Road cycling: Jonas Vingegaard and Demi Vollering win Vélo d'Or awards as the best riders of 2023 - Complete list of winners
The winners of the prestigious prize were announced at a ceremony in Paris.
Cycling Road
Tour de France champions Jonas Vingegaard and Demi Vollering were honoured for their remarkable 2023 seasons with the Vélo d'Or "Golden Bicycle" award on Tuesday (24 October).
The prize is road cycling’s equivalent to football’s Ballon d'Or which recognises the best player over the previous year.
A second consecutive overall win at the Tour de France and a second place in the general classification at the Vuelta a España secured Vingegaard the award as the first Dane in history.
The Jumbo-Visma rider received 142 points in the vote, world champion Mathieu van der Poel 133 points, and two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar 126 points.
Vollering claimed the Tour de France Femmes, a second place overall in La Vuelta Femenina and earned a historic Ardennes classics hat-trick this year to become the second woman ever to win the award.
World champion Lotte Kopecky was runner-up with 139 points to Vollering's 171.
Last year, Tokyo 2020 Olympic time trial champion Annemiek Van Vleuten was the first-ever recipient of the Velo d’Or Femmes. She came third this time with 99 points.
The Vélo d'Or was created in 1992 by the French cycling magazine Vélo Magazine, and the winner is voted by an international jury of journalists.
Below you can find the full list of previous Vélo d'Or winners.
*Lance Armstrong has five Vélo d'Or awards between 1999-2004, but was stripped of all his seven consecutive Tour de France wins. The award has not been been given to the second-ranked rider.