A look back at the season's best from CANYON//SRAM Racing, Movistar and Fenix-Deceuninck during 2024
This season was an emphatic year for the Canyon athletes in the women’s WorldTour with Movistar Team, Fenix-Deceuninck and CANYON//SRAM Racing all enjoying dazzling success.
All three women’s WorldTour squads demonstrated their competitive edge with Kasia Niewiadoma becoming the second rider in three years to win the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift aboard Canyon, while the Polish all-star also captured her first Ardennes Classic since 2019, with victory in La Flèche Wallonne Féminine.
There were also breakout victories all across the board, whether it was Tour white jersey winner Puck Pieterse taking a dramatic stage into Liège or Cat Ferguson riding to victory in two of her first races in Movistar colours to bookend her double UCI World Championships titles.
And it wasn’t just about the winners. Behind every victory was a dedicated roll-call of teammates, from Chloe Dygert’s lung-busting effort to set up Niewiadoma on the road to Amnéville at the Tour, to the support that helped Pauliena Rooijakkers pick up top tens in all three Grand Tours, including third at the Tour.
The first win on the road for one of Canyon’s athletes came via Neve Bradbury with the youngster becoming the Australian U23 National Road Race champion at the start of January.
From that moment, the touchpaper had been lit and it wasn’t long before Paula Patiño became the elite national road race championship in Colombia.
Olivia Baril picked up the first win in Europe just a day later with victory in the Women Cycling Pro Costa De Almería in Spain, and from there, Canyon athletes never looked back.
March got off to a flyer with Mareille Meijering winning a stage and the overall of the Vuelta Extremadura Féminas but the Spring Classics provided one of the most memorable and emotional victories of the entire campaign when Kasia Niewiadoma burst off Demi Vollering’s wheel with 200m to go to take a thrilling victory at La Flèche Wallonne Féminine.
Playing a vital role in Niewiadoma’s success that day was teammate Neve Bradbury and the pair linked up again in June at the Tour de Suisse Women to create one of the most iconic moments of the season.
On stage 3 of the race, Bradbury went on the attack with over 100km to go before Niewiadoma joined the move and both riders dropped the remnants of the break ahead of the finish line in Champagne. The victory was Bradbury’s first pro victory and the winning feeling stayed with her right through until the Giro d’Italia, where she took her maiden Grand Tour stage and finished on the podium courtesy of a valiant third place overall and her stunning victory on the Queen stage.
The centrepiece of the women’s road season came in August with the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes. A pulsating race from start to finish saw several stellar performances, from Puck Pieterse (below) taking a phenomenal win on stage 4 to Pauliena Rooijakkers’ rock-steady third place overall thanks to her consistency in the mountains.
However, it was Kasia Niewiadoma who put in the performance of a lifetime, with the Pole moving into the race lead on stage 5 before fending off repeated attacks from Demi Vollering through the mountains.
The race came down to a mouthwatering final battle on the slopes of the legendary Alpe d'Huez with Niewiadoma pacing herself perfectly up the climb and holding a resurgent Vollering at bay after the Dutch rider had attacked on the penultimate climb.
Niewiadoma dug deeper than ever before on Alpe d'Huez, holding Vollering to around a minute before putting in one final surge to keep her grip on the yellow jersey by just four seconds over Vollering in what was the closest-ever finish to a Grand Tour. Mobbed by ecstatic teammates at the finish, Niewiadoma was full of praise for those who had supported her.
Niewiadoma’s 2024 win meant that Canyon are two from three following Annemiek van Vleuten’s treble-winning Grand Tour season for Movistar in 2022.
At the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, Canyon were in the medals yet again in both the time trial and road race. Antonia Niedermaier continued her fine season with the U23 world time trial title after finishing fourth in the elite race on her Speedmax TT, while Julie De Wilde claimed a well-deserved bronze in the same event.
Even greater success followed in the corresponding U23 women’s race with Canyon riders taking all three spots on the podium with Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), Neve Bradbury (Australia) and Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) taking the medals. The result meant that Canyon picked up five of the six available medals in the U23 women’s titles.
In the elite women’s time trial, American Chloe Dygert picked up a well-deserved silver medal in the women’s road race and a bronze in the time trial. The medals added to her tally from the Olympics where she won a gold in the team pursuit and a bronze in the women’s road time trial for Team USA.
As autumn drew closer, the final few races of the season came into view, and the new generation of riders kept the success rolling in. Twenty-year-old Zoe Bäckstedt took her maiden pro win on stage 1 of the Ladies Simac Tour thanks to a faultless performance in the opening time trial and she would go on to seal the best young rider’s competition by the end of the race and finish third overall.
Eighteen year old Cat Ferguson, who only joined Movistar as a stagiaire on August 1, picked up her first victory for the team in just a matter of weeks with a stage win on the AG Tour de la Semois, before following that up with a second win at Binche Chimay Binche pour Dames.
In total, Canyon-backed female athletes won 32 races on the road in 2024. Whether it was Niewiadoma’s heart-stopping Tour win, Pieterse’s breakthrough or Lippert’s comeback at the Giro, there were many standout moments throughout the campaign. It all started with hope and ended with dreams coming true. Roll on 2025.
About Canyon
Canyon is one of the most innovative bike brands in the world. The concept began in founder Roman Arnold’s garage and grew to be the world’s largest direct-to-customer manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, triathlon bikes, gravel bikes, hybrid bikes, and electric bikes.
Canyon have earned their glowing reputation for innovation through consistently using advanced materials, thinking, and technology. The iconic Canyon design is easy to identify. Alongside being boldly competitive and ever-expanding, they are committed to making the global cycling community accessible for every rider.
While Canyon partners with some of the finest athletes on the planet, their mission, ‘Inspire to Ride’, highlights how they work to promote the power of cycling to everyone.
Canyon products are exclusively available online at www.canyon.com or via the Canyon app.
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