The 2024 women’s cycling season has seen its fair share of random incidents and headlines. Some of them were shocking at the time, things we don’t see in races very often and others were just downright bizarre. Races were decided by moments we weren’t expecting, keeping us on the edge of our seats in one-day races and all week in some stage race examples.
Probably the most out-there story was the one where a men’s Guinea-Bissau team attempted to enter the women’s Vuelta a Andalucia before being a belated no-show at the last minute. Not too far behind was the tale of the American Cynisca team faking the sign-on of a rider during a race. Technically it happened in 2023 but the news of the crime and punishment came out in 2024. We saw races affected by trains, team cars, random crashes and team tactics, and some solid old-fashioned rain for good measure on the Parisian streets. Let’s recap some of the weirder moments of the 2024 women’s cycling season.
Strangest and Most Unexpected Events of the 2024 Season
Cynisca use a mechanical to fake a rider sign-on – 28th February 2024
Cynisca Cycling was sanctioned by the UCI in February 2024 after attempting to fake having enough riders to start the 2023 Argenta Classic – 2 Districtenpijl Ekeren-Deurne. The team arrived at the race with only four riders thinking they would be ok to start but instead found out they needed 5 riders. Instead of withdrawing, Sports Director Danny Van Haute instructed the riders to claim a fifth teammate was present but ill. When this failed, he went further, telling mechanic Moira Barrett to dress as a rider and sign the start sheet. The deception was quickly uncovered, and the team was disqualified.
The UCI investigation into the incident found multiple rule violations. Van Haute was suspended until December 2025, Barrett until September 2024, and the four riders were reprimanded. The team itself was fined and banned from its next UCI race.
In reaction to the announcement, Cynisca Cycling apologised, cutting ties with Van Haute and Barrett. The team had actually won a race at the Clásica de Almería with Lauren Stephens the day before the news broke and the team wasn’t too badly affected having moved on from the staff members behind the deception.
Lotte Kopecky running to keep up with Demi Vollering on the Koppenberg – 1st April 2024
The Koppenberg has always been legendary but in certain conditions, is so steep and slippery that once a crash happens, most of the peloton will be off their bikes. That’s what happened this year as the peloton raced on the Flandrian slope. A small group of race favourites managed to be ahead of the slip (including Lorena Wiebes), with Lotte Kopecky only just ahead of Kim Le Court when she started going sideways into Chloe Dygert. When the riders went down, it forced everyone behind to come to a complete stop. That included Demi Vollering who was able to quickly get past the block and back onto her bike over the crest. Meanwhile, Kopecky suffered a mishap of her own and ran on her own between the lead group and the struggling peloton.
With Demi the only rider from the peloton gaining on and then overtaking the world champion, the cameras caught the moment she passed whilst giving words of encouragement. Both riders managed to avoid the second bottleneck caused by the peloton all trying to get back on their bikes but spent the rest of the race trying to get back on top. The panic and chase completely changed the way the rest of the race panned out and gave us one of the early season moments between the two diverging stars of SD Worx.
Guinea-Bissau men’s team attempt to enter women’s race in Spain – 29th May 2024
The opening of the Women’s Vuelta a Andalucia saw an unbelievable administrative blunder. The Guinea-Bissau National Team, which was registered and assumed to be female, was actually a mistakenly registered men’s team. The issue only came to light during the team directors’ meeting the evening before the start, prompting organisers Deporinter to urgently investigate. Upon cross-checking UCI licences and rider names, it was confirmed that the team consisted of male cyclists, contrary to the event’s entry requirements.
Guinea-Bissau’s federation president, Cabi da Costa Blute, initially blamed visa delays and a car accident for the team’s failure to arrive in Spain, while also claiming the registration error was an administrative oversight. Yet email evidence clearly contradicted his claims, showing the federation had explicitly requested entry into the women’s race. Blute later added confusion by stating that both men’s and women’s teams were registered, though no evidence supported this assertion either.
The incident left organisers in disarray, having already made accommodation and logistical arrangements for the Guinea-Bissau delegation. With hotel costs now unrecoverable and no way to replace the absent team, Deporinter expressed frustration at the disruption. For Guinea-Bissau, the episode represented a missed opportunity to showcase its female cyclists, who train and compete domestically under difficult conditions. Blute shared photos of the women’s team in local events after the news broke, but it’s now feared the federation’s actions may harm its future credibility with European race organisers.
Elisa Longo Borghini loses Italian Nats TT title because of team car distance – 20th June 2024
The controversy surrounding Elisa Longo Borghini’s penalty at the 2024 Italian National Time Trial Championships revolved around the enforcement of regulations concerning team car positioning, which ultimately led to a reshuffling of the final results. Elisa Longo Borghini, of Lidl-Trek, initially appeared to have won the time trial, finishing 0.95 seconds faster than her closest competitor, Vittoria Guazzini of FDJ-Suez. However, after the race, officials reviewed video footage and determined that Longo Borghini’s team car had driven too close to her during the event, violating UCI rules that mandate a minimum distance between riders and team vehicles. This rule, introduced in January 2023, aims to prevent aerodynamic advantages caused by disruptions to airflow.
