The 2024 cycling season demonstrated how quickly fortunes can change in the sport. Riders often face a mix of challenges, from injuries and difficult seasons to time away from competition. Some struggle to find form, while others return stronger than ever, taking on new roles or rediscovering their strengths.
This year saw riders tackling setbacks head-on, whether through a change in teams, recovery from physical challenges, or adapting to different demands within the peloton. Their efforts highlight how cycling continually tests both the physical and mental limits of those competing at the highest level.
The efforts of riders like Ellen van Dijk, returning to top-level racing after maternity leave, and Kristen Faulkner, recovering from a serious training accident in 2023 to win Olympic gold, demonstrate how athletes can adapt and thrive under challenging circumstances. Whether overcoming personal setbacks, making strategic career moves, or adjusting to new roles within their teams, these performances show the depth of determination and adaptability required to succeed in professional cycling.
Biggest comeback riders in 2024
Photo Credit: PhotonewsThalita de Jong
The biggest comeback year was that of Thalita de Jong. Easily a career year, the Dutch former cyclocross world champion hadn’t looked this good on the road since her Rabo Liv era which was at least 8 years ago! After taking a long time to take her first win of 2024, she would eventually take 4 of them, her previous high in a season was 2 wins (2015 & 2016). 2 stage wins and the GC at the Tour de l’Ardeche was arguably the peak but there were WWT top-10s at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, the Tour de France Femmes, Itzulia and Gent Wevelgem. Being the outright leader on the Lotto Dstny Ladies team opened things up for her after not quite getting the same shouts at Liv previously. Once the results started it all just snowballed from there with De Jong finishing in every position from 1st to 10th over the course of the year. It’s turned into a Women’s WorldTour transfer to Human Powered Health for 2025.
Photo Credit: SWPix.comKristen Faulkner
Kristen Faulkner hasn’t been racing long but the 2023 season was one to forget after a big chunk of it was taken away thanks to a car driver back home in America. The only highlight of the spring period was also taken away from her with her 3rd place at Strade Bianche removed after a glucose monitor was spotted on her arm during the race. All that meant there wasn’t a top-10 result until the Pan-American Games in October 2023. That was put to bed very early on in 2024 with an epic solo break at Omloop van het Hageland, stage wins at Trofeo Ponente in Rosa, another solo break win at the Vuelta Femenina, and another at the US Nationals, a shorter one but still a solo win at the Olympics for a gold medal and then wrapped up with a second gold on the track in the team pursuit. The gold medal on the road was particularly impressive given she hadn’t actually been picked for the race until a late withdrawal saw her called up. Faulkner’s profile jumped hugely as a result of the results in Paris and marked a huge return to the top of women’s cycling.
Photo Credit: GettySarah Gigante
Despite a breakout season as far back as 2019 when she won the Aussie national title as a 19-year-old, it’s taken a long time after that for Sarah Gigante to really get the chance to deliver on that early promise. Bad luck has always been on the horizon with a big result often coming with injuries not far away. 2021 saw a bad crash at Flèche Wallonne which broke her collarbone, fibula and elbow in one go. Then when fit again, she suffered from myopericarditis. Her impressive solo win at Emakumeen Nafarroako in 2022, also saw her crash into a car mid-race and suffer a concussion that affected the rest of that season. She then didn’t race in 2023 until August before changing teams for 2024. That paid off instantly with a win on Willunga Hill and the GC victory at the Tour Down Under – a massive return to where all of Sarah’s fans knew she should be if she only had a bit of good fortune. 7th in GC at the Tour de France Femmes also meant the Aussie delivered at the highest levels too, hopefully giving her a chance to build up stronger in 2025 too.
Photo Credit: Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesRuth Edwards
Ruth Edwards retired at the end of the 2021 season, one where she took wins at Brabantse Pijl and the Tour de l’Ardeche, 2nd places at Navarra and San Sebastian and generally still looked well on top of her game. Similar to Grace Brown this season, the lure of home on another continent, family and a better balance would see her step away from road racing in Europe to race gravel instead back home in the US. A couple of years later in 2024, refreshed from the travel demands, Edwards made a return for Human Powered Health. She pretty much picked up where she left off. A GC win in the Thüringen Ladies Tour was slightly aided by a train stopping the peloton but was impressive how she closed it out. Her 4th at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race back in January set the tone for the season and the American never looked back.
Kim Le Court
At the start of the season, you needed a long memory for the last time Kim Le Court was a fixture in the European peloton. Back in 2016 she was signed up to Bizkaia Durango with Mavi Garcia but didn’t do too much in the races that season. She would still turn up high in the UCI rankings in those intervening years thanks to the Mauritius Nat Champs and the African Conti Champs. She started to set a couple of MTB results in 2023 before AG Insurance-Soudal decided to give her a go on the road in 2024. She put in some big pulls to guide Sarah Gigante to the GC win at the Tour Down Under despite the windy conditions, then took her first top-10 WWT result at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. She built on that with a consistent spring which included 9th at Brugge-De Panne and 10th at Paris Roubaix before moving up another gear. 4th in GC at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya showed that she could climb well before the top result of the season where she won the final stage of the Giro d’Italia Women. It was a full circle moment for the Mauritian, who had DNFed that race on Stage 2 in 2016.
