2024 Men’s Pro Cycling Calendar

The 2024 men’s cycling calendar will be influenced by the Olympic Games, which will delay some races and lead to a high concentration of competitions in the last months of the year. In this article, we will analyse the main changes in the men’s cycling calendar, as well as the new races and others that will reappear on the calendar. You will also be able to download the calendar to consult it during the year.

The Calendar

In the image above, you can see the full calendar for the 2024 season, which starts on 17 January in Australia. We recommend downloading it in high resolution through the links below. We also provide links to download each quarter separately. You can print the calendars and check the cycling races each week on your bedroom wall – in fact we recommend that all cycling fans have this stuck to the wall in every room of their house.

High resolution images:

• Complete calendar
• Quarter 1
• Quarter 2
• Quarter 3

In summary, we will have a slightly longer calendar than last season, with four new races and seven races returning after a break. On the negative side, there are six races that will not take place in 2024.

New Races

• Ruta de la Cerámica – Gran Premio Castellón (1.1, 21/01).
• Classic Var (1.1, 16/02). Created by the same organisers as the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes (former Tour du Haut Var).
• Muur Classic Geraardsbergen (1.1, 28/08). Born last year as 1.2, but this year will be its first fully professional edition.
• Tour of Istanbul (2.1, 26/09 – 29/09). Born last year as 2.2, but this year will be its first fully professional edition.

Returning Races

• Surf Coast Classic (1.1, 25/01). Former Race Torquay, back after a 3 year break due to the pandemic – organised by Cadel Evans.
• Tour Colombia (2.1, 06/02 – 11/02), after being cancelled the last 3 years due to the pandemic.
• Tour de la Provence (2.1, 08/02 – 11/02), after being cancelled last year due to financial problems.
• Tour of Antalya (2.1, 08/02 – 11/02), after being cancelled in 2023 due to an earthquake.
• Giro della Romagna (1.1, 21/04). A race born in 1910, but discontinued in 2011.
• Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda (2.1, 10/07 – 12/07). Its last edition was in 2013.
• Trofeo Baracchi (1.1, 13/10). Mythical couples time trial, which disappeared in 1990. It was scheduled to return in 2023, but was cancelled due to logistical problems.

Races Disappearing

• La Tropicale Amissa Bongo (2.1), due to a coup d’état in Gabon.
• Vuelta a San Juan (2.Pro), due to political changes.
• Ronde van Drenthe (1.1), due to financial problems – the Women’s WorldTour race will continue.
• Mont Ventoux Challenge (1.Pro), due to organisational problems caused by the Olympic Games – it will return to the calendar in 2025.
• Per Sempre Alfredo (1.1) – unknown reasons.
• Tour of Hainan (2.Pro) – unknown reasons, maybe it is registered later in the UCI calendar.

Quarter 1

The first part of the season maintains a classic layout, albeit with several new races. The addition of the GP Castellón (1.1), linking up with the Valencia classic and the Challenge de Mallorca, completes a 9-day period in Spain with seven 1.1 classics being very attractive for UCI points.

In addition, the return of the Surf Coast Classic (1.1) will make the trip to Australia more profitable for the WorldTeams that choose to stay for another week after the conclusion of the Tour Down Under. Another smart move is that of the organisers of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes. In 2023, they had a three day stage race and for 2024 they have created the Classic Var (1.1), reducing the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes to 2 stages. This will distribute almost twice as many UCI points and will be more attractive for the teams participating.

On the other hand, the return of the Tour Colombia, the Tour de la Provence and the Tour of Antalya in the same week creates a saturation of six professional races at the same time, which will affect the participation and visibility of all of them. Surely, it would have been smarter to schedule the Tour Colombia and the Tour of Antalya in January, several weeks earlier, especially as many of the South American riders are already back home for the Christmas period and their teams may want them back in Europe by February.

Quarter 2

In the central part of the season, there are several changes caused by the Olympic Games in Paris, which will take place between the Tour de France and La Vuelta. In France, the Mont Ventoux Challenge will disappear, while the Route d’Occitanie will be reduced to two stages, due to logistical problems. Also, the Tour de l’Ain will have to take place during the Tour de France.

Breaking with tradition, the San Sebastián classic is postponed for two weeks and cannot be held on the Saturday following the Tour de France, when the Olympic Games time trial will be held. The Tour de Pologne is also postponed for two weeks and cannot be used as a preparation for the Vuelta a España. The Volta a Portugal is the only race that will overlap with the Olympic Games road race, so Mauricio Moreira may have to wait until the Los Angeles Games to win gold.

In fact, all races held between 26 July and 11 August (the dates of the Olympic Games) will see their media impact greatly reduced, as Eurosport and national broadcasters will focus entirely on Olympic coverage.

Quarter 3

In the final part of the season, the new dates of the Tour de Pologne lead to a postponement of the Hamburg Classic and the Quebec and Montréal Classics, which will overlap with the European Championships. After that, the World Championships return to their usual location in the last week of September.

Finally, in October, there are numerous Italian classics and races on the Asian calendar. For the Asian races, the end of the season is the best date to attract European teams, but it seems that they could organise their calendar better. For example, the Tour of Taihu Lake (2.Pro), the Tour of Kyushu (2.1) and the Hong Kong Cyclothon (1.1) coincide on 13 October. The different organisers should think about how they can work together to encourage European teams to stay in Asia for several weeks by linking races.

In short, both February and October are two of the months with the most saturation of races, so it is more and more important to start and finish the season in top form. Especially the teams most in need of UCI points should take advantage of these periods, which are not as important for teams like Jumbo or Ineos who may not attend, thus making it easier to achieve results.

The WorldTour licences to the races are distributed until 2025, so next year the calendar will follow a similar scheme. However, David Lappartient (UCI president) wants to propose changes for the 2026 season, with the main objective of avoiding overlaps in the WorldTour calendar. It is also one of the ideas of the One Cycling project, managed by some of the best WorldTeams. However, to avoid overlaps, it is inevitable that the number of WorldTour races would be reduced, as it is impossible to find a suitable fit for the current 35 WorldTour races, taking into account that Giro, Tour and Vuelta occupy four weekends each.