Despite being instructed to fall back during the race, the team car reportedly failed to comply with the directive. Following a 30-minute deliberation where riders were sat in basic plastic chairs outside on the grass, unsure of what was really happening, race officials imposed a 25-second penalty on Longo Borghini, relegating her to second place. Guazzini, therefore, was awarded the championship title and, with it, a place in the Paris Olympic time trial. The updated results showed Longo Borghini trailing by 24 seconds, while Elena Pirrone of Roland completed the podium in third place, 1:02 behind Guazzini.
Train stops peloton during Thüringen Ladies Tour Stage 1, allowing break to win – 25th June 2024
The first stage of the 36th Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour delivered a dramatic and unusual outcome, heavily influenced by a stopped train. Margot Vanpachtenbeke of VolkerWessels took her first professional win, out-sprinting Ruth Edwards after a 60km breakaway. However, it was the train’s interruption that helped seal the breakaway’s success.
The 118.5km stage began and ended in Jena, featuring two categorised climbs. The decisive moment came after the first climb, where Vanpachtenbeke and Edwards attacked and built a lead of almost seven minutes. Despite the peloton’s efforts to make a late chase, their task was made impossible by an untimely closed railway crossing.
As Vanpachtenbeke and Edwards passed safely over the crossing, a train arrived, halting the chasers. This included a strong group led by Kasia Niewiadoma, who had broken clear from the main peloton. The stoppage allowed the peloton to catch Niewiadoma’s group, while the breakaway duo ahead gained an extra 3–4 minutes of advantage. Tiffany Cromwell, Niewiadoma’s teammate, expressed her disappointment at the outcome. “All our hard work to set it up for Kasia on the last climb went to waste with the train stop,” she explained. “It was strange after that—nobody knew what was happening, and you could feel the confusion in the bunch.”
By the time the chase resumed, it was clear that only the two leaders could fight it out for the win as the train stop all but guaranteed their advantage. Effectively giving them the breathing room needed to stay clear of the chasing groups. Edwards worked tirelessly at the front as the stage neared its conclusion, but Vanpachtenbeke proved the stronger in the sprint, securing her first professional victory. Edwards would use the advantage to take the GC victory with a storming time trial later in the race.
Liv AlUla Jayco premature prosecco celebration at the end of the Giro – 14th July 2024
This will be is a quickfire one, in more ways than one! The team are ready to head out onto the podium after the final stage of the Giro d’Italia Women in L’Aquila. Pre-shaking their bottles of Astoria prosecco for the big moment, the heat of the day got to a few of the bottles. Ella Wyllie in the white New Zealand champion jersey saw her cork fire off in the confined rear of the podium space, sparking the moment for the riders to get out onto the podium and spray what was left.
Taylor Knibb mechanic Olympics – 27th July 2024
The Olympic time trial was brutal for almost all of the riders involved. Rain saw the city streets of Paris turn into an ice rink in places. Rider after rider crashed on corners but they weren’t alone. The mechanic for Taylor Knibb also hit the deck, albeit with a bike rather than on a bike. Knibb had already crashed, damaging her bike in the process and needed a replacement. So in comes the bike from off-screen on the right and it went wrong very quickly. The fresh bike gets slammed into the road surface but luckily not on the derailleur side. The mechanic also notably holds onto the bike throughout, never letting go as they fall and get back up again. Knibb would finish 19th in the end, almost 3 and a half minutes behind the winner Grace Brown.
Demi Vollering crashes and fractures tailbone in Tour de France Femmes – 15th August 2024
A moment of madness that as the minutes went on, few could explain or justify. After an impressive first 4 stages on non-French soil, Vollering was 34″ ahead in GC of her nearest genuine rival Kasia Niewiadoma and miles ahead of anyone else with yellow jersey ambitions. With 6.3km to go on the 5th stage, a left-hander coming off a roundabout saw many riders go down hard and fast. Similarly to the Koppenberg example before, the front of the race got through cleanly but the cameras picked up that the yellow jersey had indeed gone down.
Photo Credit: GettyWith no teammates around, it was almost a full minute before Demi got going again and slowly at that. Given what we know now that the crash fractured her tailbone, a lot of Demi’s slowness, gestures and actions begin to make a lot more sense. With the race 3km up the road, Demi remained alone as teammate Blanka Vas was at the very front contesting successfully for the stage win and Lorena Wiebes in no-mans-land between them. All the other SD Worx teammates, bar Mischa Bredewold, had been used up earlier in the day and were behind Demi somewhere. Bredewold did wait and contributed a little bit but ultimately didn’t have enough left in the tank to really do that much on a non-flat run-in to the finish. Forced to do almost all the work injured and largely alone, Vollering would lose an incredible 1’47” from out of nowhere. Given the final GC time gap, between Demi and maiden Tour de France Femmes victor Kasia Niewiadoma, was just 4 seconds, this crash completely flipped the script and gave us one of the most unexpected events of the 2024 season.
