The 10 most dramatic moments in pro cycling in 2023

Primoz Roglic during the stage 20 time trial of the 2023 Giro d'Italia and Alison Jackson sprinting to victory at Paris-Roubaix Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)

There was scarcely a dull moment. From January to October, from the Tour Down Under to the Tour of Guangxi, it was another breathless road season, with just about every race throwing up drama and discussion.

Even though there are some dominant forces in the men’s and women’s pelotons – riders like Demi Vollering, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar and Lotte Kopecky – there were still upsets and surprises aplenty across the campaign.

Her attack over the Cauberg that led to a solo victory at Amstel Gold Race set the tone for her season at the Ardennes Classics. If that wasn't entertaining enough, her performance on the Mur de Huy, where she led the climb from bottom to top to secure the victory at Flèche Wallonne, was remarkable. Those two victories set the scene for a nail-biting finale at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where she out-sprinted Elisa Longo Borghini to take the win and complete the Ardennes triple.

Mathieu van der Poel’s perfect Milan-San Remo victory

All three of those victories could easily have made this list. Van der Poel, it seems, is incapable of winning without a flourish. In Roubaix, he jousted with his eternal rival Wout van Aert until a late puncture doomed the Belgian. In Glasgow, Van der Poel overcame a late crash to solo emphatically to the rainbow jersey. His white-knuckle win at Milan-San Remo, however, may well have been the masterpiece.

Filippo Ganna was immediately onto Pogačar’s wheel, while Van Aert laboured to close the gap as Van der Poel sat patiently in his slipstream. As the four leaders approached the summit, the television helicopter had briefly switched its attention to the chasers. By the time the camera panned back to the front a few seconds later, Van der Poel had already burst past his rivals with a searing acceleration.

At Milan-San Remo, Van der Poel understood that he only needed to strike once and make it count. That late turn of pace on the Poggio made all the difference. He had a lead of ten bike lengths by the summit, and a man of his bike handling gifts would never squander that buffer on the drop to the Via Roma, even if La Primavera, as ever, was gripping to the last, as Ganna made a ferocious, lone effort to chase Van der Poel.

Most will agree that her most impressive block of racing was at the Tour de France Femmes, where she won the opening stage, wore the yellow jersey for six days, climbed with the best to the summit of the Col du Tourmalet, and then stormed to third place in the time trial in Pau. She closed out the eight-day race by winning the green points jersey and taking second overall behind her SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering.

She told the press after this victory that savoured this victory that was based on both tactics and strength. As for the ever-growing numbers of Belgian fans dedicated to her success, Kopecky said, "I can feel that I am getting more and more popular in Belgium. But last year with the Tour de France, it already went a little bit crazy. After this weekend, we will see when I get home; I think I will barricade my door."

Yet the Slovenian still had new worlds left to conquer this Spring. After contriving to finish fourth in a two-man sprint at the 2022 Tour of Flanders, Pogačar returned to the Ronde eager to make amends on the cobbles. He warmed up for the race with third place in a high-octane edition of E3 Harelbeke, and he set out from Bruges confident that the Monument distance might tilt matters in his favour against Van der Poel and Van Aert.

Van Aert would wilt on the Kruisberg, leaving Pogačar and Van der Poel to duel in the finale. Pogačar delivered the critical blow on the final time up the Kwaremont, dropping Van der Poel and then blasting past Mads Pedersen, the last man standing from the break. Van der Poel stalked him gamely all the way to Oudenaarde, but he knew he was racing for second place behind Pogačar, who became only the third man to win both the Ronde and the Tour de France.

Pogačar enjoyed another season for the ages despite breaking his wrist at Il Lombardia, annexing Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold Race, Paris-Nice and Il Lombardia, but nothing quite matched the drama of his Tour of Flanders exhibition, arguably the finest of his career to date. “I can say that I can retire after today and I can be proud of my career,” Pogačar said afterwards. “I can be super happy and proud.”

