The 2024 males’s biking season was filled with drama, pleasure – and an entire lot of Tadej Pogačar victories.
From the three Grand Excursions to the 5 Monuments, it was a memorable season of unforgettable long-distance assaults and historic storylines.
Listed below are Biking Weekly’s favorite six moments of 2024 from males’s racing.
Ultimate day drama at Paris-Good
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The primary main stage race of the season, Paris-Good throws crosswinds, fog, rain, snow and finally, as they close to the French Riviera, solar at riders. It additionally throws up unpredictable, topsy-turvy and nail biting racing. 2024 was no totally different.
4 totally different riders led the race within the first six days, and surprisingly none of them have been the 2 pre-race favourites: Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel. Forward of the ultimate day in Good, a rollercoaster stage within the Maritime Alps, American Brandon McNulty led his compatriot Matteo Jorgenson by 4 seconds, with Mattias Skjelmose 35 seconds in arrears.
What was billed because the battle of the People was sophisticated by the truth that you possibly can by no means write off Evenepoel. The Belgian received the stage, lifting himself into second total, however Jorgensen clung to his wheel to take the yellow off a overwhelmed and dejected McNulty. It was the greatest victory of the Visma-Lease a Bike rider’s younger profession.
Van der Poel’s crushing Roubaix victory
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Nobody may be anticipated to win Paris-Roubaix – there’s simply too many uneven cobbles, hidden and visual risks, and a giant little factor known as dangerous luck that need to be surmounted earlier than a rider even will get close by of the Roubaix velodrome.
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However in April, Mathieu van der Poel made the Hell of the North look as straightforward as a using alongside a Belgian canal path is, defending his title in devastating model: attacking 59.6km from the end – the second-longest victory solo within the race’s storied historical past – and profitable by three minutes, the largest victory margin in 22 years.
Resplendent in his world champion stripes, it was his sixth Monument victory, and a reminder to all that the Alpecin-Deceuninck Dutchman is really the excellent Classics rider of the 2020s.
Cobbles chaos on the Tour de France
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A 3rd French victory in 9 days – the house nation’s biggest opening week of the Tour de France in lots of a yr – was just one a part of what was an epic day’s racing on the cobbles of Troyes.
The primary full cobbled stage within the historical past of the Tour, with a minimum of 32km of 14 totally different white roads, expectedly triggered havoc: assaults have been relentless, Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel repeatedly launched strikes, Jonas Vingegaard by some means held on, however Primož Roglič struggled and languished. Riders fell off, bikes have been modified, mud kicked up, and sharp phrases have been exchanged. “Vicious,” mentioned one rider. One other mentioned: “Brutal.”
In the long run, miraculously, it was a GC stalemate as up forward Anthony Turgis beat Tom Pidcock in a dash, however the ceaseless motion left everybody catching their breath and demanding extra cobbled levels sooner or later. Prime degree leisure.
Remco’s Olympic double
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Just some days after profitable gold within the time trial occasion, Remco Evenepoel secured a historic Olympic double with a efficiency stacked filled with panache, steeliness and lung-busting efforts.
After first beating compatriot Wout van Aert to the title as Belgium’s greatest guess, Evenepoel attacked with 38km to go, caught the chase group, after which distanced eventual silver medallist Valentin Madouas with 15km to go.
All was going nicely, Specialised have been designing his golden bike, however then a rear wheel puncture threatened to derail him. Offended shouts and an impatient stomp ultimately weren’t needed; he stopped on the end line, dismounted his bike, unfold his arms out huge, slammed down an imaginary cellphone and posed in entrance of the Eiffel Tower. Historical past made. Grasp the picture within the Louvre.
Daring O’Connor steals Vuelta pink
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Stage six of the Vuelta a España did it once more. A yr on from when Sepp Kuss received at Javalambre and catapulted himself in direction of the highest of the GC that he’d finally win, in 2024 it was the flip of Ben O’Connor.
Thirty-third in a single day, 1:56 behind Primož Roglič within the race for pink, O’Connor infiltrated a big break on the street to Yunquera within the warmth of Andalucía. Roglič and Pink Bull-Bora-hansgrohe have been nonplussed by O’Connor’s GC abilities, regardless of him having completed fourth in Might’s Giro d’Italia, and so they refused to chase even when the Australian went solo with 27km to go.
Remarkably, the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider received the stage by 4:33, and jumped into the pink jersey with a margin of 4:51. The whole dynamic of the remainder of the race was essentially and completely altered, and Roglič would solely snatch pink off O’Connor’s shoulders on stage 19. O’Connor by no means fancied himself to win the maillot rojo, however did maintain on for second.
Pogačar’s Triple Crown
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How do you cease an unstoppable drive? You possibly can’t. Actually not when the topic is Tadej Pogačar and the yr is 2024.
After profitable six levels and the GC at each the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, Pogačar had one large purpose left on his record for the season: to win the World Championships. Everybody knew he’d assault on the mountainous loop round Zurich in Switzerland, and most predicted he’d inevitably and undoubtedly cruise to victory, however nobody really guessed when.
100 kilometres to go was when the impatient Slovenian determined to tear issues aside, and with 52km remaining he was already alone, out in entrance, charging in direction of the primary Triple Crown since Stephen Roche in 1987. Unbeatable, imperious, exceptional. Essentially the most deserving world champion.