ANALYSIS: The 'Big Four of GC' to clash at Tour de France, Olympic Games and World Championships
Cycling
There are so many high quality GC contenders at Grand Tours, but only four of them are able to draw an interest of crowds to a race on their own. The X analyst ammattipyöräily lists all the confirmed or heavily rumoured 2024 starts for the 'Big Four' - Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel.
Unsurprisingly each of the four chooses a different path to kick off the season. Evenepoel will pin on the race numbers first as the Belgian aims to add to his two titles from Volta ao Algarve, while Vingegaard will be defending at O Gran Camino. Pogacar kicks off his spring hot, with a streak of big classics in lead up to Giro d'Italia.
While only Pogacar is heading to Italy, just before that a big clash is anticipated at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, where we he'll face (at least) two former champions in Roglic and Evenepoel.
If Giro d'Italia is quite overlooked in 2024, the same cannot be said about Tour de France, where the major forces should normally collide. And if everything goes well, the fans are up for a great spectacle. Shortly after Le Grande Boucle, the Paris Olympics are on the menu, and all four have expressed their desire to represent their country, even if the parcours don't particularly suit neither of them.
In Autumn, only Vingegaard is so far aiming for La Vuelta, but as we've learned in the past, more riders will be seeking redemption for their seasons at the Spanish race and so the startlist is far from complete.
However World Championships are a different story. A circuit around Zurich promises a similar race to 2018 Innsbruck, a golden opportunity for all the climbers to put on the rainbow for a year. Normally, all four will be there.
The last but not least - Il Lombardia. As far, only the three-time champion Pogacar announced intention to start the race, but once again, he's unlikely to be the only of the four with desire to win the October monument.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- exactly, he had an amazing season, but with these overstatements they don‘t do him good.Ketterechts08-11-2026
- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
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🗓️ 2024 | Pogacar, Vingegaard, Roglic, Evenepoel Confirmed or strongly suggested races are with 'X'. Having no 'X' means either that they don't participate or there is no information. One or two races and 'X's may be missing from the list. The 'X's are the ones I could find.
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