When Roglič came through the second intermediate check with 16 seconds in hand on Thomas, it looked as though he was steadily inching towards the Giro, but it was never going to be as serene and as simple as all that. 2.5km or so from the summit, Roglič was suddenly standing in the middle of the road grappling with a dropped chain, and for a moment, it looked as though he was about to lose the race in the cruellest of circumstances. It also raised questions about Jumbo-Visma’s decision to equip him with a 1x chainset.

The final season of Annemiek van Vleuten's career was well underway, and the rider who had seemed to have the Midas touch in 2022 was heading into May without a single visit to the top step of the podium. By the same time last season she already had 4 but this year there was no riding away on the Queen stage of Setmana Valenciana, the spring Classics didn't deliver and there were no podium appearances in the Ardennes. In the meantime Demi Vollering and a powerful SD Worx team had been on a winning streak and it felt like the changing of the guard that was expected to come one Van Vleuten retired may have rolled through early.

Though Van Vleuten has made clear time and time again through her career, she is one rider you should never count out. She lined up for La Vuelta Femenina, which she had won the past two years, to see if she could bat off the increasingly effective salvos of a new generation. Once she hit her preferred terrain, the mountains, it became clear she would again have a battle on her hands as Vollering crossed the line first on the initial summit finish on stage 5, with the Movistar rider just behind. However, stage 6 turned things around, unexpectedly for Vollering, as an ill-timed nature break and crosswinds left her caught behind in a split and put Van Vleuten in the red leader's jersey once again. There was, however still the gripping summit finale at Lagos de Covadonga left to unfold.

It wasn’t long into the 12.5km finishing climb before a clearly fired up Vollering, who started the day with a 1:11 deficit to Van Vleuten on the overall standings, rode to the front and with over 9km to climb it looked like Van Vleuten was already done, trailing off the back of the small group of riders who had clung to the SD Worx rider's wheel. But this was just Van Vleuten's first fight back of the day. She crossed the gap and joined Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez) and Vollering then at just under 6km to go it was clear that the rider in red was again battling to hold onto her rivals. Finally she had to concede that Realini and Vollering were going to disappear into the low cloud and fight it out for the stage victory, but that didn't mean Van Vleuten was going to give up on the overall.

Pushing the exhaustion aside Van Vleuten got out of the saddle and sprinted through the final corners to cling onto her overall lead by nine seconds. That gave her a third La Vuelta a Feminina overall victory and her first win of the season plus from that point it was clear that Van Vleuten would not be content to go out with a whimper instead of a bang. Van Vleuten went on to claim a fourth Giro d'Italia Donne title, in commanding style, holding onto the maglia rosa from the first stage to the last and then deliver another GC victory at the Tour of Scandinavia before wrapping up her phenomenal career.

Instead, the small margins developed into a chasm in the space of two days. Vingegaard effectively won the Tour when he put a startling 1:38 into Pogačar in just 22.4km during the Combloux time trial on stage 15. That crushing, astonishing display was Vingegaard’s keynote performance of the Tour, but while it divested the race of its tension, the moment of greatest drama was still to follow the next day on the Col de la Loze.

Pogačar’s extravagant gifts and sense of adventure meant that Jumbo-Visma were braced for an all-out assault from the two-time winner on the Col de Loze. Instead, the highest point of the Tour proved to be Pogačar’s nadir. 8km from the summit, the UAE Team Emirates radio crackled into life with Pogačar’s admission of defeat. “I’m gone, I’m dead,” Pogačar said as he lost contact with the yellow jersey group.

Neo-pro Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) started the roll in spectacular style on a nail biting fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia Donne. Taking off with 24km to the line on the penultimate classified climb of the day, the 20-year-old rider didn't hesitate once she managed to pull out the gap and started the final climb with a one minute gap on the group of favourites. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Annemiek van Vleuten broke away in pursuit, the gap narrowing to just 11 seconds at the top, with still nearly ten kilometres and a technical descent to go. Niedermaier may have had two formidable, seasoned rivals in pursuit but held her nerve, steadily working her way toward the line down the switchbacks and maintaining the slim gap.

