POLL: Men’s Rider of the Year - 2024 CyclingUpToDate End of Season Awards
Cycling
In 2024, the level of performance in the men’s World Tour peloton was incredibly high. For the second annual CyclingUpToDate awards, we want to hear from you and now, it’s the turn of the big one: Men’s Rider of the Year.
Every vote counts and yours could be all important to deciding the final winner, so take a look through our nominations below and make sure you cast a vote via the poll at the end!
Tadej Pogacar
Unquestionably the outstanding option, Tadej Pogacar has had a year from the gods in 2024. From his first race of the campaign (a stunning solo at Strade Bianche), to his final pedal strokes (a stunning solo at Il Lombardia), the Slovenian has been utterly dominant all season.
Becoming the first man since Marco Pantani to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same calendar year, Pogacar then went on to emulate Nicholas Roche and Eddy Merckx by adding a Rainbow Jersey to his Grand Tour double. Add to that a duo of monument victories, plus 12 Grand Tour stages and numerous other successes, Pogacar’s 2024 is a season that will go down in history.
Mathieu van der Poel
Dispelling the Rainbow Jersey curse, Mathieu van der Poel was the dominant force in the Spring Classics this season. Kicking off his campaign with a top 10 at Milano-Sanremo helping teammate Jasper Philipsen take monument glory, Van der Poel then took victory at the E3 Saxo Classic before finishing runner-up at Gent Wevelgem. Then, two Monument wins of his own followed at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, plus a podium finish at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Although his Tour de France was a quiet one, helping Philipsen again, and he couldn’t retain his Rainbow Jersey in Zurich, Van der Poel ended the season ensuring he was still a world champion, taking an incredible victory at the Gravel World Championship.
Remco Evenepoel
Silencing a lot of doubters in 2024, Evenepoel seemed to have really kicked on this campaign. Starting the season successfully in Portugal, the Soudal - Quick-Step leader then moved one to take a close second at Paris-Nice. Adding a Criterium du Dauphine stage victory to his palmares, Evenepoel then took the fight to Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard over three weeks on his Tour de France debut, finishing on the final podium.
It was a short time later, in Paris though, that Evenepoel’s true season highlight arrived as the Belgian took a historic double Olympic gold from both the time trial and the men’s road race. His season wasn't completely done there either, adding another world time trial title and finishing 2nd at Il Lombardia.
Primoz Roglic
In his first season at Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, Primoz Roglic brought Grand Tour success back to the team in the form of a record equalling 4th career Red Jersey victory at the Vuelta a Espana in late August / early September.
Although Roglic didn’t succeed in his ultimate goal of winning a Tour de France Maillot Jaune, but nevertheless there were multiple victories for the 34-year-old to reflect upon such as a stage of the Itzulia Basque Country and a narrow overall triumph at the Criterium du Dauphine.
Jonas Vingegaard
Although admittedly a lesser season than his 2022 and 2023 efforts, Jonas Vingegaard was again one of the top performers in the peloton across 2024. The stage race king, Vingegaard won all the races he started this year, except the Itzulia Basque Country where he terrifyingly crashed out and the Tour de France, where only a rampant Tadej Pogacar bettered the Visma leader, despite the Dane’s preparation being ruined by the aforementioned crash in the Basque Country.
Starting his year with Gran Camiño dominance, Vingegaard then swiftly turned his attention to similar levels of dominance at Tirreno-Adriatico. Taking a famous Tour de France stage victory in the summer, outsprinting Pogacar on 11, the Dane then ended his post-Tour campaign on a high at the Tour de Pologne.
Jasper Philipsen
Taking 9 victories in 2024, markedly lower than 2023, it was perhaps the quality of his wins that stick out more than the quantity for Jasper Philipsen this season. Most notable of all, a first career monument victory at Milano-Sanremo ahead of Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogacar.
Taking stages of Tirreno-Adriatico, the Baloise Belgium Tour and the Renewi Tour, plus one-day victories at the Classic Brugge De Panne and Sparkassen Münsterland Giro, Philipsen also starred again at the Tour de France taking three stages, even though a second Green Jersey proved just out of reach.
Ben O’Connor
He might not have the big number of wins as the others on this list, only adding three triumphs to his palmares, Ben O’Connor’s 2024 is arguably just as impressive comparative to pre-season expectations.
After finishing 2nd overall at the UAE Tour in his season opener, taking home a stage win to boot, O’Connor came home 5th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico and then 2nd at the Tour of the Alps. A strong Giro d’Italia followed, finishing just off the podium in 4th, before his real season highlight came at the Vuelta a Espana. Taking victory on stage 6 from the breakaway, the Aussie moved into the Red Jersey and didn’t relent until stage 19, eventually finishing 2nd overall to Roglic. Finally, O’Connor ended his campaign on a high with a World Championship silver medal in the men’s elite road race.
Tim Merlier
A total of 16 wins this year, Tim Merlier was the most successful sprinter of the 2024 campaign. There were some big wins along the way too for the Belgian of Soudal - Quick-Step.
Two stages of the AlUla Tour, three stages of the UAE Tour, Nokere Koerse, three stages of the Giro d’Italia including the final stage in Rome, two at the Baloise Belgium Tour and one stage of the Tour de Pologne among others. Arguably his most prestigious win though came at the European Championship in Belgium as he secured the European title.
