2023 proved to be an exciting year in the WorldTour of professional cycling, with many cracking races and some hot talking points. 

In the early season Classics, three of the most expressive riders in the peloton shared the first 5 races almost evenly between them: Van der Poel claimed Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, Pogacar won the Tour of Flanders and his third Tour of Lombardy in a majestic manner, and Evenepoel took victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Pogi pogi’s away from Primoz at Lombardia.

VDP was not satisfied after his two great victories in spring – he then put in a most remarkable effort to win the World Championships road race in Scotland with a brilliant solo effort. 

VDP makes it look easy and terrifying at exactly the same time.

At the Giro d’Italia, Primoz Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team rode a smart race, letting other riders and teams do the most of the work in defending the pink jersey, wrangling it off the back of Geraint Thomas at the end of Stage 20. This was an epic 18.6km mountain time trial in which the Slovenian overcame a brief mechanical to win the stage dramatically ahead of the Welshman. In the end, Roglič beat Thomas by just 14 seconds. 

Roglic finally finds a TT helmet that fits and wins Pink.

In the 2023 Tour de France we were all expecting Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) to bounce back from his defeat to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in 2022, but it was Vingegaard who took the overall with a performance so dominant that it shocked many seasoned commentators. In a race against the clock hailed by Tom Dumoulin as ‘the best time trial in history’, the Jumbo rider put 1’38” into Pogacar in just 22.4km, to take a 1’48” lead in the general classification. The Dane went on to win by over 7 minutes.

What he lacks in being interesting he makes up for in speed…

The last Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a Espana, offered up the most intriguing plot of the year, as we saw three Jumbo Visma riders vying for the top spot. Super domestique Sepp Kuss (USA) became the surprise leader after Stage 6 ahead of his team captains, Roglic and Vingegaard. These two committed publicly to being prepared to ensure Kuss won the GC, yet later in the tour both appeared to attack Kuss and almost took his leader’s jersey. Public opinion against these moves seemed to sway the Jumbo team bosses, ‘forcing’ them to bring Roglic and Vingegaard back under team orders.

Roglic in particular seemed ill at ease with the decision, and after Stage 17 he said ‘I have my own thoughts’ about the team decision to support Kuss for the win.

In the end, Kuss won but it was a strange victory, one that felt half-earned, half-given.

But at least the internet had fun…

Jumbo-Visma thus became the first team to win all Grand Tours in a season and were the first in nearly 60 years to take a clean sweep of all three top GC positions in a single three week tour ever.

The team’s dominance led some to question just how they did it, and given the tarnished history of dominant teams in the sport, it’s not surprising – I’ll leave that there.

With the early stages of the news season just about to begin, let’s take a look ahead to all things World Tour in 2024.

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2024 TEAM NEWS

Sprinter Sam Bennett sign for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale (previously AG2R Citroen).

The Irishman has moved from Bora-Hansgrohe after a difficult couple of years. The 33-year-old won two stages of the Tour de France and the green jersey in 2020, and has won five stages of the Vuelta a España, as well as three stages of the Giro d’Italia, but won just six times during his two years back with Bora.

Now he has a fresh start at his new French team, and it will be interesting to see how he gets on, though he may have a strong lead out man to help him out, in his new team captain… which is:

Primož Roglič, who also joins Bora-Hansgrohe.

After weeks of speculation, Primož Roglič was revealed as a Bora rider for 2024 at the beginning of October. The Slovenian spent eight seasons with Jumbo Visma, winning three Vueltas a Espana and the Giro d’Italia with the Dutch team, but was tempted away by Bora, and, many suspect, problems with the team leader situation at Jumbo at the Vuelta – and possibly earlier than that too. He had to break his contract with the Jumbo team to join Bora, so should be very motivated.

Bora-Hansgrohe get a kit makeover too, as seen here, modelled by Jai Hindley.

In other kit news, Astana-Qazaqstan haven’t changed much but they did add some volcanic rocks, which suits the burning desire of their sprinter, Mark Cavendish, who has decided to un-retire for another crack at winning one more historic stage at the Tour de France next year. Doing so will make him the most Tour stage winning rider in history, a record he currently shares with Eddy Merckx.

Bradley’s son Ben Wiggins signs for Hagens Berman Axeon

Though the Hagens team may not be World Tour, the team recently struck up a partnership with World Tour outfit Jayco-AlUla, which has a long history of developing top riders. These have included Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geohegan Hart and Alex Dowsett among others. 

Volume at full blast, probably…

Coming off the back of his second place at the World Championship TT, 18 year old Ben has will looking to mark his arrival with a win or two.

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2024 TECH NEWS 

Wilier Triestina is the new official partner and bicycle supplier of Groupama – FDJ Cycling Team. The French FDJ team was previously supplied by the homegrown Lapierre brand for 22 years, but this year they will be on Italian bikes. 

Andrea Gastaldello, Executive Chairman of Wilier said that ‘With its promising young cyclists and established names, the FDJ team’s sporting projects have been extremely exciting to us right from the start, reflecting the vision we seek in collaborations of this kind: an international project that invests in young talents to accompany them, in time, from youth categories to the highest levels.’

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale get a new sprinter in Sam Bennet and also a brand new bike brand to supply their machines – it’s Decathlon’s own top brand, Van Rysel.

Decathlon’s reps say that no expense was spared when developing the new RCR road and XCR time trial bikes. Swiss Side are supplying the wheels. The integrated cockpits have been developed and manufactured by component specialists Deda.

These are being called ‘budget super bikes’ as they will retail in Decathlon stores for just 8,500 GBP, cheapish I guess, for a World Tour team bike. 

The team TT bike is quite nifty looking.

