Reviewing UCI Men's WorldTour Teams' 2024 seasons
An in-depth look at the 2024 men's road cycling season focusing a segment on each team.
Alpecin - Deceuninck 🇧🇪
Without anyone who can target GC in Grand Tours, this team’s sole purpose is the classics and sprints and they well and truly delivered. This is what I love about Alpecin-Deceuninck the most, the fact that they have decided to specialise as a winning machine in the classics and sprints. There are many teams who try to spread their resources widely across all aspects of the sport and this leads to little wins across the board, whereas Alpecin-Deceuninck have become a dominant force in classics and sprints mainly thanks to Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen.
The season started incredibly for the team as they won the first 3 monuments of the year in Milano-Sanremo with Jasper Philipsen, before Mathieu van der Poel dominated both the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris Roubaix. Add to this 3 Tour de France and 2 La Vuelta stages wins, E3 Saxo Classic and Classic Brugge-De-Panne and you have yourself another pretty remarkable season for the former cyclocross team.
The former u23 World Champion Axel Laurance also had an impressive debut season with the pro team after spending 2023 in the development ranks. 4 wins including a WorldTour stage win in Catalunya plus the GC in Norway bodes very well for the 23 year old Frenchman’s future. The only issue is, Laurance will be leaving the team at the end of the season as he moves to the INEOS Grenadiers.
The only possible criticism of the team is perhaps the fact that Jasper Philipsen didn’t win green at the Tour de France or Mathieu van der Poel’s quiet 3 weeks around France, but MVDP did still win the two cobbled monuments and a classic in dominant fashion, so I don’t think the team will be too bothered…
Victories: 26
WorldTour Victories: 15
MVP: Mathieu Van Der Poel
Breakout Star: Axel Laurance
Underrated Hero: Quinten Hermans
Key Results:
🥇Milano-Sanremo - Jasper Philipsen
🥇Ronde Van Vlaanderen - Mathieu Van Der Poel
🥇Paris Roubaix - Mathieu Van Der Poel
Arkéa B&B Hotels 🇫🇷
Slightly less victories than in the last 4 seasons however there is one win which trumps all of those achieved in those years and that is Kévin Vauquelin’s breakaway success on Stage 2 of the Tour de France in Bologna this summer.
Luca Mozzato surpised us all to claim 2nd in the Ronde van Vlaanderen which is a mighty impressive result for this team and they also finished 2nd in the biblical weather edition of La Flèche Wallonne with Kévin Vauquelin.
I think despite this not being their most successful seasons in terms of the number of victories, that Tour de France stage triumphs it all and therefore makes this teams season positive . 2nd in La Flèche Walloons and Ronde Van Vlaanderen seems to have gone under the radar for this team but these are also very significant results.
Ewen Costiou looks like a top young talent too who has plenty of potential and room to grow too.
Victories: 9
WorldTour Victories: 1
MVP: Kévin Vauquelin
Breakout Star: Ewen Costiou
Underrated Hero: Luca Mozzato
Key Results:
🥇Tour de France Stage 2: Kévin Vauquelin
🥈La Flèche Wallonne: Kévin Vauquelin
🥈Ronde Van Vlaanderen: Luca Mozzato
Astana Qazaqstan Team 🇰🇿
Astana Qazaqstan Team signed Mark Cavendish in 2023 with the goal of winning number 35 at the Tour de France. It ended in heartbreak with Cavendish in the back of an ambulance. However Alexander Vinokourov backed his man, and they decided to give it another shot, and well… made history.
Stage 5 of the Tour de France and the finish in Saint Vulbas is arguably the moment of the season and is now one of the most iconic in cycling history as Mark Cavendish is now the greatest stage winner in the history of the biggest bike race and became so as an Astana Qazaqstan rider, which is huge for the team. So in that sense, their big goal for the season was a massive success!
However, it’s harsh to say, but I hardly noticed the team in most races this season and beyond the single WorldTour victory they had in the Tour de France, there wasn’t much to shout about this season.
The team signed Alberto Bettiol mid-season however he is yet to show the top form he had for the first 6 months of season. Harold Tejada and Lorenzo Fortunato had good individual seasons including a very active Tour de France performance for Tejada.
They do have some very solid riders other riders with the likes of Christian Scaroni, Simone Velasco, and Henok Mulubrhan, but these guys and the rest are going to have to step it up big time next year otherwise this team could be in big danger of potential relegation despite the big potential Chinese takeover happening in the not to distant future.
An ever present rider of the team, Alexey Lutsenko, will be moving on from Astana at the end of the season and he has been arguably their key rider for many years and will need replacing.
They’ve made some interesting signings for next season too such as Sergio Higuita, Nicola Conci and Mike Teunissen. If these riders can hit the ground running, the team can turn their form around and take the steps needed towards trying to become one of the top teams again.
Victories: 12
WorldTour Victories: 1
MVP: Mark Cavendish
Breakout Star: Gianmarco Garofoli
Underrated Hero: Harold Tejada
Despite not scoring the most UCI points (Lorenzo Fortunato), Cavendish had the most wins this season for the team including the biggest of them all, number 35 at the Tour de France. Legendary
Key Results:
🥇Tour de France Stage 5: Mark Cavendish
🥇Il Giro d’Abruzzo: Alexey Lutsenko
🥇Tour of Colombia Stage 2: Harold Tejada
Bahrain-Victorious 🇧🇭
A dissapointing season after many very successful seasons, the 2023 transfer window looked to be a difficult one for the team and so it has played out. The losses of Mikel Landa and Jonathan Milan, both of whom have had great seasons, meant that Bahrain Victorious would have a lot firepower needing to be replaced. Plenty of their big riders also had difficult seasons which were plagued by injuries or illnesses at the worst times possible too.
There were some positive moments including impressive wins for Santiago Buitrago in Paris-Nice, Pello Bilbao in Slovenia and Phil Bauhaus in Tirreno-Adriatico. Torstein Træen winning a mountain stage was an extremely special and heartwarming moment after winning his battle against testicular cancer which was diagnosed in 2022. Also the fact he won at the race in which the team suffered the most horrible fate the year before with Gino Mäder makes this victory more special.
It’s hard to criticise Bahrain-Victorious too much as the tragic passing of Gino Mäder last season must have bared great emotional suffering and fatigue on his teammates and staff too, and its very difficult to imagine and understand the impact that this horrible situation may have had on members of the team.
For some teams, this wouldn’t be considered a disastrous season at all, but for the high expectations and reputation that this team has, things will need to improve significantly in 2025.
Victories: 13
WorldTour Victories: 4
MVP: Santiago Buitrago
Breakout Star: Edoardo Zambanini
Underrated Hero: Pello Bilbao
Key Results:
🥇Paris-Nice Stage 4: Santiago Buitrago
🥇Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 3: Phil Bauhaus
🥇Skoda Tour de Luxembourg: Antonio Tiberi
Cofidis 🇫🇷
A step down from the 2023 season which saw them win 3 grand tour stages including 2 at the Tour de France, times are difficult at the moment for Cofidis. Ion Izagirre is very a solid rider who year after year seems to deliver great results, Bryan Coquard claimed his 2nd ever WorldTour win and Milan Fretin looks to be a promising sprinter for the future, so things aren’t all bad for the French Team but they lack presence in the big races as only four top 5 finishes in Grand Tour stages suggests. Benjamin Thomas’s breakaway win in the Giro d’Italia was a delight to see but
The team will be hoping things will turn around next season and they have been very active in the transfer market to try and ensure this happens. They will be hoping new signings such as Alex Aranburu, Emanuel Buchmann, Simon Carr, Dylan Teuns and Valentin Ferron can step up right away and steer the team away from a potential relegation battle.
Victories: 5
WorldTour Victories: 2
MVP: Axel Zingle
Breakout Star: Milan Fretin
Underrated Hero: Ion Izagirre
Key Results:
🥇Giro d’Italia Stage 5: Benjamin Thomas
🥇Tour de Suisse Stage 2: Bryan Coquard
4️⃣ Il Lombardia: Ion Izagirre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 🇫🇷
When the team announced the introduction of a big new sponsor in Decathlon, you could be forgiven for thinking that 2024 would be somewhat of a transition season and things could be difficult.
