Another category in the internal plebiscite of the Naszosie.pl editorial team for the cyclists of the 2024 season. We voted for the best Polish riders. The winners were Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Marcin Budziński.
Editors of the portal for several weeks Naszosie.pl vote in an internal plebiscite, choosing the best cyclists of the 2024 season in various categories. The rules are simple – we indicate five players who, in our opinion, deserve this distinction the most. Today we looked at Polish women and men. Our editors' votes were given to 10 male and 6 female cyclists.
Marcin Budziński in front of Stanisław Anikowski
The choice of the best Polish cyclist aroused a lot of emotions – it is difficult to compare World Tour team cyclists with those racing in continental teams. It was known from the beginning that the fate of the winner would be decided between Stanisław Aniołkowski (Cofidis), who regularly takes high positions in world tour sprints. His best result was, of course, second place in one of the stages of the Giro d'Italia.
On the other side was Marcin Budziński from Mazowsze Serce Polski, the author of 5 victories in UCI races, one of the best continental competitors in the world, who also added to his successes a 2nd place in the “general” Tour of Taihu Lake and very good performances in the Tour of Türkiye or CRO Race, where he competed side by side with World Tour competitors.
Ultimately, Marcin Budziński narrowly won, having a 4-point advantage over Stanisław Aniołkowski. The podium was completed by Rafał Majka, one of Tadej Pogačar's most important helpers in UAE Team Emirates, 15th Giro d'Italia competitor, who placed high in the Tour of Austria and AlUla Tour. Also high in the ranking were Tobiasz Pawlak (Mazowsze Serce Polski), winner of the “Solidarity” Race and the Olympics and the Tour de Kurpie, and Kamil Małecki (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), who impressed with places in the second ten of Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix .
Also honored were junior Patryk Goszczurny (JEGG-DJR Academy), Michał Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers), Polish champion Norbert Banaszek (Mazowsze Serce Polski), the author of the only international victory for a Pole – Bartosz Rudyk, as well as Cesare Benedetti (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe).
| AG | AW | BK | DJ | JJ | KKa | KKr | SB | ADDITION | |
| Marcin Budziński | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 35 |
| Stanisław Anikowski | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 31 |
| Rafał Majka | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17 | |
| Tobiasz Pawlak | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | ||
| Kamil Małecki | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 10 | ||||
| Patryk Goszczurny | 5 | 5 | |||||||
| Michał Kwiatkowski | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||
| Norbert Banaszek | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| Bartosz Rudyk | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Cesare Benedetti | 1 | 1 |
Queen Catherine the Unknown
Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) had no competition among Polish women – the position of one of the best riders in the world, triumph in the Tour de France Femmes and Strzala Walońska are enough arguments for her to unanimously become the Polish cyclist of the year 2024. Recently, the White and Reds have been spoiling us with excellent driving and great results, which could have caused problems in ordering the competitors in subsequent places.
The second highest result in our vote was achieved by Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health), bronze medalist of the European Road Championships, who was among the world's top sprinters throughout the season. In our plebiscite, we assessed road performances, but Daria Pikulik's achievements include the silver medal in the track omnium at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Marta Lach (CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling) performed very well throughout the season and won 5 victories, including 3 on the Tour of Chongquing Island world tour route, where she won the general classification. The next positions in our ranking were taken by Polish champion Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ), the first leader of the Women's World Tour ranking, as well as Karolina Perekitko (Winspace), who shines in the mountains, and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka from the world tour team, who was 12th in the time trial during the Olympic Games. Canyon//SRAM Racing.
| AG | AW | BK | DJ | JJ | KKa | KKr | SB | ADDITION | |
| Katarzyna Niewiadoma | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 40 |
| Daria Pikulik | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 28 |
| Marta Lach | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 26 |
| Dominika Włodarczyk | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 17 |
| Karolina Brekitko | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka | 1 | 1 |
Do you agree with our choices? Or maybe you would have a completely different opinion? Share your picks in the comments section! Meanwhile, we will come back to you next week with another category – then we will highlight the greatest revelations of 2024.
