Demi Vollering and Jonas Vingegaard gained this 12 months’s Vélo d’Or awards for women and men, introduced in a proper ceremony in Paris on Tuesday night. It was the primary time within the 31-year historical past of the ‘Golden Bike’ accolades that the winners have been revealed in individual with a ceremony, fairly than a front-page story in Vélo Journal.
Vollering gained the general Girls’s WorldTour title in 2023, headlined by her victory on the second version of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Vingegaard took his second Tour de France GC title in 2023 and completed the season because the second-best rider within the UCI World Rankings, simply behind Tadej Pogačar.
Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault have been current as friends of honour on the Pavillon Gabriel, simply off the Champs-Élysées, and handed out the particular awards that now bear their names.
Multi-time World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and European Champion Christophe Laporte have been honoured as the most effective French riders of the previous season, Ferrand-Prevot accepting the Trophée Daniel Morelon for the disciplines of mountain bike, BMX and monitor. Laporte obtained the award for finest street rider and was on stage to obtain the prize from Hinault. Ferrand-Prévot supplied a recorded video message.
Within the new class of finest Classics riders, Lotte Kopecky and Mathieu van der Poel, each world champions on the street this 12 months, have been recognised because the winners for ladies and men with the Eddy Merckx Trophy for his or her excellent performances within the final 12 months.
Vollering was the ultimate athlete recognised on the brightly-lit stage on the palatial, recently-renovated occasion centre. She took the highest prize over nominees that included Annemiek van Vleuten, final 12 months’s winner, Kopecky, Elisa Longo Borghini, Alison Jackson, Juliette Labous, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Gaia Realini, Marlen Reusser and Lorena Wiebes.
Vingegaard beat out nominees time trial World Champion Remco Evenepoel, Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Mads Pedersen, Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen, Adam Yates and Van der Poel. The Dane was not capable of attend in individual, and supplied his acceptance speech through video.
“It’s an enormous honour for me to win the Vélo d’Or award. Once I see all of the names successful it up to now, it’s a loopy feeling to know now that I’m the winner of it,” he mentioned within the recording. “Eddy Merckx was going to offer this award to me and it’s very particular. He’s such an enormous icon, and at all times successful. I’m at all times making an attempt to do the identical, making an attempt to win all of the races that I’m doing. I’m very proud of it, thanks for that.”
The inaugural Vélo d’Or went to Miguel Indurain in 1992, whereas Laurent Jalabert was acknowledged as the highest French rider.
In 2000, Felicia Ballanger grew to become the primary – and solely – feminine recipient of the Vélo d’Or Français. The ladies’s prizes didn’t return till 2023, when Annemiek van Vleuten grew to become the primary winner of the brand new Vélo d’Or Femmes.
Tuesday’s occasion coincided with the 2024 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift route presentation, which follows the subsequent day with its personal formal programme and an all-star solid {of professional} riders and dignitaries from the Palais des Congrès.
The 2024 Tour de France route presentation, which begins at 10:25 a.m. GMT, will likely be broadcast in the UK and round Europe on Eurosport channels 1 and a pair of (410, 411 on Sky) and streamed on Discovery+. Within the US and Canada, FloBikes will air programming dwell. Moreover, the route presentation will likely be aired in the UK, Europe and in choose different territories on GCN+.