However, they have been arguably one of the most impressive teams this season with plenty of impressive wins and ever presence at the front of Grand Tour GC, stages and classics. Key riders such as Ben O’Connor, Benoit Cosnefroy and Oliver Naesen have really stepped up to the mark amongst many others and plenty of younger riders have showed they’ve got what it takes to be key members of the team. The team also achieved its first grand tour podium since Romain Bardet in the 2017 Tour de France, with Ben O’Connor in La Vuelta and valiantly defended the leader’s jersey for nearly two weeks.
After some subpar years, this is one of the best seasons in this iconic team’s history and bodes very well for the future with some extremely talented young riders stepping up from the development team including Paul Seixas, and Léo Biseaux. The aim for next season will be to build on this very impressive season and I think they are capable of doing so.
Victories: 30
WorldTour Victories: 7
MVP: Ben O’Connor
Breakout Star: Paul Lapiera/ Valentin Paret Peintre
Underrated Hero: Aurélien Paret-Peintre
Key Results:
🥈La Vuelta a España GC + 🥇La Vuelta a España Stage 6 : Ben O’Connor
🥇De Brabantse Pijl: Benoît Cosnefroy
🥇Giro d’Italia Stage 10 + 19: Valentin Paret-Peintre + Andrea Vendrame
EF Education-EasyPost 🇺🇸
It’s been a solid season for EF Education-Easypost as a whole. One that they will probably look at thinking that there is plenty of room for improvement, but also not one which they should be disappointed with. 2 Grand Tour stage wins just like last season, but significantly one of those came in the Tour de France with Richard Carapaz and they were constantly animating the breaks in these races with the likes of Georg Steinhauser and Ben Healy.
Richard Carapaz looked great for the majority of the season and certainly bounced back after a difficult 2023. He won 4 races but two of those were world tour races, half of the team’s season total, and he was arguably the most impressive rider of the final week at the Tour de France behind Tadej Pogačar, as the Ecuadorian consistently attacked at the front of the race fighting to win stages. He then rode a very solid race to finish 4th at La Vuelta and the team only may regret letting Ben O’Connor gain 6:31 on stage 6, as this would have meant Carapaz would have gotten onto the podium.
Despite only taking 1 win compared to his 5 last season, Ben Healy once again animated every race that he was in and showed that he is a top class rider who will land a big win very soon, simply due to his persistence to keep trying to attack and put everything on the line. Alberto Bettiol started the season very well before a mid season transfer to Astana Qazaqstan. Neilson Powless ended the season in top form winning Gran Piemonte and the Japan Cup as well as finishing 8th in Il Lombardia. There are plenty of unsung heroes in this team too who were great but went under the radar, the likes of Harry Sweeny, Mikkel Honore and Sean Quinn amongst others.
Archie Ryan, Lukas Nerurkar, Darren Rafferty and George Steinhauser had big breakthrough seasons in the elite ranks with the latter winning a mountain stage at the Giro d’Italia. The team will be hoping these talented riders can step up in a big way in 2025.
Overall, a decent season for the team, but there is plenty of room for improvement next season and with the young talent at their disposal, I think they will have a better season in 2025.
Victories: 24
WorldTour Victories: 4
MVP: Richard Carapaz
Breakout Star: Archie Ryan/Georg Steinhauser
Underrated Hero: Neilson Powless
Key Results:
🥇Tour de France Stage 17: Richard Carapaz
🥇Giro d’Italia Stage 17: Georg Steinhauser
🥇Milano-Torino + Gran Piemonte: Alberto Bettiol + Neilson Powless
Groupama-FDJ 🇫🇷
This is a team who has seen a changing of the guard of the past couple of years.
For the last decade or so, there had been a core of riders who had been ever present in the team, and many of these have left since the end of the 2022 season. Jacopo Guarnieri, Sébastien Rechenbach, Anthony Roux, Tobias Ludvigsson and Ramon Sinkeldam all left in 2022 after many years at the team. More significantly in 2023 the team lost arguably their two most significant riders of the last decade in Arnaud Démare and Thibaut Pinot, as well as Bruno Armirail, Matthieu Ladagnous and Miles Scotson.
This is a huge core of riders to lose in the space of 24 months and therefore the point that I’m making is that this is a team that is going through a transition period. Ultimately, you would expect a team to struggle significantly for a while as a result. At the end of last season, the team was criticised for not winning a Grand Tour since the 2022 Giro d’Italia, 5 Grand Tours ago. This season, that streak went to 7 after no wins at the Giro or the Tour de France and looked like it was going to become 8 until Stefan Küng won the final grand tour stage of the year, on stage 21’s Individual Time Trial at La Vuelta a España.
David Gaudu had a strong end to the season and there were wins throughout the season for talented youngsters such as Lenny Martinez, Laurence Pithie, Sam Watson and Romain Grégoire, although all bar the latter will ride elsewhere in 2025.
Its hard to say where Groupama-FDJ will stand in 2025, but one big ambition they should have is to be more active and competitive in Grand Tours in both a GC and stage winning capacity as this is something which has been a clear issue for a few seasons.
Victories: 15
WorldTour Victories: 3
MVP: Lenny Martinez
Breakout Star: Laurence Pithie
Underrated Hero: Valentin Madouas
Key Results:
🥇Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race: Laurence Pithie
🥇La Vuelta Ciclista a España Stage 21: Stefan Küng
🥇Itzulia Basque Country Stage 5: Romain Grégoire
INEOS Grenadiers 🇬🇧
Times are tough for the British team at the moment. This is quite comfortably the team’s most underwhelming season for the last decade. They have gone from being the biggest force in Grand Tour racing to a team that is a shell of that.
A team that dominated the Grand Tours for over half a decade, this season saw Geraint Thomas finished 3rd at the Giro d'Italia but with Tadej Pogačar in the race, the team were never in contention for the victory. It was still an impressive performance by the ever-classy Thomas but to rub salt in the wounds for the team, former rider from the year before, Dani Martinez, finished 2nd in GC. They also did win 2 stages at the race making it their only successful Grand Tour of the season with Jhonatan Narváez beating Pogačar on stage 1 to take the Maglia Rosa.
The team won 7 out of 8 Tour de France’s from 2012-2019 with 4 different riders illustrating how imperious they were at the biggest bike race in the world. Since then, the team haven’t won the Tour but they were still on the podium in 2021 and 2022 showing that they were still in the fight for big results. However in this year’s race, they were pretty invisible unless they had a rider in the breakaway and were invisible in the GC race with Carlos Rodriguez finishing 7th at over 25 minutes behind Pogačar.
The team did manage to win a UCI WorldTour stage race in Tour de Romandie with Carlos Rodríguez, but in the past, this is the sort of race they would have won in preparation to the Grand Tours so its hard not to feel that the team would have been aiming for much more in GC races this season.
Tom Pidcock winning Amstel Gold Race was a real highlight but there were rumours of an unsettled relationship with the rider and the team which has seen him been linked with a transfer move since he was deselected from the Il Lombardia lineup. Pidcock has now signed for Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team for 2025, a major loss for the INEOS Grenadiers.
Egan Bernal remarkable recovery from his horror crash a few years back has seen him finish in the top 10 in GC in Tour Colombia, Gran Camiño, Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse. This is a very consistent set of results and bodes well for 2025 as he is coming into the traditional peak years as he will be 28 in January. It would be great to see Egan Bernal get back to his best, and his best would be fighting for the win in Grand Tours and his injuries from the crash has been a very unfortunate and unlucky situation that the team has suffered from.
The aim for next season will be to surely get closer to competing for Grand Tour wins once again because that’s what a team of this pedigree and budget should only be aiming for, but it is very difficult to see how they can compete with the likes of Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel.
Victories: 14
WorldTour Victories: 6
MVP: Carlos Rodríguez
Breakout Star: Brandon Smith Rivera
Underrated Hero: Jhonatan Narváez
Key Results:
🥇Amstel Gold Race: Tom Pidcock
🥇Tour of Romandie GC: Carlos Rodríguez
🥉Giro d’Italia GC: Geraint Thomas
Intermarché-Wanty 🇧🇪
2023 was a step down from the team’s remarkable 2022 where they were 5th in the UCI rankings and had 25 victories. 2024 confirmed that 2022 was likely a one off season for now, and I think that is mainly due to a lack of consistency throughout the season and a reliance on one or two key individuals.
