a critical head injury in a crash during the junior road race at the UCI World Championships in Zurich. She was riding for the Switzerland team, a nation that also lost talented star Gino Mäder just last year. The investigation into Furrer’s crash is ongoing.
In an interview with Swiss newspaper Blick, the Zurich public prosecutor’s office said, ‘In such cases, the law enforcement authorities always examine from the outset whether there has been any criminal misconduct and whether criminal proceedings should be initiated as a result. To date, no criminal proceedings have been initiated.’
Multiple questions remain surrounding her death. The cause is still unknown, as is how long Furrer was alone before being taken to hospital by air ambulance.
Bas van Belle
On the same day, it was announced that 24-year-old Dutch rider Bas van Belle had unexpectedly died. He was the older brother of Loe van Belle, who rides for Proximus-Cyclis CT and Visma-Lease a Bike’s Loe van Belle.
André Drege
Coop-Repsol rider André Drege died at the Tour of Austria on 6th July. The 25-year-old Norwegian crashed on the descent of the Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, on Stage 4.
The final stage was replaced with a memorial ride.
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