Letizia Paternoster
I can remember standing at the top of the Kemmelberg during the 2019 Gent Wevelgem, watching on the big screen as the women’s race finished miles away in Wevelgem. On that day, Kirsten Wild beat her young challenger Lorena Wiebes but on the 3rd step on the podium was Letizia Paternoster having her first breakthrough WWT result. The rest of that season was strong too before the 2020 & 2021 seasons were devoted almost entirely to the Olympics. By the 2022 season, she’d been pushed down the order with Elisa Balsamo the big team leader in that spot. Paternoster changed teams in 2023 and you could just start to see the promise of that 2019 season just starting to come out again, albeit with a packed team of sprinters. That’s why it was fun to see her back to her best, finally, in 2024. A good classics campaign saw her 3rd in Dwars door Vlaanderen, 4th at Ronde van Drenthe and 9th in the Tour of Flanders. Then the British races moved her up a level – just, just missing out on a maiden WWT win in Llandudno by the thinnest of margins – and really starting to knock on the door again. She took her first win in 5 years at the Tour de Gatineau, rounding off a great comeback year.
Photo Credit: GettyNeve Bradbury
Another rider who had a breakthrough only to drip a bit when trying to follow that up. Bradbury started to come to the fore in her 2nd season at Canyon SRAM in 2022, winning the youth jersey at the Tour of Scandinavia on her way to 5th overall there with a strong climb up Norefjell. She was 2nd in the youth jersey at the Giro Donne too as a young climbing talent looked in the offing. 2023 was more of a struggle though, outside of a 7th in GC at the Thüringen Ladies Tour and 5th at the infamous Tour des Pyrénées, there wasn’t too much to call on results-wise. Fast forward to 2024 and Bradbury moved on a whole bunch. 3rd in the Tour Down Under and 2nd on Jebel Hafeet behind Kopecky was a great start to the season and her next form peak would see the Aussie take her first WWT wins at the Tour de Suisse and Giro d’Italia Women on her way to 2nd and then 3rd in GC at those races. The Giro stage win on Blockhaus was particularly impressive as she rode the likes of Kopecky and Longo Borghini off her wheel on the queen stage of the race.
Ellen van Dijk
This one is obvious. Ellen van Dijk sat out the 2023 season on maternity leave before joining back up with Lidl-Trek for 2024. It wasn’t a perfect return, with lower than hoped-for results at the Olympics and Worlds time trials but there were more than enough results to suggest that Van Dijk isn’t too far away from her best again. Wins at the time trials at Omloop van Borsele, Tour de Normandie and Vuelta Extremadura put her back in the conversation against the clock, along with good GC results at Normandie (3rd), the Simac Ladies Tour (5th), Vuelta Extremadura (6th). 6th at this year’s Paris Roubaix Femmes will also quietly have been pleasing for the Dutch rider, picking up a small improvement on her 2022 result in northern France.
Ingvild Gåskjenn
Gåskjenn has been around for a lot longer than you sometimes realise, often in the shadow of Susanne Andersen early on in her career, that balance has now shifted. A great 2022 season at Coop-Hitec Products wasn’t quite matched up with her first season at a WWT team in 2023. Those consistent top-10 finishes on the smaller team weren’t replicated once she had to perform more of an assist to the fast finishers on Jacyo-AlUla. The Norwegian was able to carve out a bigger role this season, excelling in sprints at the end of lumpy stages and naturally there was that 3rd place at Amstel Gold Race. Her expression upon finding out she’d made the podium was one of the pictures of the season, with other big results at the Vuelta Femenina and the European Championships too. She’s moving to Uno-X for 2025 and will be looking to push to another level again.
Pauliena Rooijakkers
2024 was a storming return to form for Pauliena Rooijakkers as she made the most of more opportunities on her new team – Fenix-Deceuninck. She’d been building up throughout 2022, her then-career year which included a first win for 5 years at Durango-Durango during an impressive Spain month. So it was a surprise then when it just didn’t click or push on at all in 2023 as she regressed a bit in terms of results. In 2024, the stall was set early with 6th on Jabeel Hafeet and 6th on the Mur de Huy too. A consistent Vuelta Femenina saw her take 9th in GC but everything was building up for the other major tours in women’s cycling. 4th at the Giro and 3rd at the Tour were great results, with a 2nd on Alpe d’Huez almost hanging onto Demi Vollering along the way. She’s set a new level in 2024 that she can hopefully match again next season.
Main photo credit: Getty