However, it must be said that 2024 was a successful year for the team off the back of the Tour de France alone. 3 stage wins and the points classification with Biniam Grimy is a remarkable return for any team in the world’s biggest bike race, so this was monumental achievement for the team. Girmay had a great season in general and was a heavy point scorer for the team.
Laurenz Rex was a breakout star for the team in the classics period with a 6th place finish at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad before winning Le Samyn.
It was a heartwarming moment seeing the very popular Taco van der Hoorn return to racing in August after 16 months out of the sport, suffering from concussion after a crash at the Tour of Flanders in April 2023. Even better was seeing the Dutchman win the super windy Betcity Elstedenrace and here’s hoping that we see the best version of Taco Van Der Hoorn in 2025.
For next season the team have plenty of young riders with potential that could step up and they should be aiming to potentially land the first monument win with Biniam Girmay.
Victories: 13
WorldTour Victories: 4
MVP: Biniam Girmay
Breakout Star: Laurenz Rex
Underrated Hero: Mike Teunissen
Key Results:
🥇Tour de France Stages 3, 8, 12 + Points Classification: Biniam Girmay
🥇Le Samyn: Laurenz Rex
🥇ZLM Tour GC + Stage 1: Rune Herregodts
Lidl-Trek 🇺🇸
I had high hopes for Lidl-Trek at the start of the season after the introduction of Lidl as a title sponsor and the busy transfer window that they had which included plenty of big names such as Jonathan Milan and Tao Geoghegan Hart. Alongside this, the team already had many top riders and exciting young talents too and therefore many expected the team to take a step up and try and become one of the best 5 teams in the world.
I think it is safe to say that we can now consider Lidl-Trek to be certainly in the conversation of being one of the top 5 teams in the world after a brilliant 2024 where they were present at the front in all types of races achieving 42 victories. They are one of the teams which has shown real ambition over the last few years to try and close the gap to the likes of UAE Team Emirates and Team Visma | Lease a Bike.
The team’s star man Mads Pedersen started the season on fire, dominating the Tour de la Provence and Etoile de Bessèges and the team had stage wins at both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in March with Mattias Skjelmose and Jonathan Milan.
Toms Skujiņš was one of the most impressive riders of the season and looked to be one of the strongest riders in Omloop het Nieuwsblad before a spectacular 2nd place behind Tadej Pogačar at Strade Bianche. He has been an underrated rider for many years but really stepped it up to another level this season.
Despite Mathieu Van Der Poel’s dominance in the cobbled classics, the team performed brilliantly and Mads Pedersen was able to beat MVDP in a two up sprint to win an epic edition of Gent-Wevelgem after a super combative ride by the Dane. It was one of the best performances of the whole 2024 season. This fighting spirit and aggressive racing became a theme in the two cobbled monuments as Pedersen was consistently lighting up the race from far out and was out front in each race for 77 and 81km respectively. Mads Pedersen suffered bad luck at the Tour de France, but over the course of the season stamped home the fact that the former world champion is one of the best riders in the world and any team would be lucky to have him.
The team’s big signing, and I mean that metaphorically and literally, Jonathan Milan the Italian sprinter who is built like a machine, delivered at his home Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia by winning 3 stages and the points classification. The dominance of him and Mads Pedersen at the Lidl Deutschland Tour was also a sight to behold and if we get to see the duo race together more often, they will be very hard to beat. He has proven himself this year to be arguably the best sprinter in the world, or at least in the conversation, alongside the likes of Merlier, Philipsen and Girmay. A Jonathan Milan appearance at the Tour de France in 2025 would be a mouthwatering prospect and would be the opportunity to prove that he is the best in the world.
Giulio Ciccone just missed out on the top 10 at the Tour de France before Mattias Skjelmose ended the season strongly with a 5th place finish at La Vuelta a España. Both riders are extremely talented and despite not having the best seasons of their careers, still provide tons of value to the team. The same can be said for Bauke Mollema who had a renaissance in 2024 with some of the best rides of his career.
Jasper Stuyven deserves an honourable mention as one of the most underrated riders of the season. He started his season with top 10 finishes in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Milano-Sanremo before a brilliant ride at E3 Saxo Classic where he was sandwiched onto the podium between Mathieu Van Der Poel and Wout Van Aert. Involved in the nasty crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen suffering a fractured collarbone, Stuyven missed two of his biggest goals of the season in Flanders and Roubaix where he no doubt would have been a force alongside Pedersen. Remarkably, the former Milano-Sanremo champ made a swift return to appear at the Giro d’Italia and support Jonathan Milan on the way to his stage wins and points classification success. Stuyven’s climbing level at the Tour de France was also spectacular and he also came super close to winning the gravel stage after being away close towards the finish.
Thibau Nys was one of the revelations of the season, and anyone who follows cyclocross knows that the son of the legendary Sven Nys, is a supreme talent and was likely to demonstrate his ability on the road too. He did so in spades this season as he won 9 races including 3 stage wins in Tour de Pologne and the Tour de Hongrie GC plus two stages. Next season will be another huge year for the Belgian who has become one of the biggest prospects in the sport and it will be exciting to see what he can achieve in the biggest races.
The main area in which the team could improve is being a consistent force in Grand Tour GC races. Mattias Skjelmose’s 5th at La Vuelta a España was impressive but to get to the level of the likes of UAE Team Emirates, Visma Lease a Bike and Red Bull BORA Hansgrohe, the team need riders who can be legitimate contenders to win grand tours. The team lacks a Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Evenepoel or Roglič, but then again most teams do and would love to have one of those guys. The introduction of the junior multi-disciplined star Albert Withen Philipsen is a very intriguing prospect because the Dane’s potential is huge and it is not out of the question that he could become the team’s future grand tour GC star.
Victories: 42
WorldTour Victories: 15
MVP: Mads Pedersen
Breakout Star: Thibau Nys
Underated Hero: Toms Skujiņš
Key Results:
🥇Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields: Mads Pedersen
5️⃣GC La Vuelta GC: Mattias Skjelmose
🥇Giro d’Italia stages 4, 11,13 + Points Classification: Jonathan Milan
Movistar Team 🇪🇸
During the era of Team Sky dominance, Movistar were the closest challengers and were very successful, winning 2 Grand Tours with Nario Quintana and plenty of podiums with Alejandro Valverde. During the season, the team certainly had its good moments but there were plenty of occasions in big races where there was no sign of the team in the pointy end of things.
Unfortunately, the team’s power has faded over the last few years because, beyond Enric Mas, there isn’t a rider who can compete for Grand Tour podiums like Quintana and Valverde were able to. However, I think that Enric Mas had a brilliant 2nd half of the season after a quiet spring and start of summer, and the team can be very pleased with his performances in the final week of the Tour de France and the entire of La Vuelta a España.
Pelayo Sánchez’ maiden grand tour stage win in the Giro d’Italia was a real highlight and Oier Lazkano had his moments in the classics and the Tour de France. Although this wasn’t the worst team by any means this season, it does just feel that average-ish nature of the season is a sign of where the Spanish team are currently at and losing two of their key riders in Oier Lazkano and Alex Aranburu for 2025 isn’t going to particularly help.
There was a lack of impact from the team’s big name signings such as Rémi Cavagna, Davide Formolo and Nairo Quintana which doesn’t help the team’s season as a whole. There were promising signs from Spanish riders such as Barrenetxea, Canal, Romo, Romeo and Cortina, and if these riders can step it up a level again in 2025, they have the ability to turn the team’s fortunes around.
Overall, only 8 victories in a season with only one coming at WorldTour level in the form of Pelayo Sanchez, is ultimately not good enough for a team of Movistar’s pedigree and things will need to improve in 2025.
