Lotte Kopecky and Tadej Pogaçar gained this 12 months’s Vélo d’Or awards for women and men, introduced in a proper ceremony in Paris on Friday night. Kopecky and Pogaçar had been additionally awarded the Eddy Merckx Trophy for Finest Classics rider.
Created in 1992, the Vélo d’Or goals to crown the world’s finest rider on the finish of every season. For the second time in its 32-year historical past, the winners had been revealed in particular person with a ceremony attended by a lot of the nominees.
Runner-up the previous two years of the Vélo d’Or Femmes award because it’s inception in 2022, Kopecky claimed the highest honours on the power of a season that included the highway world championships title, victories at Paris-Roubaix, Strade Bianche, Tour de Romandie, Simac Women Tour along with ending second general on the Giro d’Italia and incomes Olympic bronze medal.
Kopecky couldn’t attend the ceremony held on the Pavillon Gabriel, simply off the Champs-Élysées as she is at present in Finland staying at Crew SD Worx-Protime’s team-building camp, and offered a recorded video message.
It might solely be Pogaçar to be honoured on the world’s finest male rider in 2024. The 26-year-old dominated the season, amassing 25 victories together with the Giro d’Italia – Tour de France double, highway world championship, two Monuments with Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia. He additionally claimed the Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Good. Pogaçar additionally gained the Velo d’Or in 2021.
Current on the ceremony, Pogaçar was awarded the Eddy Merckx Trophy for Finest Classics rider by Tom Boonen.
Luis Ángel Maté obtained the inaugural Gino Mäder Prize, recognizing his efforts in environmental and societal initiatives. This award, created in honour of the late Swiss rider Gino Mäder—who tragically handed away following a crash through the 2023 Tour de Suisse and was deeply dedicated to environmental causes—celebrates a rider’s dedication to creating a optimistic influence on social and environmental causes.
In September, the Spanish veteran celebrated his retirement by using the 600 kilometres from the Vuelta end in Madrid to his residence in Marbella within the south of Spain. Throughout the 2022 Vuelta, Maté pledged to plant a tree within the Sierra de Bermeja mountains close to his residence for each kilometre he spent in a breakaway. This initiative was a response to the devastating forest fires that had severely impacted the realm.
Olympic mountain bike gold medalist Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Romain Bardet had been acknowledged as the highest French riders of the previous season. Ferrand-Prévot, a multi-time World Champion, accepted the Trophée Daniel Morelon for Olympic disciplines for the second consecutive 12 months. Bardet was honoured with the Bernard Hinault Trophy as the perfect French highway bicycle owner.
Harrie Lavreysen, a triple Olympic monitor gold medalist on the Paris Video games and 16-time world champion, was honored with the trophy for Finest Olympic Male Rider. The 27-year-old Dutchman was unable to attend the ceremony as he was competing within the UCI Observe Champions League in London.
Double Paralympic champion and world champion Alexandre Léauté gained the Finest French Para-Bicycle owner Vélo d’Or.
