From Santos Tour Down Under to the Gree-Tour of Guangxi, Pogačar and the rest lit up the UCI WorldTour

The 2023 UCI WorldTour season came to an end on Tuesday 17 October with Milan Vader’s (Jumbo-Visma) victory in the Gree-Tour of Guangxi, the final event of the circuit. Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates dominated in the UCI World Ranking.

Almost ten months after Australia's return to the UCI WorldTour calendar, the men road stars finished an intense season, having battled it out in dozens of events around the world, including 34 on the UCI WorldTour.

The last, the Gree-Tour of Guangxi in China, was won on Tuesday by Dutch Milan Vader, finalising Jumbo-Visma's season-long display of strength in stage races. But the Dutch team “only” took second place in the UCI World Ranking for teams, won by UAE Team Emirates, ruling the ranking for the first time in the team’s history.

Its leader, Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, secured the individual classification by winning Il Lombardia for the third time in a row a week earlier in Bergamo, Italy. The Slovenian dominates the individual UCI World Ranking for the third year running.

Pogačar racks up the points ahead of Vingegaard and Roglič

At the age of 25, Pogačar has left his mark on the season with the quality, quantity and diversity of his victories. He won his first duel with Danish Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) at Paris-Nice (France). He then went on to shine in the Classics.

Fourth in Milano-Sanremo (Italy), winner of the Tour of Flanders (Belgium), Pogačar showed that a possible conquest of the five Monuments was possible. But a crash on Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium), after winning the Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands) and then the Flèche Wallonne (Belgium), deprived him of another success on the “Doyenne”.

Winning his second Monument of the season in Lombardy after finishing second in the Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar sealed his success in the Individual UCI World Ranking with a total of 7,695.86 points.

Jonas Vingegaard, the Slovenian's main rival in the stage races, placed second with 6,304.07 points. Third in Paris-Nice, the Dane quickly advanced to conquer the Itzulia Basque Country (Spain), before dominating the Critérium du Dauphiné (France) and claiming a second Tour de France in a row against "Pogi", before stepping onto the podium of the Vuelta Ciclista a España as part of Jumbo-Visma’s historic triple.

Fourth in the UCI Individual World Ranking, another Slovenian wasn’t to be outdone in 2023: Primož Roglič. Winner of Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy) when returning to competition, Roglič toppled Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and won his first Giro d'Italia. The future Bora-Hansgrohe rider also finished on the podium of the Vuelta Ciclista a España and the final Monument of the season.

Belgium on top, Mathieu van der Poel in a new dimension

The diversity of the calendar allowed many riders to find a way to success. Although Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) was unfortunate in the Giro d'Italia (abandon) and the Vuelta Ciclista a España (crash), the Belgian rider racked up a string of stage wins and put in some solo performances to retain his crown in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa (Spain).

Winner of the road race at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, Evenepoel went on to claim the rainbow jersey in the time trial at this summer’s UCI Road World Championships in Glasgow (UK). He placed third in the UCI World Ranking with 5,631.71 individual points, leading scorer for Belgium, which dominates the nations ranking (23,090.71).

Among the sprinters, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has certainly had the best season of his career with 19 wins, including eight on the UCI WorldTour. Fifth in the UCI individual World Ranking, Wout van Aert showed great consistency throughout the year. But with just one UCI WorldTour victory, at the E3 Saxo Classic (Belgium), the results are mixed for the cyclo-cross specialist. He came up against his great rival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Winning Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix (France) and the UCI Road World Champion title, the Dutch rider dazzled everyone with his talent, putting on a one-man show with each of his victories to go down in cycling history.

The 2023 season was incredible and there is plenty to look forward to in the 2024 UCI WorldTour.