Victories: 8
WorldTour Victories: 1
MVP: Enric Mas
Breakout Star: Pelayo Sánchez
Underrated Hero: Alex Aranburu
Key Results
🥉GC La Vuelta a España: Enric Mas
🥇Giro d’Italia Stage 6: Pelayo Sánchez
🥉Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Oier Lazkano
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 🇩🇪
2024 was a huge year for a team which started as just BORA - hansgrohe. The introduction of Red Bull as a title sponsor was a huge sign of intent as to the ambitions that the German team had. This was further signalled by a big transfer window for the team which included arguably the biggest signing of the year in Primož Roglič. Further big signings included Sam Welsford, Daniel Martínez and Matteo Sobrero and proved the team’s ambition was large.
The ambition was clear, the plan was to win a grand tour and more specifically, the Tour de France. Roglič’ season started relatively slowly in his debut for the team at Paris Nice where he finished 10th in GC. The Slovenian then won the opening ITT at Itzulia Basque Country before he became cursed as he had an endless amount of crashes including the horror one which involved Vingegaard, Evenepoel and many others on stage 4. This meant we wouldn’t see Roglič until the Dauphiné, a race which he would win the overall + 2 stage wins, indicating that his form was improving coming into the Tour de France.
The Tour de France did not go to plan as Roglič crashed heavily on stage 12 which would leave him nearly 5 minutes behind Tadej Pogačar on GC and ultimately saw he abandon the race overnight. A big blow for the team as their investments and preparations to compete at the Tour de France were ruined by a crash. What makes Roglič a true champion however, is his resilience and his ability to bounce back from adversity. His previous 2 La Vuelta GC wins had come of the back of disappointment from his main objective which was the Tour de France. This year, Roglič was able to prove once more why he is one of the greatest riders of his generation as he cruised to a joint record La Vuelta victory, joining Roberto Heras on 4 wins. The Slovenian also took 3 stage wins in the process too, boosting his overall tally to 15, which is the 6th most in La Vuelta history and puts him one behind the legendary Sean Kelly. Overall, despite the big goal of the Tour de France going up in smokes, Roglič and the team were the only other winners of a grand tour this year than Tadej Pogačar, and therefore ultimately this season is still a huge success for a team that has just won its second ever grand tour after Jai Hindley’s triumph in the Giro d’Italia two years ago.
Before the arrival of Roglič, Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov were the team’s two GC leaders, but their roles this year have been adapted to accommodate the Slovenian stars. Whilst neither rider had a successful Grand Tour GC tilt of their own this season, both were good support to Primož Roglič on his way to winning the Dauphiné and the opening 10 days of the Tour de France. Equally, in the absence of Roglič, both riders were combative and came close to stage wins in the Tour de France and La Vuelta in the 2nd and 3rd weeks respectively. No doubt the team will be hoping both can get back to their ultimate best and that is being able to support Roglič in Grand Tours whilst also being able to stay in a good GC position to provide the team multiple cards to play.
Despite this, Roglič wasn't the only rider to achieve Grand Tour success in 2024 for the team, as fellow new signing Dani Martinez rode a brilliant 3 weeks in Italy back in May to finish runner up at the Giro d’Italia behind Tadej Pogačar. You could argue that the Colombian is technically a winner in his own right as he was the 1st human, behind the supernatural phenomenon that is Tadej Pogačar. With Pog on the startlist, 2nd was the best that any other team could ask for, so Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe will have been very pleased with the whole team’s performance at the Giro d’Italia which can be considered a big success. Martínez can be considered another successful signing for the team and should continue to deliver good performances in 2025 and beyond.
2024 saw glimpses of a return to form for both Emmanuel Buchmann and Maximilian Schachmann with the latter almost winning the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia. Both have been key riders for the team over many seasons and despite fading over the last year or so, they have proved that on their day, they can still compete with the best. Both will ride for different teams next year at Cofidis and Soudal Quick-Step respectively. Lennard Kämna is a top rider but unfortunately his season was ended in April through serious injury, after being hit by a driver whilst out training. This was a huge blow for both the German and the team as he is one of the team’s most consistent performers and was going to be a co-leader at the Giro d’Italia alongside Daniel Martínez. Fingers crossed we can see a fit and healthy return for Lennard Kämna in 2025 who will ride for Lidl-Trek next season.
Whilst the team doesn’t have one of the top 3 sprinters in the world, having Jordi Meeus, Sam Welsford and Danny Van Poppel is a good selection still. Welsford started his season brilliantly at the Tour Down Under, where he dominated the field on route to 3 stage wins, a perfect start to live for the Aussie at his new team. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't win another WorldTour race this season and so will no doubt be itching to improve for 2025. After his stunning upset win on the Champs-Elysees at the Tour de France in 2023, Jordi Meeus was unable to land another major win in 2024, with his only wins coming at the Tour de Wallonie and the Tour of Norway, and like Welsford, Meeus will be wanting more in 2025. A podium finish for Meeus at Gent-Wevelgem was also a very nice result too. Danny Van Poppel is one of the best leadout riders in the world, but is also capable of top results in his own right, and came close to success at the Deutschland Tour where he was runner up on GC and on the final stage.
The team had many riders who you could argue had breakout seasons, or really stepped up to the plate in 2024. I’m thinking of the likes of Giovanni Aleotti, and Frederik Wandahl who come to mind. However, the rider who stands out is Florian Lipowitz who bursted onto the scene at the Tour de Romandie where he finished 3rd on GC and came close to a stage win on 2 occasions. The hype around the German was big coming into the Giro d'Italia and after a 5th on the Oropa climb on stage 2, much was expected of him. However, he abandoned after stage 5, leaving fans wondering whether his form was a one-off. On his return, he won the Sibiu Cycling Tour, albeit against a relatively weak field, however, he well and truly proved at La Vuelta that he is a top rider who is one to watch for future seasons. Lipowitz was an integral part to Primož Roglič’s win whilst also maintaining a GC race of his own, battling Mattias Skjelmose for the White Jersey, which he would ultimately miss out on as he finished 7th on GC, still a very impressive performance. The team, will surely be excited about what the 24 year old German is capable of in year’s to come.
Roger Adrià has been one of the most underrated riders for the last couple of seasons and 2024 was the Spaniard’s best year yet. Adrià hit his peak form in the back end of the season with a superb win at the GP de Wallonie atop the Namur Citadel. Top 6 finishes at the Super 8 Classic, Giro dell’Emilia and 3rd at Coppa Bernocchi were also top results. Adrià also just missed out on a top 10 at both Il Lombardia and the World Championships, finishing 11th on both occasions, proving that he is a top rider who climbs well and has a vicious punch in a reduced finish. No doubt, Adrià was a successful signing for the team.
Overall, 2024 was a big success for Red-Bull - BORA- hansgrohe who despite coming up short at the Tour de France, were still very successful at the other two grand tours by winning La Vuelta and finishing 2nd at the Giro d’Italia. The team also had plenty of success at stage races too and so perhaps an area where they may also look to be trying to strengthen is their classics squads and this is indicating by a major transfer spend up.
Victories: 24
WorldTour Victories: 12
MVP: Primož Roglic
Breakout Star: Florian Lipowitz
Underrated Hero: Roger Adrià
Key Results
🥇La Vuelta a España GC + Stages 4, 8 and 19: Primož Roglič
🥈Giro d’Italia GC: Daniel Felipe Martínez
🥇Critérium du Dauphiné GC + Stages 6 and 7: Primož Roglic
Soudal Quick-Step 🇧🇪
The team that used to be the master of the cobbled classics, has been undergoing a major transition over recent years, and has become one which now focuses on grand tours and it’s easy to understand why with double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel in the ranks.
Speaking of transition, the season started at the end of January with one of the young stars of the team, Paul Magnier winning in Majorca after a superb leadout from another big prospect in Luke Lamperti who finished 3rd himself. The signs were very positive early on for the team from two young talents who had made the move from Trinity Racing over the winter as part of the team’s transition to a younger and fresh squad.
One of the stars of 2024, Tim Merlier, began his season in style winning 2 stages of the AlUla Tour whilst Remco Evenepoel kicked his season off with a 51km solo win in Portugal at the Figueira Champions Classic. Evenepoel would follow this up by winning the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta for a record 3rd time. The talented duo of Magnier and Lamperti also had success in the Middle East just like Merlier as they did a 1-2 on stage 3 of the Tour of Oman with the former taking the win.
