POLL: Men's Rider of the Year - CyclingUpToDate End of Season Awards
Cycling
The 2023 road season has reached its conclusion and we want to hear from you! Who's star shone brightest in the Men's World Tour this year? Your opinion counts and every vote matters so be sure to place a vote for the rider you believe should win!
Firstly of course, the nominees.
Jonas Vingegaard
The premier Grand Tour rider in men's cycling, Vingegaard secured a second successive Tour de France victory and in stunning style too. The Dane was a dominant figure in the battle for the Maillot Jaune, taking overall victory by more than seven minutes courtesy of a number of standout performances, including one of the great time-trials of all time on stage 16. Add to that more impressive efforts at the Vuelta a Espana as he took second overall behind teammate Sepp Kuss along with two further stage wins. With overall victories at the likes of Critérium du Dauphiné, Itzulia Basque Country and O Gran Camiño and it was a near perfect year for the Jumbo-Visma leader.
Tadej Pogacar
Although Pogacar was unable to reclaim the Maillot Jaune, his campaign more than made up for that by incredible levels of success elsewhere. Notable one-day victories include a duo of monument successes at Il Lombardia and the Tour of Flanders, triumphs at the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone plus a pair of Slovenian national title wins. With victory at Paris-Nice and two Tour de France stage wins, the Slovenian was a superstar once again.
Mathieu van der Poel
A pair of World Championships in two different disciplines, 2023 was arguably the best year of van der Poel's illustrious career to date. Starting with the aforementioned Cyclocross World Championship victory, van der Poel didn't take long to transfer that form onto the road with victories at Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, the Baloise Belgium Tour, victory in the road race in Glasgow and finally at the Super 8 Classic. With podium finishes at the Dutch National Championships, Tour of Flanders and the E3 Saxo Classic it was a stunning season.
Primoz Roglic
For the fourth time in five years, Primoz Roglic finished the season as a Grand Tour winner. Adding the Giro d'Italia to his palmares for the first time in his career, Roglic's stunning time-trial win on the penultimate stage up Monte Lussari, the Slovenian secured a general classification win by just 14 seconds from Geraint Thomas. With multiple other triumphs throughout the year, such as at Tirreno-Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya, the Vuelta a Burgos and the Giro dell'Emilia, plus a podium finish at the Vuelta a Espana and Il Lombardia, Roglic also ended the season by joining BORA - hansgrohe. Could he finally add the Tour de France in 2024?
Jasper Philipsen
No rider had more victories in 2023 than Alpecin-Deceuninck's Belgian sprint star. 19 wins in total for Philipsen this year, including four stage wins at the Tour de France en route to securing the Green Jersey by a comfortable margin. Second behind teammate Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix also showed his versatility as he proved he was more than just the dominant sprinting force in the peloton today.
Sepp Kuss
Finishing all three Grand Tours, Kuss first helped Primoz Roglic to victory at the Giro d'Italia, then backed up that success by helping Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France, the American then saved the best till last, by taking individual victory at the Vuelta a Espana, fighting off competition from his own teammates in the process. No longer a super-domestique, Kuss ends 2023 a genuine general classification contender.
Remco Evenepoel
Although his attempts at adding another Grand Tour win to his palmares were ultimately fruitless, Evenepoel still more than had a successful year. Five Grand Tour stage wins in total, the Belgian also tastes victory at the likes of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Classica San Sebastian, the UAE Tour, another Rainbow Jersey this against the clock, Evenepoel also managed to claim the Belgian tricolor with victory at the National Championships.
Wout van Aert
Whilst there is this seeming opinion that van Aert has been a perennial runner-up this year, notably at the Cyclocross World Championships, the World Championships road race and the Tour of Flanders and a pair of Tour de France stages, van Aert also secured a number of victories. The overall win at the Tour of Britain, E3 Saxo Classic, the Belgian time-trial championships and at Coppa Bernocchi, there were a number of successes for the 29-year-old in 2023.
So having seen the nominees, who do you think should win? Use the poll below to cast your vote!
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024