Van Vleuten, however, faltered going off into the rough road edge and shedding a few seconds, then Longo Borghini crashed while Niedermaier held firm out the front with the gap little more than ten seconds with five kilometres to go and one of the world's best in the time trial in pursuit. Given Van Vleuten's history, it seemed just a matter of time until the catch was made, but there was no waving the white flag for Niedermaier, and the maglia rosa clad Van Vleuten had to settle for second, crossing the line nine seconds after the young German claimed her first Women's WorldTour victory.

Onto the Tour de France Femmes, with its field laden with top riders in top form, and the neo-pros still didn't fade into the background. The first to strike was Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), with the rider who had made her name in cyclocross setting out in the break on the longest stage of the race, stage 4. Once she hit the final climb the 26-year-old road convert rode away. While most of her break companions were quickly swept up as the race favourites wound up the pace, Kastelijn swept across the line in Rodez with a 1:11 second gap to second-placed Demi Vollering and into the arms of her mother as a flood of emotion engulfed the pair. Kastelijn, after all, had just taken her very first professional win on the road on the biggest stage cycling has to offer.

That, however, wasn't the end of the neo-pro success in France. The 23-year-old Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM) had already marked herself out as a formidable new introduction to the Women's WorldTour peloton at La Vuelta Femenina by making it onto the podium on stage 5 but she took it to a whole new level on the stage 5 of the French race when she became the youngest Tour de France Femmes stage winner. Bauernfeind leapt away solo to take the time bonus sprint at 36.4km to go and just kept rolling on, digging deep to hold a gap even in the face of a pursuit by the formidable duo of Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) and Liane Lippert (Movistar). The rider, who found her way onto Canyon-SRAM's development team in 2022 via the Zwift Academy, kept the power down through the line to finish 22 seconds ahead of the chasing duo with a look of disbelief on her face.

In many ways, the Vuelta a España ended as a contest on stage 13 to the Col du Tourmalet, with more than a week still to race. Up to that point, Remco Evenepoel had stayed resolutely in the game, but when the Belgian cracked and conceded almost half an hour, the destiny of the maillot rojo was effectively reduced to an internal squabble between Jumbo-Visma’s triumvirate of Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglič.

Kuss won at Javalambre in the opening week and then moved into red two days later, but despite his lofty position in the standings, the American appeared to be only third in the Jumbo-Visma hierarchy behind Vinegaard and Roglič. That status began to change when he limited his losses well in the Valladolid time trial to retain red, and the complexion of the race altered entirely after the Tourmalet. All of a sudden, Jumbo-Visma no longer had a pressing external rival, while Kuss was 1:37 clear of his teammates.

Some were adamant that Roglič and Vingegaard now had a duty to ride in support of Kuss, who had played such a key role in their respective wins at the Giro and Tour. Others maintained that there could be no such gifts at a Grand Tour and that the Jumbo-Visma trio should race it out among themselves. In the event, Jumbo-Visma contrived to upset just about everybody by committing neither to one approach nor the other.

Vingegaard seemed to signal his personal intentions on stage 16 by attacking at Bejes to slash Kuss’ overall lead to 29 seconds, but the highest drama of the race would come a day later on the Angliru, when it was Roglič’s turn to up the ante with his show of force on the upper slopes. 2km from the summit, only Vingegaard and Kuss remained on his wheel, but the American was betraying signs of suffering.

When the red jersey was distanced soon afterwards, his Jumbo-Visma teammates opted not to wait for him. Roglič kept going all the way to the finish with Vingegaard tucked on his wheel. The Slovenian claimed the stage honours and Vingegaard came within eight seconds of taking red, denied only by Kuss’ late scramble on the short drop towards the line. Shades of Froome and Wiggins, if not quite Roche and Visentini. Either way, nothing creates debate in cycling quite like internecine strife.

In the final days, however, Vingegaard and Roglič backed off, riding dutifully in support of Kuss as he completed Jumbo-Visma’s clean sweep of the season’s Grand Tours, a feat never previously achieved. After Roglič had departed for Bora-Hansgrohe at season’s end, Jumbo-Visma were happy to paint him as the fly in the ointment. “Seven riders agreed that [Kuss winning] must be the final result,” directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman told Wielerflits last month. “Primož had a more difficult time with this, but he agreed to it. That was also because his teammates indicated it so forcefully.”

Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.