The UAE Tour has become a race which is often stacked full of world class sprinters but with the absence of Jasper Philipsen and Jonathan Milan on the startlist this year, much pressure was placed on the shoulders of Tim Merlier and Soudal Quick Step to deliver success, and that they certainly did. 3 stage wins and the points classification for the Belgian star was a resounding success and would have given the team a big morale boost coming into the classics.
It would seem absurd a few seasons ago to say, but Soudal Quick-Step were anonymous from the opening weekend missing the action in both races, with Luke Lamperti scoring the team’s only top 10 finish with 7th in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Again there was a lack of presence from the team in Strade Bianche, though this was partly the result of an early crash seeing Julian Alaphilippe and Paul Mangier abandon. However, having their best placed rider being Kasper Asgreen in 40th is a long way away from the high standards that the team have set over the years.
Remco Evenepoel showed good form at Paris Nice where he finished 2nd on GC behind Matteo Jorgenson, winning the final stage, whilst over in Italy at Tirreno-Adriatico, the team missed out on success with Merlier coming close on stage 2 behind Jasper Philipsen.
The biggest signing of the winter for Soudal Quick-Step was no doubt, Mikel Landa, one of the best climbers of the last decade. The Spaniard was signed to support Remco Evenepoel in the high mountains at the Tour de France, but had his own opportunities elsewhere, such as in Volta Ciclista a Catalunya where he comfortably finished 2nd on GC behind Tadej Pogačar, proving that even at 34 years old, he is still one of the best in the business.
The cobbled classics were a disaster for the team which has won 8 Ronde van Vlaanderen’s, and 6 Paris-Roubaix’s in the past. The lack of a top 10 finish in the E3 Saxo Classic, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix is a damning statistic illustrating how far the team have shifted away from dominating the cobbled classics. Tim Merlier was able to bring some good feelings to the team during March by winning Danilith Nokere Koerse and Scheldeprijs but the team will have been expecting much more.
The team’s plans for the rest of the season took a major hit when Evenepoel was involved in the horror crash in the Basque Country, leaving the Belgian Champion with a fractured broken collarbone and shoulder blade, ruling him out of the Ardennes and impacting his Tour de France preparation.
In the absence of Evenepoel, Mauri Vansevenant stepped up during the Ardennes campaign, finishing 4th at Amstel Gold Race and 6th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, before heading to the Giro d’Italia where the team would thrive. A decent return, all things considered.
4 stage wins was the team’s best return from the Giro d’Italia since 2018 and Jan Hirt finishing 8th on GC was a nice bonus too. Despite a stacked sprint field including Jonathan Milan, Biniam Girmay and Olav Kooij, Tim Merlier was the most successful sprinter of the race, winning 3 stages. For me, beyond the exploits of Tadej Pogačar, the 2024 Giro d’Italia will be remembered for the renaissance of Monsieur Julian Alaphilippe. Whilst it is fair to say that the 2x World Champion may not be as clinical as he once was, 2024 proved that Alaphilippe is still a born entertainer, as he proved at the Giro d’Italia, animating the breakaways on 8 occasions, coming majorly close to a victory of the gravel stage 6 losing out to Pelayo Sánchez in a sprint. However, his performance on stage 12 was one of the highlights of the entire season, as along with Mirco Maestri of Polti-Kometa, the duo attacked from a large breakaway with more than 120 km still to race, and Alaphilippe wouldn’t been seen again by any one else. He dispatched of his brilliant companion, Maestri, in the final 15km before soloing to the win. One of his finest victories, especially after a difficult few seasons, having only taken 4 wins since becoming World Champion for the 2nd time in Leuven 2021. The Giro d’Italia for many reasons therefore, was a big success.
The period between the end of the Giro d’Italia and the start of the Tour de France saw the team garner more success. Remco Evenepoel returned to racing by winning the ITT at the Dauphiné, as he finished 7th on GC. Yves Lampaert won the opening stage, an ITT, of the Tour de Suisse, whilst Tim Merlier continued his brilliant season as he took two stage wins at his home race, the Baloise Belgium Tour.
The Tour de France began with plenty of doubts for the team, as the shape of Remco Evenepoel was yet to be revealed, and it was a big gamble to go all in for the former World Champion, leaving Tim Merlier who had been in fine form all season at home. It is fair to say, that the team’s faith in Remco paid off significantly, as he would go on to finish on the podium behind Pogačar and Vingegaard, never too far behind the Dane on GC, and was consistent for the whole three weeks. Winning the stage 7 ITT along the way, the Tour was a big success for the team like the Giro, and Evenepoel’s teammates were brilliant too, especially Mikel Landa who really proved his worth in the 3rd week particularly. Incidentally despite riding in support of Evenepoel, Landa finished 5th on GC himself, meaning that in the first year that the team reached the TDF podium, they also had another rider in the top 5 on GC. This surely helps make up for the lack of success in the cobbled classics, but the aim will be for Remco to close the gap to Pogačar and Vingegaard in order to see the transition from the classics winning machine to a bona fide GC team complete.
Whilst not in the colours of Soudal Quick Step, Evenepoel’s season would get better and better, becoming double Olympic Champion before defending his World Championships ITT title. The final grand tour of the season in Spain with the T-Rexes left little to talk about though, with Landa finishing 8th on GC as the highlight. Evenepoel would also go on to finish runner up behind Tadej Pogačar at Il Lombardia, 3:16 behind the Slovenian, but 1:15 ahead of Giulio Ciccone in 3rd, proving he was convincingly the best of the rest.
The team had other successes after the TDF at the Czech Tour, Tour de Luxembourg, and the Tour of Britain where Paul Magnier shined once more, winning 3 stages. Merlier won two more races in Belgium as well as becoming European Champion before Warre Vangheluewe ended the season with his 2nd win of the year in Guangxi after winning in Dunkerque back in May.
Overall, considering that the team’s ambitions have clearly moved away from the cobbled classics and towards GC performances in grand tours, this season was a successful one. Remco Evenepoel’s first Tour de France was brilliant, and he proved any doubters about his ability over 3 weeks. The obvious next step is to win another grand tour, and ideally close the gap to Pogačar and Vingegaard so he can compete for Yellow at the Tour de France. Mikel Landa proved to be a worthy signing and the team will be buoyed by their decision to sign a climbing star like him, to perhaps make similar signings in year’s to come. Despite not appearing at the Tour de France, you could make a case for Tim Merlier being the most successful sprinter in 2024 as when he did race against the big boys, he came out on top on plenty of occasions and landed some very significant wins. The question will remain as to whether the team can fit him in the Tour de France team alongside Remco Evenepoel.
There will also be a big transition over the winter as two of the team’s most successful riders, Julian Alaphilippe and Kasper Asgreen will be moving on to pastures new, but the team have made some exciting signings which include Ethan Hayter and Valentin Paret-Peintre. Ultimately, while 2024 was a successful season, the team will be hoping to get even better in 2025, which means bouncing back in the classics, continuing to win sprints with Merlier and hopefully win a grand tour with Remco Evenepoel.
Victories: 34
WorldTour Victories: 13
MVP: Remco Evenepoel
Breakout Star: Paul Magnier
Underrated Hero: Mikel Landa
Key Results:
🥇Giro d’Italia Stage 3, 18, 21 and 12 : Tim Merlier + Julian Alaphilippe
🥉Tour de France GC + 🥇Tour de France Stage 7: Remco Evenepoel
5️⃣ Tour de France GC: Mikel Landa
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 🇳🇱
2024 will surely be remembered by Team dsm-firmenich PostNL for the opening stage of the Tour de France where Romain Bardet and Frank Van Den Broek achieved a stunning 1-2 with Bardet taking the Maillot Jaune in his final ever Tour de France.
Young Czech sprinter Pavel Bittner was a big breakout star by winning a couple of stages at the Vuelta a Burgos before landing a sprint victory on stage 5 at La Vuelta in his debut grand tour. Two grand tour stage wins is a decent return for the team and better than what some of the other teams around their level achieved. The context of those wins add extra significance to their worth, especially Bardet’s win on the opening stage of the Tour de France.
