POLL: Women’s Rider of the Year - 2024 CyclingUpToDate End of Season Awards
Cycling
Across the 2024 season, there were a number of standout performers from within the women’s peloton. For the 2024 CyclingUpToDate End of Season Awards though, we need your help to decide who the Women’s Rider of the Year was!
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!
Lotte Kopecky
Lotte Kopecky was once again one of the peloton’s leading lights in 2024. 16 victories this calendar year, including notable successes such as Strade Bianche Donne, Paris-Roubaix Femmes, dual titles at the Belgian national championships, the Women's Tour of Britain, the Tour de Romandie, the European time trial title and a second successive Rainbow Jersey.
Add to those victories an incredible performance at the Giro d’Italia in July, where she missed out a first Grand Tour victory by just 21 seconds and an Olympic bronze medal in the women’s elite road race, Kopecky once again proved herself as a key part in Team SD Worx - Protime’s dominance.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma
Although Katarzyna Niewiadoma impressed early in the 2024 campaign, finishing 4th at Strade Bianche, 2nd at the Tour of Flanders, winning La Fleche Wallonne Féminine and getting a top 5 at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, it was at the Tour de France Femmes where the Pole really came into her own.
In one of the most thrilling finales to any Grand Tour in history, Niewiadoma buried herself on the iconic slopes of Alpe d’Huez on the final stage, limiting her losses to Demi Vollering and narrowly doing just about enough to keep hold of the Maillot Jaune and secure a famous Tour de France Femmes victory by a mere 4 seconds.
Demi Vollering
She may have narrowly been defeated in that aforementioned Tour de France Femmes thriller, but it was still a very successful season for the Dutch superstar Demi Vollering. After coming close in the early season Classics without being able to taste victory, Vollering added another Grand Tour success to her palmares at the Vuelta a Espana Femenina in May.
Backing that up with overall victory at the Vuelta a Burgos, the Itzulia Women and the Tour de Suisse, Vollering further proved herself as the women’s peloton’s leading general classification challenger. Two stage victories followed at the Tour de France finishing 2nd, a place she was also forced to then settle for at the Tour de Romandie and in the World Championship time trial.
Elisa Longo Borghini
Elisa Longo Borghini might be one of the most experienced heads in the women’s peloton, but arguably, the 32-year-old Italian has never looked better than she did across the 2024 season. After notable victories include Trofeo Oro, the Tour of Flanders, De Brabantse Pijl and the Italian national championships, Longo Borghini’s biggest success came in July.
After years of trying, the Italian finally got her hands on Grand Tour glory and her home race, the Giro d’Italia no less. In a very exciting battle with Lotte Kopecky, the experienced Lidl-Trek leader proved strongest to secure probably the biggest victory of her career. Although just one more victory came after at the Giro dell'Emilia, a duo of podium finishes at the World Championship closed Longo Borghini’s campaign strongly.
Kristen Faulkner
Long considered one of the most dangerous riders in the peloton, Faulkner signalled her threat on the biggest of stages in 2024, upsetting the likes of Lotte Kopecky, Marianne Vos and Blanka Kata Vas to take a historic Olympic gold medal in the women’s road race in Paris earlier this summer.
That wasn't the lone highlight in the American’s season though. Winning Omloop van het Hageland, taking two stages and finishing second overall at the Trofeo Ponente in Rosa, adding a Grand Tour stage victory at the Vuelta a Espana and claiming the stars and stripes jersey at the US national championships, Faulkner had a season of dreams in 2024.
Lorena Wiebes
The number one sprinter in the women’s World Tour peloton today, Wiebes has been a dominant force in 2024, adding a grand total of 22 victories to her palmares across the calendar year.
Starting in style with two victories at the UAE Tour, Wiebes added notable wins at Gent Wevelgem, Scheldeprijs, stages of the Vuelta a Burgos and Tour of Britain, plus domination of the Ride London Classic and Baloise Ladies Tour, Wiebes also reclaimed her European Championship jersey, before ending the season on a high at the Simac Ladies Tour.
Marianne Vos
Aging like a fine wine, 2024 saw a stunning return to her very best form from the now 37-year-old Marianne Vos. Adding 7 victories, taking her all-time tally to the utterly ridiculous 255, the legendary Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar starred at races such as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Amstel Gold Race and stages of the Vuelta a Espana and Volta a Catalunya.
There could very easily have been even more joy added too. 4th at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, a silver medal at the Olympic Games, a few narrow misses at the Tour de France Femmes and a top 10 at the World Championships. It is also worth noting though, that Vos did take home the Green Jersey from the Tour and ended her campaign by winning the Rainbow Jersey on the Gravel.
Remember, use the poll below to cast your vote! The winner is set to be announced one week from today (8th 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