Reasons to be cheerful

The season is waning, and while those of us with a penchant for watching cyclists run up muddy banks with their bikes on their shoulders may be salivating at the prospect of the rapidly approaching cyclocross season, it’s never easy to bid farewell to another road season. And

Though we still have Worlds and even the Italian classics to look forward to, there’s nothing like the passing of the final Grand Tour of the year to really remind us that the 2024 season is burning down to its dying embers, and in the northern hemisphere, with the temperatures falling and the nights drawing in, the autumn has already begun to close in around us. As the darkness beckons, the dearth of road racing in the winter months is a welcome break for the riders as they head to far-flung destinations for sunny holidays, resting and recuperating, recharging the batteries and in some cases, healing, before the whole relentless cycle begins again. Lucky for some...

It can be a dark time for fans though, as we bid farewell to our favourites for a short hiatus. It's a time for reflection, and though the ride is almost over for another season, it’s difficult to be sad; the season really has ended on a high, with happy endings to a number of season-long narratives, and much to look forward to and be grateful for in this ever-changing spectacle of a sport.

Here are a few reasons to be cheerful, as another cycling season draws to a close.

Let the healing begin

There are few sports that are harder on the body than pro cycling, and this season has been a particularly brutal one where crashes are concerned, with a swathe of riders who sustained injuries in the early season gradually making their way back to fitness. The Tour de France saw the return of most of those who were affected in the particularly serious early season crashes, those at Dwars door Vlaanderen and Itzulia Basque Country, with Jonas Vingegaard’s emotional stage win a highlight, and the remarkable bounce-back of Stef Cras another.

Wout van Aert needed a little longer to shine his brightest, but with three stage wins at La Vuelta, the stoic Belgian proved he was very much back to best. His journey back to the top was once again tinged with sadness though, as yet another crash forced him to relinquish the green and polka dot jerseys, souring the end of his season. But today's news of his 'forever contract' with Visma-Lease A Bike will reassure fans that there is plenty more to come from the man from Herentals.

Two tales of recovery stand above the rest, for me though. First, Jay Vine, the last of the riders caught up in the Itzulia crash to return to action. Just a day after his first son, Harrison, was born, Vine left home set for his fourth Vuelta, with zero expectations, at least as far as his fans were concerned: simply to see him back racing a bike was enough of a miracle given the spinal injuries he sustained in the crash. It's a race where he has fared well in the past, scoring his first pro victories with two stage wins in 2022, but it's also a race where he's struggled, crashing out in the past two seasons, so hopes were understandably muted.

To see Vine produce a strong time trial on the opening stage, was promising. To see him tearing up the race from the breakaway and claiming the polka dot jersey was a true testament to incredible medical care, an unerring support network, and the sheer will and determination of an elite athlete with a single-minded desire to return to doing what they love.

Less lauded by the media, there was a long-awaited return the peloton by Intermarche-Wanty’s Taco van der Hoorn at the end of the summer. Side-lined for a year and a half after a crash at the 2023 Tour of Flanders which resulted in a concussion, there was doubt over whether or not the baroudeur would ever return to top level racing, amid fears for his long-term health and questions over whether his contract with the Belgian team would be renewed.

The rider, who won hearts with his gutsy solo breakaway win at the 2021 Giro d’Italia and is regularly to be found escaping from the bunch and trying his luck regardless of how unlikely his success, van der Hoorn was straight back into the fray, forming a part of the break at the BEMER Classic, and it was pure, unadulterated joy to see him doing what he does best once again.

Good things for good people

Every rider works their ass off to be where they are, in the top echelon of their sport, so it’s a pretty subjective notion to talk about how much a rider deserves or warrants success, at the expense of other equally hard-working individuals.

That being said, there’s a special place in my heart for riders who try time and time again, regularly brushing with victory but rarely experiencing it, always seeming to fall short at the final hurdle, and whose palmares don’t seem to reflect their immense wealth of talent. Whilst this may be down to a plethora of factors including being on the right team, their individual role, access to the right equipment, nutrition, training, and the programme of racing which they follow, there’s no doubt there are some riders who seem destined to play the role of tragic hero, whose perpetual disappointment we share the burden of, as invested fans.