Young British stars Max Poole and Oscar Onley had very good seasons and the team will be relieved to have retained their services until 2027. Next season could be a big year for these two. Tobias Lund Andresen also had a big breakout season with 6 sprint wins, and Kevin Vermaerke had plenty of impressive moments. It wouldn't surprise me if any of these 4 riders prove themselves to perform at a world class level next season and land some huge results.
Fabio Jakobsen had a difficult season which will have been a disappointment, and i’m sure both he and the team will be hoping that he can bounce back to his best in 2025. But overall, 2024 has been a fine year for team dsm-firmenich PostNL, which had it’s moments, and has provided a platform for the team to build upon in 2025.
Victories: 22
WorldTour Victories: 3
MVP: Romain Bardet
Breakout Star: Pavel Bittner
Underrated Hero: Oscar Onley
Key Results:
🥇+🥈Tour de France Stage 1: Romain Bardet + Frank Van Den Broek
🥈Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Romain Bardet
🥇La Vuelta a España Stage 5: Pavel Bittner
Team Jayco AlUla 🇦🇺
I think that 2024 can be looked back on by Team Jayco AlUla as a pretty good season filled with plenty of great moments. They aren’t the same team that won a grand tour with Simon Yates, or monuments with Esteban Chaves and Mathew Hayman, but that is not to say they are a bad team in the slightest.
The season started in fine fashion as Luke Plapp became the Australian road race champion for the 3rd time, along with the ITT title, although the team were not as competitive as they would have hoped for in their home race at the Santos Tour Down Under with Plapp suffering a nasty crash on stage 3. The team had early season success in the Middle East with Simon Yates winning the GC and a stage at the AlUla Tour, a big success for the sponsors, plus Caleb Ewan winning the opening stage of the Tour of Oman.
Michael Matthews continued to be one of the most underrated riders in the peloton as the Aussie had another very good season, coming very close to beating Jasper Philipsen in the fastest ever edition of Milano-Sanremo. A solid classics campaign with further top 11 finishes at the Tour of Flanders, Brabantse Pijl, and Amstel Gold Race, proves how reliable and consistent ‘Bling’ is. He then won the GP Québec in September for a record 3rd time, with a well timed sprint finish after catching Pogačar and De Lie.
Chris Harper has been a brilliant domestique over the year’s, but this season delivered impressive GC performances of his own. A 12th on GC at Paris Nice with teammate Plapp in 6th, was a good indication that Harper’s form was very good this Spring. This was demonstrated further at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya where he rode argaubly the best GC race of his career to finish 6th, less than a minute off the podium. He started the Tour of the Alps in style with a 2nd on the opening stage before looking brilliant on stage 4 attacking, when disaster struck and Harper crashed into a curb after losing control on an uneven pavement. Thankfully he recovered from what looked to be a very serious crash at the time, but we didn’t see too much from the Aussie at the front of races for the remainder of the season. Alessandro De Marchi winning stage 2 solo from the breakaway was a special moment to see for a man who tries so often and it was heartwarming to see the 38 year old veteran win his first race in 3 years.
It’s a shame to see Caleb Ewan not at his best upon his return to the team this season after 5 years away, because despite 4 wins this season, none saw Ewan winning at the highest level, which is what we have become accustomed to from the pocket-rocket Aussie star. Hopefully these victories will give him the boost needed to get back to competing in the biggest races.
The team dominated the Okolo Slovenska / Tour de Slovaquie winning 3 stages (ITT, Anders Foldager, and Felix Engelhardt), along with the GC courtesy of Swiss champion Mauro Schmid. Incidentally, these 3 riders have showed plenty of promise this season and could be ones to watch for the future. Other successes, came in Belgium with Dylan Groenewegen winning the Ronde van Limburg in May, and Max Walscheid victorious in the Omloop van het Houtland in September.
The team had a successful Tour de France by default of Dylan Groenewegen’s victory on stage 6 to Dijon, their first in the race since 2022. Despite the team’s lowest amount of stage top 10s since 2018 with 8, the stage win triumphs any negatives as this is only the team’s 3rd stage win since 2019 and so will have meant a big deal to the staff and riders. They were close to more with Simon Yates who rode on the front foot in the final week, finishing 2nd and 3rd on stages from the breakaway.
Ever since been congratulated by Eddy Merckx on a combative performance in a nations cup race as a junior, there has been plenty of pressure on Eddie Dunbar’s shoulders to deliver big results as a professional. A lack of opportunity at INEOS Grenadiers and plenty of bad luck along the way had limited Dunbar’s opportunities to shine including a crash on the 2nd stage of the Giro d’Italia which forced him to abandon and not be able to build upon his very impressive 7th place GC finish in 2023. However, thanks to his Spanish exploits this late summer, Dunbar’s season can be considered a big success. 2 brilliant victories including the Queen stage was a massive success for both Dunbar and the team, arguably the team’s moment of the season. Mauro Schmid can consider himself very unlucky but should also take much confidence from the race after two 2nd place finishes, a 4th, 5th and a 7th as well.
What is notable from a GC perspective is the lack of a top 10 GC finish in any of the three Grand Tours. However, it is not as bad as it seems as the team narrowly missed out on the top 10 in all three with Filippo Zana (11th at Giro), Simon Yates (12th at TDF), and Eddie Dunbar (11th at La Vuelta). Very fine margins which impact how the team’s GC results are perceived, and are consequently underrated.
25 wins is a good haul for a season, and is more than plenty of other teams so the season should be considered as a positive one, despite not hitting the heights of winning Grand Tours and monuments like in the past. However, with the introduction of Ben O’Connor who will step into the shoes of the departing Simon Yates, the team have been bold and shown ambition for 2025 by replacing one of their all time best riders, with one of the stars of 2024.
Victories: 25
WorldTour Victories: 4
MVP: Michael Matthews
Breakout Star: Anders Foldager
Underrated Hero: Mauro Schmid
Key Results:
🥇Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec: Michael Matthews
🥇La Vuelta a Espana Stages 11 + 20: Eddie Dunbar
🥇Tour de France Stage 6: Dylan Groenewegen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
🇳🇱After an imperious 2023 season, 2024 turned out to be a real test of character for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Was this one of the toughest seasons in cycling history?
The team that clean swept the 3 Grand Tours in 2023, looked set to dominate once more as it had seemed that they had found out a way to beat Tadej Pogačar with Jonas Vingegaard for 2 Tour de France’s in a row. Sepp Kuss had become a Grand Tour winner as well, and despite the huge loss of Primož Roglič to Red Bull BORA hansgrohe, it was felt that the team had enough firepower to deal with his departure. Wout Van Aert, Dylan Van Baarle, Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot had been brilliant for the team in the classics and Tour de France too and this was expected to continue for 2024.
However, in the space of 8 catastrophic days, the season turned into a nightmare when not only did Wout Van Aert crash out of Dwars door Vlaanderen, but Jonas Vingegaard also crashed out of Itzulia Basque Country. The injuries that both riders sustained were significant and scuppered their plans of the cobble classics, Giro d’Italia and Tour de France respectively, a huge part of the season.
The season had started well as Jonas Vingegaard dominated both Gran Camiño and Tirreno-Adriatico whilst Jan Tratnik and Wout Van Aert won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne respectively. Olav Kooij also had a superb start to the season with wins in the Clasica de Almeria, UAE Tour and two at Paris-Nice. Former Giro d’Italia KoM winner Koen Bouwman was the winner at the Coppi e Bartali too. So far as to say, up until the end of March, things were looking very positive for Visma | Lease a Bike.
Arguably more exciting than all of this was the start to the season made by new signing Matteo Jorgenson. The American looked supremely impressive in the opening weekend, helping the team to both victories before turning up to Paris-Nice and winning the GC in a race which included the likes of Evenepoel, Roglič and Almeida. His season was already a major success, but he would continue to improve throughout the season as he stepped up majorly with the injuries sustained by Vingegaard and Van Aert. Despite the bitter blow of the injuries that Van Aert sustained at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Matteo Jorgenson made it very difficult for the team to feel to sorry for themselves as he delivered a stunning performance, especially with the help of Tiesj Benoot to win the race. He would also give a great account of himself at the Tour of Flanders whilst the Van Dijke brothers rode well at Paris-Roubaix.
