WorldTour 2024 - Everything you need to know

The decisive Milan-San Remo attack (Image credit: Getty Images)

As the calendar flips into December, thoughts turn more firmly to the 2024 season. The new signings have (almost) all been confirmed and teams are beginning to assemble for their training camps. Remco Evenepoel is already at his home near Calpe in Spain, while Ineos Grenadiers have gathered in Mallorca for their first training camp.

Miles are banked in sleepy coastal towns in southern Europe. Racing schedules are distributed, plans are made, and hierarchies are sketched out. The Tour Down Under, the year’s first event, is a little over a month away.

In their second season as a WorldTour team, Alpecin-Deceuninck have become more than just a vehicle for Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman remains the marquee rider and will bring even more attention and prestige to the team as world champion in 2024, but Tour de France green jersey winner Jasper Philipsen has added another layer of import to the Belgian team - even more so as Van der Poel is expected to leave the Tour early to target the Olympics.

Team manager Milan Erzen has admitted he failed to land an extra sponsor and so the team will be built around gravel world champion and Classics contender Matej Mohorič, Britain’s ever-aggressive Fred Wright, the multi-talented Pello Bilbao, veteran Italian Damiano Caruso, Wout Poels, Santiago Buitrago and Australia’s Jack Haig. Bilbao won the Tour Down Under and Bahrain Victorious won three stages at the 2023 Tour de France, but it was arguably a lean season for the riders in red, orange and black.

Manager Ralph Denk called the acquisition "the next milestone" for the team after the departure of Peter Sagan. The question remains to be seen which riders will support Roglič at the expense of their ambitions. Daní Martínez, who arrives from Ineos, is one key addition for that goal. 2022 Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley remains in place and he would surely have finished higher than 7th at his debut Tour if he hadn't crashed heavily in week two.

The picture might, of course, be very different had Egan Bernal not suffered a life-threatening crash at the start of 2022, but there has also been a glaring lack of succession planning to go along with that ill fortune. It’s telling that Ineos’ best performer in Grand Tours in recent years has been Geraint Thomas, a veteran who management had seemed eager to relegate to an almost pastoral role in 2021.

It's not all doom and gloom, mind. Ineos notched up 36 wins last year, and there are still riders of immense quality on the roster, including Thomas, and Carlos Rodríguez, who finally opted to stay put despite firm overtures from Movistar, while Filippo Ganna has broadened his repertoire to develop into a bona fide Classics contender. Bernal’s 2023 comeback should serve as a foundation for better things this season.

Davide Formolo, having been a loyal domestique for Pogačar and João Almeida at UAE Team Emirates, had a solid 2023 season, coming second in the Saudi Tour and winning the Coppa Agostoni and Veneto Classic. Second to Jakob Fuglsang in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Italian champion in 2019, Formolo's renaissance makes him a great addition to Movistar's Classics team as well as an important Grand Tour helper.

The chaotic events sparked a rider revolt at Soudal-QuickStep, with Remco Evenepeol eventually ending reports he could leave for Ineos Grenadiers and promising loyalty to team manager Patrick Lefevere. The dust has now settled but the impact of the failed takeover remains to be seen. Lefevere has a new CEO and perhaps long-term heir, as Soudal-QuickStep fight on in 2024, with Evenepoel as their figurehead.

Although DSM have lost the promising Andreas Leknessund to Uno-X, there is still some interesting young talent on the roster, most notably the British pairing of Oscar Onley and Max Poole, who have been quietly collecting some notable results in week-long stage races at a very young age. They will both expect to make further strides forward in 2024. American Kevin Vermaerke also forms part of an interesting cohort of young riders.

True, Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour and Mathieu van der Poel won the Worlds, but Tadej Pogačar remains the best cyclist on the planet for his routine brilliance across all terrains. Much like with Lionel Messi in his pomp, it’s become too easy to take Pogačar’s gifts for granted, so it’s never any harm to remind oneself of his dexterity: his 2023 haul of wins included the Tour of Flanders, Il Lombardia, Amstel Gold Race, Paris-Nice, Flèche Wallonne and the Ruta del Sol.

Pogačar’s precise 2024 programme, however, will depend on how he and UAE Team Emirates respond to the main setback of last season, namely his second successive defeat at Vingegaard’s hands at the Tour. The Slovenian wasn’t helped, of course, by the lay-off that followed his broken wrist at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but there is a school of thought that wonders if he also spread himself too thinly with his Spring exploits.

UAE Team Emirates will surely try to persuade Pogačar to follow a lighter early season schedule this time around, and it will be fascinating to see, too, what team they send with him to France. After dispatching João Almeida to the Giro (third overall) and Juan Ayuso to the Vuelta (fourth overall) in 2023, they might well be tempted to bring all their best stage racing riders together to take on Visma-Lease A Bike’s collective might in July.

Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.