Marc Hirschi
In his final year at UAE Team Emirates, Marc Hirschi ensured he'd be departing the team in winning ways this autumn. Taking a total of nine victories, the Swiss was nearly unstoppable in the second half of the season, hoovering up one day wins.
Four of the end of season Italian classics went to Hirschi. The Coppa Agostini, the Memorial Marco Pantani, the Coppa Sabatini and the GP Industria & Artigianato. Add to that victories earlier in the season at the likes of the Czech Tour, the Faun Drome Classic, San Sebastian and the Bretagne Classic, Hirschi heads to Tudor Pro Cycling Team high on confidence.
Remember, use the poll below to cast your vote! The winner is set to be announced one week from today (5th of November).
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- No, it didn't. It has been debunked by the team that there was anything wrong with his feeding. Pogacar went too early and paid the price.maaiikeen31-12-2024
- Strong team around Jonas and pray each day that Tadej forgets to eat in the decisive stages (col du Granon). It also happened this year, stage 11 when Jonas won the sprint (incredible! Tadej was empty).
maria2024202430-12-2024 - Not quite yet I’d say but she could reach and surpass. You probably forgot Vos’ 2 track WC titles that outweigh the total and it has to be said more of PFPs MTB titles are a bit far fetched than Vos but yes they are comparable. It’s strange that with her consistent participation in xc she’s never ever managed to win even one race, Marie Schreiber can at least retire with that achievement ;-)Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- He may be known as “The goat” but I can’t realistically consider him a top ten candidate taking together all forms of cycling. Vos had 28 UCI WC wins, Absalon 33, Schurter 34, MVDP 41 and counting. As far as world championships they are all ahead too Longo, MVDP, PFP, Merckx, de Vlaeminck, TP and at least a half dozen others from long ago are surely higher up, or what criteria are you privileging other than a nickname?Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- and yeah, i’m a ridiculous blowhard for writing THAT MUCH. seriously, f me…OCexile30-12-2024
- this has diverged from being a per se cycling discussion, but that’s cool with me. so i live in the united states. for background, i grew up in southern california, educated at UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, and except for chunks of a 22 year Navy career i’ve lived here most of my life. there are things about this country, the way its social, political, and economic institutions function that IN MY OPINION fail considerably in comparison to other developed democracies. BUT, one thing that i think the US does excel in is that we have an extraordinarily high level of freedom of speech. now, that certainly opens the door for the alex joneses of the world to weaponize/monetize speech in utterly disgusting ways that do actual damage. it also gives freedom to politicians to say that the press is corrupt and should be jailed, like in russia, iran, or venezuela. these are DANGEROUS uses of freedom of speech. but as much as that freedom may imperil the well being of individuals and ideas — like the idea of liberty itself — it’s that freedom that has, over time, marked the SLOW movement toward greater equality and well being. this extreme level of free speech is certainly the primary fundamental right in the united states that has functioned, over time, to actively drive social progress. i mean, quack quack quack, right? the kind of speech that MOST needs protection is UNPOPULAR SPEECH. we KNOW this. but if you can only engage in unpopular speech IN PRIVATE, as you suggested, and be BARRED from a public platform to share those unpopular ideas, then your freedom to speak means very little and the whole project of social change and social progress grinds to a halt. “YES, you can talk about all races being equal to your friends, but you can’t publish any articles making that argument.” “YES, you can say that homosexuality isn’t a dangerous perversion that must be legislated against so long as you ONLY say it to your friends, but you can’t say it on a radio show.” so the problem is, if there’s going to be prior restraint of speech, the only person I’M gonna trust to decide who can say what before they say it is ME. if somebody wants to let me and my friends make all those decisions, then i’m IN. i’d expect a little pushback on that idea though. alex jones would probably like that job, too. lance would love that kind of power i bet. sooooo…. maybe it’s better to just leave things like they are. it’s ugly and messy and people get hurt, but once you SURRENDER that nearly unlimited freedom you’ll never get it back. and yes, society has drawn lines: still can’t threaten to blow up a mosque or share child pornography, etc. — that’s a pretty good idea. but erring on the side of freedom rather than censorship has been critical in preserving valuable free speech rather than seeing it slowly winnowed and legislated away. so yeah, there WILL be another alex jones, neonazis get to deny the holocaust, and lance gets to talk about cycling all he wants. and if you don’t like the source or the content then YOU are free to rail against it, or just not listen. as always, totally appreciate and respect YOUR perspective, brother. and i do get where you’re coming from. there are individuals in the US who have (or are about to have) the biggest platform there is who say things that drive me mad because i find them so dangerous and misleading, but the american version of democracy, with all its notable failings, has survived by preserving freedom of speech in the face of these types, not by limiting it.OCexile30-12-2024
- There is a cyclist, recently retired who raced as a Junior in 1997, and is known as 'The Goat'. Downhill legend, Greg Minnaar......wipperman9530-12-2024
- The road bias of this site shows up as PFP isn't mentioned - who is as successful as Vos, and from memory has more World titles.wipperman9530-12-2024
- his wife was surprisingly accurateabstractengineer30-12-2024
- Its the wrong thing to do the Vuelta after getting exhausted in the TDF. This is going to reduce his career potentialabstractengineer30-12-2024