The first Grand Tour of the season rolled around and the game plan was altered with the absence of Wout Van Aert who was set to make his debut at the race. The race began with success for the team with Cian Uijtdebroeks leading the youth classification after the first week, and Olav Kooij winning a thrilling stage 9 in a sprint where he can partly thank Tadej Pogačar for the leadout which saw Jhonatan Narvaez agonisingly caught metres from the line. That would be as far as Kooij would race as he abandoned with illness, whilst Uijtdebroeks would only managed one more day. This alongside with the week 1 abandonments of Christophe Laporte and Robert Gesink meant that the team were largely anonymous for the rest of the race. Incidentally, Olav Kooij’s victory was the team’s only win in the months of April, May, and July apart from Attila Valter’s Hungarian NC win, showing how difficult this part of the season was.
The signing of Cian Uijtdebroeks hasn’t reaped the rewards that many would have expected this season after his controversial move from BORA - hansgrohe, but it is important to remember that the young Belgian is only 21. As mentioned, he showed promising signs at the Giro d’Italia in the first 10 stages where he sat 5th in GC and led the youth classification, and it was at that point that Uijtdebroeks had to abandon the race due to illness. That was the best we would see of him this season as in his 3 other races which included La Vuelta, he was not in top form and didn’t compete in the General Classification before abandoning with Covid. The team will not be panicking at this point, but will certainly be looking to see improvements in 2025 from a rider that finished 8th at La Vuelta at only 20 years of age.
It was touch and go as to whether Jonas Vingegaard would be on the start line at the Tour de France with the Dane suffering a broken collarbone, several broken ribs, a pulmonary contusion and a pneumothorax at Itzulia. However, once it was confirmed, we also found out that he would not race beforehand and therefore would miss the Critérium du Dauphine. Luckily for the team, Matteo Jorgenson stepped up once again and narrowly missed out on winning the GC on the final day when he cracked Roglič but came up 8 seconds short and had to settle for 2nd. This confirmed that the American was in great shape heading into the Tour de France and would provide great support to Vingegaard or could even be a backup option for GC.
Despite Tadej Pogačar ultimately dominating the Tour, especially in the 3rd week, it can not be understated the brilliance of Jonas Vingegaard throughout the race, considering where he had come from in April and the impact that this would have had on his race preparations. He was competitive with Pogačar on the San Luca climb where many thought he may struggle due to the Slovenian’s explosivity. Stage 11 to Le Lioran was Vingegaard’s stand out moment of the race as he battled back to Pogačar who was seemingly running away with the stage, and then the Dane was able to out sprint the Slovenian to the finish line to take a well deserved win. Although Vingegaard ended the Tour 6:17 behind Pogačar, he was over 15 minutes ahead of 4th place Almeida, demonstrating how brilliantly he and Evenepoel in 3rd, rode throughout the 3 weeks considering their injuries sustained in April in the Basque Country. Matteo Jorgenson kept up his remarkable performances as he was key to Vingegaard throughout the race and came close to a stage win in the final week whilst finishing 8th on GC himself. Ultimately, whilst the team would have been aiming for nothing less than the Yellow Jersey at the beginning of the season, considering the circumstances, I think the team got the most out of the race that they could. Jonas Vingegaard ended his season by winning the Tour de Pologne, a race where Olav Kooij won two stages, before enjoying a thoroughly deserved break.
Sepp Kuss’s La Vuelta victory in 2023 was such a well deserved one after all the work he has done over the years as the ultimate superdomestique for both Roglič and Vingegaard. However 2024 was a very difficult year for The Eagle of Durango as he was uncompetitive in GC all season until the Vuelta a Burgos where he won a stage and the race overall. Considered the warmup race for La Vuelta, this boded very well for the American and the team heading into the final Grand Tour of the season where he would be the team’s GC leader. However, Kuss was unable to replicate his brilliant form from Burgos and the year before as he was way off the pace in the podium battle, finishing 14th on GC at over 20 minutes down. However, a stand out ride came from Kuss on stage 7 to Cordoba where he was solely responsible for ensuring no riders could escape in the finale which meant Wout Van Aert could sprint to the victory. It was a very special teammate performance from Kuss, one of the best in many years.
Speaking of Van Aert, the Belgian returned to racing in good health in time for the Tour de France where he gave a great account of himself, finishing in the top 10 on 7 stages. However, 9 time grand tour stage winner, Van Aert was no doubt hungry for victories and he delivered aplenty at La Vuelta, taking 3 wins and finishing 2nd on 3 occasions. He was comfortably leading the points classification too and was animating breakaways, even on very tough climbing stages, it was a joy to see Van Aert at full confidence and in great shape once more. Unfortunately, Van Aert hadn't quite had enough bad luck in 2024 as he crashed on stage 16 on a descent whilst leading the race in a breakaway on a stage in which he was motoring. An agonisingly painful ending to a very hard season for Van Aert, who more than most deserves a break from crashes in 2025 and hopefully fit and healthy and firing on all fronts again next season. The season ended on a positive note with Olav Kooij winning BEMER Cyclassics, and Christophe Laporte winning a very epic edition of Paris - Tours.
This season saw good performances from youngsters such as Per Strand Hagenes, Ben Tulett, Jorgen Nordhagen, and Thomas Gloag who won a stage at the Czech Tour after a long time suffering from a longterm kneecap injury, after being hit by a car whilst training, and remaining on the sidelines for a whole year. The signs are promising for these guys but the team will be hoping they can convert this into more consistent performances across the season which i’m sure they are more than capable of. They are supremely talented riders who may slip under the radar heading into 2025, but keep an eye out. On the other end of the scale, a special mention to Robert Gesink who has retired after a very respectable career which began back in 2005 and has seen him win 13 times as well as finish 4th at the Tour de France back in 2010. Bart Lemmen had a brilliant debut season at WorldTour level as well.
Overall, all things considered, whilst the team didn’t reach the dazzling heights of 2023, we have seen the true character of Visma | Lease a Bike this season and have arguably learned more about them than in previous years. Despite all the bad luck, the team still racked up 32 victories and finished 2nd in the UCI Rankings, showing the strength and depth they have. No doubt the team will be praying from a break next season and a clean run up at their major goals. The hunger will be there from their major riders like Vingegaard to win the Tour de France or Van Aert who will be dreaming of finally landing a cobbled monument. Matteo Jorgenson has been a revelation this season and will be aiming to get even better next season. Olav Kooij will want to prove that he can be the fastest sprinter in the peloton with Sepp Kuss, Christophe Laporte and Dylan Van Baarle aiming to bounce back from a difficult season. There are plenty of exciting signings for next season, the likes of Simon Yates, Victor Campenaerts, Axel Zingle and Daniel Mclay who will add firepower to the team no doubt. The step up to the WorldTour full time for major talents Jørgen Nordhagen, Matthew Brennan, Tijmen Graat and Menno Huising are very exciting as well as u23 world champion Niklas Behrens.
Victories: 32
WorldTour Victories: 18
MVP: Jonas Vingegaard
Breakout Star: Matteo Jorgenson
Underrated Hero: Wilco Kelderman
Key Results:
🥈Tour de France GC + Stage 11: Jonas Vingegaard
🥇Paris Nice GC + Dwars door Vlaanderen: Matteo Jorgenson
🥇Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Jan Tratnik
🥇La Vuelta a Espana Stages 3, 7 + 10: Wout Van Aert
UAE Team Emirates 🇦🇪
One of the greatest seasons in the history of the sport for not only Tadej Pogačar but also the team too. It can’t be understated the impact that having a generational talent like Pogačar has on a team but the whole team were in supremely good for the whole season with many wins coming elsewhere too. Whether you find it enjoyable or a bit boring, there is no denying that Tadej Pogačar’s 2024 season will be looked at in decades to come as one of, if not, the greatest season in the history of sport. I have already reviewed Pogačar’s season in another piece so I will not go into too much detail into his exploits as I can write thousands of words on it alone. All that needs to be said is that Pogačar is only the 3rd male rider to complete the triple crown of cycling after Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987). Two monuments and Strade Bianche to name a few more wins plus 6 stages in both the Giro and TDF, it is safe to say that Pogačar’s 2024 season is undisputedly one of the greatest of all time. Instead, I want to focus on the rest of the team who have gone under the radar as a result of the Slovenian’s incredible season. 81 victories for the team is a remarkable number, with 56 coming from riders that are not called Tadej Pogačar.