Luckily for everyone concerned, the AG2R brown shorts are gone! Only favoured by those with dodgy guts, the team for sure will be glad to see the back of them.

Some slightly sad news from the tech side of 2024: there are ZERO teams riding Campagnolo groupsets this season, as the AG2R team – the last to use Campagnolo – announced they will swap to Shimano. The historic Italian brand, once King of the Components before Shimano arrived to muscle them out of their once-dominant market share – released a statement recently:

‘Campagnolo can confirm that its partnership with the AG2R Citröen Team has come to an end and that it has amicably parted ways with the team. There is currently no announcement to make about Campagnolo’s partnerships in professional road racing for the 2024 season.’

The first Tour de France was won on ’Campy’ back in 1948, when the great Gino Bartali took victory. Then, from 1963 through to 1998, Campagnolo-equipped riders stood top of the podium every year, bar four occasions. Then came 1999 and Shimano, and later Sram, who between them won every edition until the 2022 Tour, when Pogacar won. Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates swapped to Shimano for 2023. 

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2024 RACES

The Classics

The Spring Classics of 2024 will be… well, the Spring Classics – In other words, riveting as ever.

We have Strade Bianche, on March 2nd, up first. First held in 2007, the Italian race is nowhere near as old at the other classics, yet is has already secured a well-earned prestige. Its stunning backdrop of Tuscan villas and rolling hills, as well as its white roads, made it an almost instant classic. 

Thibaut Pinot described it as “the sixth Monument” of Classic road cycling, because of its iconic parcours and difficulty.

Britain’s Tom Pidcock (Ineos) won in 2023 with an audacious 20km attack. Next year we can expect him to be battling out with the rest of the elite one day riders, plus a couple of guys that are quite good at one day races too, such as Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quickstep) is also looking to be back at his best and on the start line as well.

“My first big goal will be normally the Tour of Flanders,” said the former World Champ, “but with already some important races before, like Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, and all the Flemish one-day Classics – the one-day races in Belgium until Flanders.”

After that, the Classics and mini-classics come thick and fast, with the massively long – 298 KM – Milan-San Remo on March 16th, then Gent Wevelgem on March 24th, and my two personal favourites, the Tour of Flanders (March 31st) followed by the epic Paris-Roubaix on April 7th. 

Finally the Spring Classic season will draw to a close with Liege-Bastogne-Liege on April 17th.

It’s slightly difficult to define who are the favourites for the Spring Classics next year. Tom Pidcock has stated his desire to focus on the Tour and also the Olympics, which start at the end of July in Paris. Remco Evenepoel has stated the exact same sentiment, and these two may feel that risking a crash in the spring races may not be worth it.

To peak in July for the Tour and then have the energy in reserve to recover for the Olympics just a few weeks later, as well as trying to be in winning shape for say Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, may well not be compatible.

Vingegaard and Pogacar will renew their battle in France at the Tour once again, with each knowing they must be in 100% top shape to beat the other. Pogacar had a great early 2023, winning the Tour of Flanders and then Il Lombardia in Autumn – but he did implode at the Tour de France, losing by over 7 minutes to Vingegaard – who did not ride any Spring Classics, preferring to peak later.

“Maybe it costs me that I prepare for the Flanders and the Ardennes and Lombardia in the end, and all these kind of races,” said Pogacar in November last year. “It’s not ideal but it’s what I like – to race different challenges throughout the year.”

At the time of writing, the Slovenian has not committed to riding any Classics apart from Strade but he has committed to another Grand Tour.

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THE GRAND TOURS

The Giro d’Italia begins on May 4th and guess who’s going to be on the start line for the first time ever? That’s right, it’s Mr. Everywhere, Tadej Pogacar.

He almost broke the cycling internet when he announced he was to enter the great Italian race back in December last year. He has also slated the Tour and the Olympics as his other goals – which is a big ask. 

No rider since the frosted Italian, Marco Pantani, has managed to win both the Giro and the Tour in the same season (1998).

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) has also confirmed he will take part, as has Wout Van Art (Jumbo Visma). 

Next year’s Giro is a 3,321km long and has 68.2km of time trials over two stages – so it won’t suit the pure climbers. The climbing is not as extreme as on the 2023 route, but there are still some spectacular and savage mountains stages, with the famous Stelvio supplying a summit finish.

The Tour de France 2024 will, as mentioned, feature the top GC riders and starts on the 29th of June. The route of the 2024 Tour de France covers a total of 3,492km with some 52,320 metres of overall elevation. That is 20% more than the 2024 Giro d’Italia. 

Florence hosts the Grand Départ of the 2024 Tour de France, while the race will not see a finish on the Champs-Élysées for the first time in half a century. Instead, Nice hosts the final stage of the race, as the Olympic Games will begin in Paris around that same time. The 111th Tour de France finishes on Sunday 21 July with an ITT.

With a cracking battle slated between Evenepoel, Pogacar and Vingegaard on the cards, this should be a Tour not to miss.

The Vuelta a Espana starts on August 17th and ends on September 8th.

The 2024 route will be harder than that of 2023, with race director Javier Guillén saying there will be no transition stages, lots of climbing in the major mountains of Spain before a showdown in the Asturian mountains and the traditional Madrid finish.

“It’s going to be a demanding Vuelta. We’re happy with the race we had in 2023, but that forces us to continue coming up with new ideas to make the race at least as hard,” Guillén told Marca newspaper.

Sepp Kuss will to return to defend his title, with Spaniard Enric Mas (Movistar), Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Carlos Rodíguez (Ineos Grenadiers) lined up to ride.

And that’s that folks! I do hope you enjoy the 2024 season, and have yourselves a Merry Xmas to boot!