From the tyranny of Jumbo-Visma, to Van der Poel’s double and the failure of the Movistar Team

The 2023 cycling year is coming to an end and it’s time to stock up as the season ends and we’re in the middle of the cyclocross season where the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel is being the great enemy. As we wait for the calendar pages to change, the teams to refocus after the bells and the first races of next year to arrive, it’s time to take stock of how this completed campaign has shaped up.

TYRANNY OF JUMBO-VISMA

The Dutch team has dominated this season with an iron hand. He may not have finished first in the team ranking (an honor that fell to the UAE Tour Emirates), but he was the great dominator of the peloton, reaching his peak moment of glory. This is the team that got the most victories (69) in an exponential leap if we consider that in 2022 they added ‘only’ 48. They achieved a historic triplet in the Vuelta with the victory of Sepp Kuss and in addition to them the victories in the Tour of France (Jonas Vingegaard for the second year in a row) and the Giro d’Italia (Roglic). Not to mention the exhibitions of Wout Van Aert and Olav Kooij. By 2024 they lost Roglic (he signed for Bora) and they have a very high bar after what they saw this year.

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MATHIEU VAN DER POEL

All set for Mathiue Van der Poel’s season. The Dutchman, a key player in the Alpecin-Deceuninck team, and with personal sponsorship from the Lamborghini car brand, did a double this year: he won the World Road Championship in Glasgow in his usual exhibitions and made the both in the Cyclocross World Championship, in addition to triumphing in Paris-Roubaix after an attack 15 kilometers from the velodrome, in a season where his victory in Milan-Sanremo also shines. The grandson of Poulidor has the character of a winner, but he did not think to wear a luxurious gregarious jumpsuit so that his partner Jasper Philipsen could be one of the main characters in the Tour de France

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JONAS VINGEGAARD

Some criticize the Dane Jonas Vingegaard for his ‘lack of spark’ on the bike, unlike other riders like Pogacar or Evenepoel, but the ‘Pale Rider’ is a sniper and where he puts his eye he puts it bullet He once again had an exemplary season. He won all the races in which he participated, with marginal victories in each of them, and followed the command of the team when the Jumbo-Visma management decided to respect the first position of his teammate Sepp Kuss in Vuelta. The second place that everyone indicates that in 2024 he will try to leave to fight for victory in the Spanish round and dominate with an iron hand his second consecutive victory in the Tour de France. If in 2022 he won with a final margin of 2’43” against Tadej Pogacar, this year the difference reaches 7’29”

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REMCO EVENEPOEEL

The Belgian ‘cannibal’ may not have had as good a season as expected from him, but Evenepoel once again showed his immense class. It is true that he had to abandon the Giro d’Italia suffering from Covid and that in the Vuelta he will strengthen to finish outside the top ten, but he managed to become the world time trial champion, and repeated victories in the San Sebastián Classic and in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and both faithful to its exhibition style. Looking forward to 2024, he just needs to refine himself in three weeks of racing to finish showing naysayers that he has a great return to his legs, as he showed in Spain in 2022 to his success.

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TADEJ POGACAR

If we do a survey among cycling fans, Tadej Pogacar is probably the favorite of many of them, for his way of running, for his courage and for the smile that always appears on his face. It’s true that Jonas Vingegaard beat him again in the Tour de France – which also invites scrutiny – but ‘Pogi’ left some of the best moments of this year’s campaign in his classic season. Not because of his successes in Paris-Nice, where he won three stages and in addition to the general classification, he took the youth classification and the points classification, but because of his successful appearing in the classics: Ronde van Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race , Flecha Wallona and finally Il Lombardía. In addition, he finished the year at the top of the individual ranking.

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PRIMOZ ROGLIC

One of the bad things about winning the Giro d’Italia is that because it’s early in the season when it’s over, it stays a bit in the background, like it’s forgotten, but Primoz Roglic’s victory is one of those that. is remembered. ‘Rogla’ is one of the most loved riders in the peloton. He is like no other a Swiss precision machine and he is one of those riders who always knocks on the door of misfortune, but this year at the Giro d’Italia Roglic was a miracle. On one of the ramps of Mount Lussari, Primoz found it necessary to change his bike, but the slope made it difficult for him to pedal again, until a fan came down from the upper curve at full speed to help him, who also turned . out to be a former teammate of his from when he was ski jumping. Unbelievable. He was also 3rd in the Vuelta de Kuss, won the Giro dell’Emilia, the Tirreno-Adriatico and beat Evenepoel in a Volta Ciclista a Catalunya to remember.

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MOVISTAR TEAM

It’s true that the phone team doesn’t have the budget of the big World Tour formations that dominate the best races, but you should always expect more from a formation with history and weight in the Movistar peloton. It hurts to say, but they were not road stars. They did not appear on the podium of any major cycling tour and ended up signing a total of 16 victories, three less than in 2022 or one more than in 2015. The background is poor. The hope is the three victories of Oier Lazkano, of Gonzalo Serrano or the three of Gregor Mühlberger

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CARLOS RODRIGUEZ

A lot of hope was placed on young Carlos Rodríguez (22 years old) and Juan Ayuso (21). For the Barcelona native from the UAE, some physical problems at the beginning of the year changed his calendar and performance, although for many he remains the great hope of Spanish cycling due to his courage and ambition on the bike. More reserved was Carlos Rodríguez, who flirted with the Tour de France podium at several stages and achieved a stratospheric victory in the Portes du Soleil after a great descent in the Joux Plane. He accepted the renewal offered by Ineos, which promised him leadership, and turned down Movistar’s proposal.

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NINO SCHURTER

For many, he is already considered the best cyclist in the cross country mountain bike modality, a condition he confirmed with the victory achieved in his home, in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), increasing his number of World Cup wins to 34. and in this way he surpassed the mark held until that day by the Frenchman Julien Absalon. Soon, he will raise the bar to 35 wins, winning in Val di Sole (Italy). Nino ended up adding his ninth World Cup title at the Canadian MTB cathedral of Mont-Sainte Anne, in a year in which he also won world team gold and took the bronze medal

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DEMI VOLLERING

The season of the Dutch Demi Vollering was more than excellent. He finished the year as number 1 in the ranking, ahead of three of his teammates from Team SD Worx, which already gives an idea of ​​the supremacy of the Dutch team, but it also won the Tour de France with more . more than a three-minute margin on Belgian Lotte Kopecky and second to her compatriot Annemiek Van Vleuten, an Annemiek we won’t see in the peloton next year and will undoubtedly be missed. Third at the Gravel World Championship, he won silver at the Glasgow World Championship and achieved a consecutive triple in the spring classics with very few victories within reach, including victories in Amstel, Flecha and Liège, to which we can add those. of Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen