It's not long now until we announce the winners of Cycling Plus Rider of the Year 2024, sponsored by Lezyne, at our exclusive awards ceremony in Bristol.
The stellar cyclists, unsung heroes, activists and adventurers you nominated are all worthy of mighty acclaim and our panel faced an unenviable task in narrowing them down to a shortlist of 15.
Our Rider of the Year and Newcomer of the Year categories are both settled by your voting, while the expert panel has decided on the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
While we can't reveal the winners yet, here's a look at the awesome individuals who made our shortlist.
The category nominees
Rider of the Year 2024
- Siraj Balubaid: Bikes for Refugees
- Andrew Feather: 2023 hill climb champion
- Cess Holden: Chase the Sun finisher
- Jaco van Gass: paracycling track star
- Lael Wilcox: around the world cyclist
Newcomer of the Year 2024
- Daisy Barnes: Fred Whitton champion
- Cat Ferguson: cyclocross star
- Illi Gardner: 2023 hill climb champion
- Emma Finucane: 3x Olympic medallist
- Finlay Tarling: rising time-trial force
Lifetime Achievement Award
- Rob Brown: Dalby Forest Cycle Hub
- Maurice Burton: pioneering pro cyclist
- Mark Cavendish: Tour de France legend
- Phil Jones: Brother UK
- Joscelin Ryan: Rayner Foundation
Rider of the Year 2024
We were looking for the cyclist who has made the most significant impact in 2024. This can be through competing at an amateur or semi-pro level, taking part in an event or adventure, leading a group or another contribution to the sport of cycling.
Siraj Balubaid
Siraj Balubaid is a Yemeni refugee, bike mechanic, ride leader and bike library coordinator at the Govan Community Project in Glasgow.
He lives in Glasgow and has been involved with Bikes for Refugees for three years.
Andrew Feather
Bath solicitor Andrew Feather is a four-time National Hill Climb champion and won the title again on the infamous Struggle ascent in the Lake District in October 2023.
He became the first rider to win the championships using disc brakes, on a sub-6kg Cannondale SuperSix.
Cess Holden
Cess Holden completed Chase the Sun Ireland event in June, riding 210 miles in a day on a recumbent tricycle with two broken wrists after a serious accident.
Cess already had a successful Chase the Sun finish to her name in 2023, but didn’t let her significant injuries give her an excuse to step down from tackling the coast-to-coast challenge in 2024, whatever it took…
Jaco van Gass
Jaco van Gass MBE is a South Africa-born cyclist who competes in para-cycling track events for Great Britain.
He won the Omnium C3 at the 2024 Para-Cycling Track World Championships and two gold medals at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris in the Individual Pursuit C3 and Mixed Team Sprint C1. And all this after being hit by a car in the build-up to the Paralympics.
Lael Wilcox
Lael Wilcox is an ultra-endurance rider who became the fastest woman to cycle around the world in 2024, covering 18,125 miles in 108 days on a custom Specialized Roubaix SL8.
Wilcox has previously won the Trans Am Bike Race in 2016 and set the Tour Divide’s women’s course record on an individual time trial in 2015. When she's not busy breaking records, she works hard to get more women riding.
Newcomer of the Year 2024
The winner of the category doesn't necessarily need to be young or new to the sport, but they will have done something special in late 2023 or during the 2024 season that deserves recognition by the wider cycling world.
Cat Ferguson
Cat, 18, rides for Hope Tech Factory Racing and is the 2024 World Junior champion on the track for the team pursuit and omnium.
She also won the junior national title at the British National Cyclo-cross Championships in 2024 and scored silver at the 2024 UCI CX World Championships in both the women’s junior race and the team relay.
Emma Finucane
Emma is a Welsh track cyclist. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she became the first British woman to win three medals in a single Games since Mary Rand in 1964.
She also won gold at the European Track Championships in 2024 in the Sprint category and scored 2023 World Championship gold for the Sprint in Glasgow.
Daisy Barnes
Daisy rides for the Alba Development Road Team and won the Fred Whitton Challenge in 2024.
The 24-year-old’s finishing time for the brutal 112-mile sportive was 6:47:54, some 20 minutes ahead of her nearest rival.
Finlay Tarling
In 2024, 17-year-old Finlay took home gold from the 2024 British National Track Championships in the Team Pursuit, and junior open gold at the Youth & Junior Track Championships in the Open Madison.
He also broke the record at the Ross-On-Wye & District CC TT with a 46:14min time for 25 miles.
The young rider from Ffosyffin in west Wales has signed a two-year deal with Israel–Premier Tech Academy.
Illi Gardner
Illi Gardner proved she’s definitely one to watch in 2024, successfully defending her British National Hill Climb Championship title.
She also won the first edition of the Championnats d’Europe des Grimpeurs in Switzerland in 2023, on the legendary 12,780m climb from Airolo to the 2,091m Gotthard Pass.