The season kicked off with the super talented Isaac Del Toro landing an impressive victory at the Santos Tour Down Under after escaping from the peloton in the finale of stage 2. To win his first pro race in just 3 starts is incredible and instantly signified the potential that the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir winner has. Del Toro would finish in the top 10 on GC at Tirreno-Adriatico (4th), Itzulia Basque Country (7th) as well as winning the Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo plus a stage win too. An impressive debut season for the 21 year old Mexican who will seemingly only get better and better.
Speaking of young talents, another breakout star of 2024 was the Swiss rider Jan Christen. Those who follow cyclocross wouldn’t have seen this as too big a surprise as Christen being a junior world champion (Fayetteville 2022) means that he had a potentially big future. Such a combative rider, and very similar in many ways to one Tadej Pogačar, Christen has seriously impressed on many occasions this season and was rewarded with 3 victories including the Giro dell’Appennnino. 2nd at Milano-Torino, 9th at Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa and his combative riders in Eschborn-Frankfurt and the u23 World Championship Road Race, are some more standout results from another rider who could explode in 2025 in a big way.
Other young stars who had great seasons include António Morgado who narrowly missed out on victory at Le Samyn in a photo finish with Laurenz Rex before bouncing back to take a 5th place at the Tour of Flanders. Morgado is the 3rd youngest male cyclist since WWII to finish in the top 10 of a monument and youngest since Joseph Wouters in 1962. Finn Fisher Black had a great time in Oman at the start of the season winning both the Tour of Oman and the Muscat Classic. Both he and Morgardo won a stage at the Vuelta Asturias alongside Del Toro who won the GC. Igor Arrieta and Filippo Baroncini showed promising signs this season too with the later and former u23 world champ, taking his first pro win in a great race at the SUPER 8 Classic It is safe to say that UAE Team Emirates are well stocked for the future.
2024 was easily Marc Hirschi’s best season since he burst onto the scene in 2020. After a difficult few years, Hirschi is now delivering on his potential, as the Swiss star took 9 victories this season. Winning San Sebastian and the Bretagne Classic are two big wins for Hirschi which came during a period where he won 5 one day races in a row. Runner up at Amstel Gold Race behind Tom Pidcock and 6th in the World Championships are more brilliant results for the Swiss puncheur who will be moving on to Tudor Pro Cycling in 2025.
Brandon McNulty should be buzzing after this season, where he started off brilliantly in Spain winning Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. McNulty won 4 ITT races this year including the opening stage of La Vuelta. 3rd on GC at Paris Nice and 5th at Itzulia. As well as this came a stage win at the Cro Race + the GC as well as the GP Miguel Indurain. He seems to be getting better and better every season, and if he continues this trajectory, he will be in the mix at the biggest races next season.
Juan Ayuso and João Almeida have both been touted as future grand tour winners by many and this season it has to be said was a mixed bag. For both, supporting Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France was one of the big objectives of the season but with the idea that they would be able to fight for their own GC ambitions at La Vuelta. The season started great for Ayuso as he won the Faun-Ardèche classic before surprisingly winning the opening ITT at Tirreno-Adriatico, and would go on to finish 2nd overall behind Jonas Vingegaard. He would follow this up by winning Itzulia Basque Country. Almeida, on the other hand, had a slower start and wouldn’t see big success until June, when he and Adam Yates dominated the Tour de Suisse with the Portuguese rider finishing 2nd on GC behind Yates and winning 2 stages along the way. The Tour de France can be considered more of a success for Almeida who finished 4th on GC whilst in support of Pogačar, whilst Ayuso faced some criticism from his role within the team before abandoning with Covid-19. Before abandoning, Ayuso did seem to show some signs of willingness to work for the team but you can understand his reluctance in a way, as a super talented young rider who has big belief in himself, albeit not ideal for the team. Ayuso won a stage at the Tour de Luxembourg in September but that was the only big success in that part of the season for the Spaniard. Almeida’s season would also peter out as he would abandon his big goal, La Vuelta, with covid-19.
Adam Yates is a brilliant professional and an ultimate superdomestique for Tadej Pogačar to have. Yates’s performances at the Tour in support of Pogačar were exceptional, and selfless, especially considering how he performed in the Tour de Suisse where he won GC and 2 stages. Yates, like Almeida, was great support for Pogačar in the Tour, but still managed to finish high on GC himself, a 6th place. Much was expected from Yates as a potential winner at La Vuelta, but was off the pace of the GC race. However, an exceptional ride on stage 9, a 58km solo, saw Adam Yates cover himself in glory with an epic victory. Yates stated afterwards that his GC ambitions for the race were still over, but in the end still managed 12th on GC. Overall, there are many positives to take from a successful season for the trio of Almeida, Yates and Ayuso.
Jay Vine deserves a special mention after fighting back brilliantly from the horrific injuries he sustained in the Basque Country in April. He was out of action for 4 months but in his comeback race, at the Vuelta a Burgos, Vine would extraordinarily win the ITT on stage 4. The Aussie would follow this up with a super combative 3 weeks at La Vuelta, where he animated many breakaways and was awarded with the KoM jersey. A classification that was agonisingly snatched away from him 2 years earlier when he was leading the standings before crashing out on stage 18.
Nils Politt has been simply brilliant in 2024. In terms of his own ambitions, 2nd at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, 3rd at Tour of Flanders and 4th at Paris-Roubaix is a great return for the German. However his work for his teammates is what has been arguably just as impressive. Nils Politt’s climbing performance’s at the Tour de France were some of the most remarkable moment’s of the 2024 season. In particular, on stage 19, Politt was able to reduce the peloton down to just 25 riders on the Cime de la Bonette, the highest point of the entire race. Of course Pogačar still had to deliver the results but the work of Politt was a great part of the whole process of UAE Team Emirates successful 2024 Tour de France. Marc Soler, Pavel Sivakov and Tim Wellens all have a shout for being the most underrated riders of the season too. All three shone at the Tour de France and continued to impress beyond at La Vuelta where Sivakov finished 9th on GC and Soler won stage 16 atop Lagos de Covadonga. Tim Wellens went on to win a time trial at the Tour de Pologne before winning the Renewi Tour for a record 4th time. Tim Wellens was also in the top 15 in the following races; Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, Strade Bianche, E3 Saxo Classic, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Brabantse Pijl. Pretty consistent to say the least. All 3 are brilliant riders who add so much value to the team which may not be noticed by all of the mainstream.
On a similar note, Rafal Majka, Felix Großschartner, Mikkel Bjerg and Domen Novak all did a great job throughout the season and in particular at the Giro d’Italia in support of Tadej Pogacar. There were also wins this season for the veteran Diego Ulissi who had one of his best seasons for years, as well as for team sprinter Juan Sebastián Molano.
Overall, one of the best seasons for any team in the history of the sport, and whilst a large proportion is in thanks to Tadej Pogačar, there are many other classy bike riders on this team who shouldn’t be overlooked. Can they repeat a similar level in 2025, who knows?
Victories: 81
WorldTour Victories: 41
MVP: Tadej Pogačar
Breakout Stars: Jan Christen/Isaac Del Toro
Underrated Heroes: Nils Politt/Marc Soler/Pavel Sivakov
Key Results:
🥇Giro d’Italia GC + 6 Stages, + Tour de France GC + 6 Stages: Tadej Pogačar
🥇Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, GP Montreal and Il Lombardia: Tadej Pogačar
🥇Bretagne Classic - Quest-France + Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa: Marc Hirschi
Word Count: 13,116
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Good call to archive everything here !