The public have spoken and
Tadej Pogacar's stunning Rainbow Jersey victory at the 2024
World Championships in Zurich has been crowned the Individual Performance of the Year at the second annual CyclingUpToDate End of Season Awards.
You voted in your numbers for this award, and in the end, Pogacar's victory in Switzerland for Slovenia took the spoils by a landslide margin ahead of the rest of his rivals such as 2nd placed
Mark Cavendish for his record breaking Tour de France stage win and 3rd placed and 3rd placed
Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix.
Given his brilliance this year, Tadej Pogacar could have an entire list to himself in this particular category! In the men’s elite road race in Zurich though, the Slovenian was arguably as good as he ever has been, attacking from 100km out and never looking back. Pogacar quickly caught and then attacked the breakaway. Only his trade teammate at UAE Team Emirates, Pavel Sivakov could follow, but at 50km to go, the Frenchman too had to give up the wheel. From there, Pogacar looked dominant but heading into the finale, it looked momentarily as if the 100km attack might be too much even for him as he began to look visibly tired and the chase closed in. Seemingly having a second wind though, Pogacar kicked again on the final little rise, regaining some vital seconds of advantage over the chasers in the process and holding on for an emotional victory.
In total, 58% of the votes landed on the side of Pogacar, a considerable margin clear of Cavendish (13%) and Van der Poel (10%), with the likes of Remco Evenepoel's Olympic victory taking 7%, Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France stage win finishing at 4%, Pogacar's Strade Bianche at 4% and Van der Poel's Tour of Flanders victory down at just 2%.
Don't forget though, there are still active awards to be voted on where your vote could prove decisive! Find other polls such as '
Team of the Year', '
Women’s Rider of the Year' and of course '
Men’s Rider of the Year' by clicking the links attached!