Cycling. Bardet, JO, Visma, little suspense… Our tops and flops of the 2024 season

The 2024 Cycling season is over. At a time when runners go on vacation, West France rewound the film and reflected on its hits and flops of the year.

The tops

Decathlon in great shape. The only French team to stand out this season, the team has won 30 victories this year, an incredible figure considering its 9 victories in 2023. It was certainly especially splendid until June, but the final, with the 2^e Ben O’Connor’s place in the Vuelta, crowned this year. The Australian was one of the strong men of the team, with Paul Lapeira (national title, victory in the Tour du Pays Basque) and Benoît Cosnefroy (7 successes including the Tour des Alpes Maritimes and La Flèche brabançonne). Andrea Vendrame won the Giro, Alex Baudin the Tour du Limousin, Dorian Godon won twice in the Tour de Romandie…

Bardet, the yellow of a life. The 33-year-old from Auvergne will end his career next June, after the Dauphiné. For his last turns of the wheel, he managed to take us on board. On Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he finished 2^eits most beautiful place on a Monument, between Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel. On the Tour, two and a half months later, after a complicated Giro in the legs (9^e), it was the apotheosis. A fantastic first stage, a two-man attack with one of his teammates, and a victory in Rimini, for the first yellow jersey of his career. One of the images of the year.

The Olympic Games race. Could we dream of a more beautiful Olympic race? The triple passage over the Butte de Montmartre, absolutely packed with people, will remain as one of the great moments of cycling. A madness of grandeur punctuated by the coronation of Remco Evenepoel at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and magnified by the presence of two French people on the podium: Valentin Madouas (2^e) and Christophe Laporte (3^e). An absolute masterpiece.

Omnipresent world champions. Whether it is Mathieu van der Poel or his successor Tadej Pogacar, the wearer of the iridescent jersey will have been omnipresent this season. A lucky tunic with the double of “MVDP” in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders and Pogacar’s triumph in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and in Lombardy, Sunday. Without forgetting the king of the chrono, Remco Evenepoel, who, in addition to retaining his solo exercise title, won with the tunic on his back during the 7^e stage of the Tour de France and the 4^e of Dauphiné. The most beautiful showcase for this sacred jersey.

Extinguisher Biniam Girmay. The African continued his progression this year, confirming his raw talent during the Tour de France. Winner of three stages in the sprint, the Eritrean became the first African runner to win the final classification of the green jersey. At 24, Girmay isn’t just going fast.

A suspenseful women’s tour. Four seconds ultimately separated the winner, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, from her runner-up, Demi Vollering. A spectacular outcome for this 2024 women’s Grande Boucle, marked by a fall by the Dutchwoman which changed everything. In three editions, there have been three different winners.

The first female victory on the Tour. Cédrine Kerbaol will remain as the first Habs to have won this new version of the Women’s Tour. It was in Morteau, during the 6^e stage. The Breton also concluded her season perfectly with a success on the Trois Vallées Varésines.

The flops

Again and again falls. Always faster but still just as dangerous. Once again, this year will have been marked by violent falls: Jonas Vingegaard on the Tour of the Basque Country, Primoz Roglic during the Tour de France, Julian Alaphilippe during the Worlds… But we will especially remember the death of the Swiss Muriel Furrer (18 years) following his fall in the junior race at the Worlds in Zurich, a year after that of his compatriot Gino Mäder on the Tour de Suisse, and the death of the Norwegian Andre Drege on the Tour of Austria. Cycling still touches on death too often. It’s time for this to stop.

The season of Visma-Lease a bike. 32 victories. Okay, it’s not bad. But compared to the 69 successes in 2023, admit that this season was missed for the Dutch team. Jonas Vingegaard and Wout Van Aert, the two spearheads, did not raise their arms as much. To their credit, they were injured for a long time. Primoz Roglic, another major collector, changed structures last winter and has not been replaced. From a collective strength point of view, Visma was not very scary this year.

The French. A year after the retirement of Thibaut Pinot, French cycling is struggling to exist at the highest level. Very far away from the major classics, absent in the final classification of the Grand Tours, we have to be content with beautiful stages like for Alaphilippe and Valentin Paret-Peintre on the Giro, Bardet, Vauquelin and Turgis on the Tour.

The economic situation. Two-speed cycling not only corresponds to the results observed, but also to the structure of the teams. Between training courses supported by States and those benefiting from private support, or with a different level of charges, there is a financial gulf. Economic uncertainties also in terms of commitment, with a model that is fragile because it depends on sponsors.

The lack of suspense. The 2024 season will go down in history because the major events were confiscated by the three or four best riders. When they line up, there are just crumbs left for the others. 25 successes for Pogacar, Evenepoel double Olympic champion, Van der Poel in Flanders and Roubaix, and Roglic king of the Vuelta, killed all suspense.