The Santos Tour Down Under will launch the 2024 UCI WorldTour, comprising 35 events in 10 months, travelling roads around the world, from Australia to China via Europe.
While winter has settled over Europe, the heat is on in Adelaide, which prepares to welcome the launch the 2024 edition of the UCI WorldTour. The road season is already well under way in Australia, where the National Championships took place around Melbourne in the first week of the year. Luke Plapp (Team Jayco-AlUla) won two more titles (time trial and road race), while his new team-mate Caleb Ewan took the criterium.
After an action-packed year in 2023, the UCI WorldTour returns to centre stage this year with a similar calendar: 35 events (3 Grand Tours, 15 other stage races, and 17 one-day races) will be raced on four continents and in twelve countries.
The first battles
The stars of the UCI WorldTour will open proceedings in Australia with the first stage race of the year, the Santos Tour Down Under (January 16-21) before the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong (January 28).
The Emirati desert will then provide a majestic backdrop for further battles in the UAE Tour (February 19-25). The peloton will return to the colder European climate first in Belgium, with the Omloop Nieuwsblad (February 24), then in Italy for the Strade Bianche (March 2).
General Classification contenders, sprinters and one-day specialists will structure their calendar in different fashions, depending on their goals. Some will head to France for Paris-Nice (March 3-10), while others will travel to Italy to race Tirreno-Adriatico (March 4-10), before tackling the Poggio at the first Monument of the season, Milano-Sanremo (March 16).
The first major Pyrenean summits will make their appearance at the end of the winter, with the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (March 18-24) in Spain.
Spring Classics
The arrival of the European spring will see the Flandriens enter the heart of their season. Belgium will buzz with the Classic Brugge-De Panne (March 20), the E3 Saxo Classic (March 22), Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (March 24) and Dwars door Vlaanderen - A Travers la Flandre (March 27). Reigning road race UCI World Champion Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) will attempt to claim a third crown in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (March 31), up against Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike). The two great rivals are then expected on the cobbles of the Hell of the North, Paris-Roubaix (April 7).
The most explosive climbers will show their strength in the Itzulia Basque Country (April 1-6), where stars such as time trial UCI World Champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) will move up a gear ahead of the Ardennes Classics. The Belgian will be among the main contenders of the Amstel Gold Race (April 14) in the Netherlands then, in Belgium, La Flèche Wallonne (April 17), before attempting to achieve another feat with a third consecutive victory in Liège-Bastogne-Liège (21 April).
The thrill of the summits
The Tour de Romandie will again serve as a launch pad for the summer season, in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, from April 23 to 28. A Classic will also be on the programme during the same period: Eschborn-Frankfurt (May 1) in Germany. Then, it will be time for the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d'Italia (May 4-26). Slovenia’s two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) will participate in this three-week Italian race, starting this year in Piedmont, for the first time.
Break the internet ♾💗
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) December 17, 2023
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While the battle for the Maglia Rosa thrills the tifosi and fans around the world, the contenders for the Maillot Jaune of the Tour de France will be finalising their condition before the start of the Grande Boucle. The riders will tackle the French Alps at the Critérium du Dauphiné (June 2-9) then the Tour de Suisse (June 9-16).
Italy will resonate with the excitement of the Grand Tours again on June 29 with the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Florence, Emilia-Romagna, which will launch three weeks of epic battles leading to the final - and unprecedented - finish in Nice on July 21. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) will look to again stamp his name on the French stage race with a third consecutive victory. Evenepoel is set to discover the race, while Pogačar is aiming for a historic Giro-Tour double, and Primož Roglič will be wearing his new colours (those of Bora-Hansgrohe).
The Vuelta Ciclista a España (August 17-September 8), the last Grand Tour of the season, will come round quickly. But the climbers will first tackle the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa (August 10). Two stage races will also punctuate the end of the European summer: the Tour de Pologne (August 12-18) and the Renewi Tour (August 28-September 1), with the Bretagne Classic (August 25) in between.
Sprinters will the rub shoulders at the Bemer Cyclassics (8 September). Canada will host the spectacular Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec (September 13) and Montreal (September 15). Finally, after the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland (21-29 September), the season will come to an end with the final Monument of the year in Italy, Il Lombardia (October 12), and the Gree-Tour of Guangxi in China (October 15-20).