Kasia Niewiadoma set the bar, first with her victory at La Flèche Wallonne, a foreshadowing of what was to come in France later in the summer, as she took home the yellow jersey, fulfilling years of promise and erasing so much heartache from endless podium finishes in the process – and everybody liked that.

Of course it’s subjective and everyone will have different feelings about who they feel deserves All The Good Things. Seeing Stefan Küng ride to victory in the final time trial at La Vuelta felt like destiny, after so many near misses, and seeing Eddie Dunbar win two stages at the same race was also a wonderful outcome for a rider who has suffered as he’s struggled to find his level over the past few years.

In fact, La Vuelta was replete with stories of good things happening to good people (I told you it was the best Grand Tour), with Wout returning to form and the aforementioned triumph of Jay Vine, along with the rise of the underdog in the shape of Equipo Kern Pharma’s two stage winners, in particular Pablo Castrillo whose epic finish on stage 15 will surely go down in Spanish folklore.

But the epitome of the rider trying to achieve the most he possibly could, even in a situation where he wasn't expected to win, the story of the race, centred around Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale’s Ben O’Connor, whose brave escape on stage 6 led to a heroic and unexpected red jersey defence that lasted two whole weeks, and saw him finish second on the podium, his most impressive Grand Tour performance to date. Chapeau that man, who wrote a final chapter in his story with the French team that he, and they, can be immensely proud of.

Worlds of fun

Last summer’s ‘super Worlds’ in Scotland were a brilliant experiment, and having them on home soil was truly special, but the return of the familiar rhythm of road season is something of a comfort to me. The combination was epic and felt like akin to an Olympiad in its significance, but on the other hand, allowing each discipline its own space to breathe and shine is equally valid, and this year a week dedicated to cycling and para-cycling on the roads of Zürich will surely be something to savour.

While the elite men’s category has a distinct whiff of ‘foregone conclusion’ about it, with Remco Evenepoel seemingly unbeatable against the clock and Tadej Pogačar continuing to display his Giro-Tour double history-making form in Canada, with his sights firmly set on the rainbow jersey, the women’s category is far more open, with an even mix of talent across a number of nations, and some exciting additions to the field from the off-road community. Puck Pieterse opts to take on road worlds for the first time after a scintillating season on the road, and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was a shock inclusion in Team France’s squad, announced earlier in the week, returning to the road a decade after she became world champion in 2014.

With the juniors, espoirs and even the mixed team relay all televised for a global audience, there is a full week of thrilling racing to looking forward to, and the stories that unfold in Zürich will round off a season that’s already boasted many a memorable tale.

Cross really is coming

Did you really think I’d manage to get through an article about what to look forward to without at least a little homage to the pending mud? Of course not! Look, I’ve been banging this particular drum for a few seasons now and I won’t go into depth here, but if you’d like to read a more comprehensive dive into why you should really think about getting into cyclocross this winter, I have just the piece for you to read.

To bring it bang up to date, and as the die-hard fans found out last season, this sport is no longer a two-dimensional ‘no Wout and Mathieu, no party’ sideshow, and those who committed early last season were rewarded with hugely exciting racing right from the get-go. With budding multi-discipline superstar Thibau Nys set to ride a full programme this season, and his father Sven’s Baloise Trek Lions team really bringing the noise on both the men’s and women’s side last season, and the ongoing battles between the young queens of the discipline Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel, there’s really no reason to wait around for van Aert and van der Poel to show their faces this cross season.

So there it is. I hope it made you smile a bit. Please be assured this is a non-exhaustive list, your reasons to be cheerful may be completely different from mine, and that's OK, and quite honestly the world would be a boring place if we were all the same, right? Go forth and rejoice in whatever it is about this sport that makes you happy, and feel free to tell me your thoughts on social media @writebikerepeat. Until next time, thanks for reading.