Best Cycling Competitions in 2024

Keeping track of the cycling calendar has gotten complicated with all the new events and schedule changes flying around. As someone who has followed professional cycling obsessively for over a decade — and raced a fair number of amateur events myself — I learned everything there is to know about which competitions actually matter. Today, I will share it all with you.

2024 is stacked. Whether you’re a grand tour junkie or you live for the chaos of the cobbled classics, there’s something on this calendar that will grab you. Here’s my breakdown of the races you absolutely need to watch this year.

Tour de France

Kicking off June 29, the Tour is still the big one. Three weeks, roughly 3,500 kilometers, and the kind of drama that makes soap operas look boring. The route shifts every year, but you can always count on brutal mountain stages, tense time trials, and weather that refuses to cooperate.

I remember watching the 2019 edition during a rest day on my own cycling trip through Provence. Seeing the peloton fly past on a training ride the next day was surreal. The Tour isn’t just a race — it’s an experience that takes over the entire country. If you only watch one cycling event all year, this is the obvious choice. But honestly, you’d be selling yourself short if you stopped here.

Giro d’Italia

The Giro starts May 4 and it’s the race I personally get most excited about. Italy just does cycling differently. The Dolomite climbs are absolutely savage, and the Amalfi Coast stages look like something out of a postcard. Three weeks of racing through arguably the most beautiful country in Europe.

Probably should have led with this section, honestly. The Giro often produces the most exciting racing of the three grand tours because the classification riders seem more willing to attack early. The starting location changes every year, which keeps things fresh. And Italian fans? They’re on another level.

Vuelta a Espana

Starting August 24, the Vuelta closes out the grand tour season. Spain’s tour is a beast — steep climbs, scorching heat, and stages that feel designed specifically to break riders. The Angliru and Covadonga ascents are the stuff of nightmares for anyone who has ever tried to ride up something truly steep.

What I love about the Vuelta is that it tends to be more unpredictable than the Tour or Giro. Riders arrive with varying levels of fatigue depending on their earlier season, and the race has a knack for producing surprise winners. The late-summer timing also means it flies under the radar for casual fans, which is a shame because the racing is consistently excellent.

Paris-Roubaix

April 7. The Hell of the North. If you’ve never watched Paris-Roubaix, you’re missing out on the gnarliest single-day race in the sport. Those cobblestone sections are absolutely punishing. Bikes break. Riders crash. It rains and everything turns to mud. It’s glorious.

I once rode a few of the Paris-Roubaix cobble sectors on a trip through northern France. My fillings almost rattled loose after 30 minutes. The pros do this for 250+ kilometers. The race is a masterclass in suffering and it never disappoints.

Amgen Tour of California

Coming back in May, this is the biggest race on American soil. California’s geography is perfect for stage racing — coastal roads, scorching valley heat, mountain passes that rival anything in Europe. The week-long race attracts serious international talent and has launched more than a few careers.

If you’re based in the US and want to see world-class racing without a transatlantic flight, this is your event. The sprint stages along the coast and the mountaintop finishes inland offer a nice variety.

Tour Down Under

January’s Tour Down Under in Adelaide kicks off the whole pro season. Six days of racing in the Southern Hemisphere summer while the rest of us are freezing. The stages are a mix of flat and hilly, and it’s a great early indicator of who’s been putting in the off-season work.

That’s what makes the Tour Down Under endearing to us cycling fans — it scratches the itch after a long winter break when we’re all desperate for racing to start again.

Criterium du Dauphine

June 2 through 9, in southeastern France. This race is basically the final exam before the Tour de France. Lots of serious mountains, some time trial action, and nearly every Tour contender uses it as their last hard test. Watching who looks sharp here gives you a pretty decent preview of July.

Strade Bianche

March 2 on the white gravel roads of Tuscany. This one is relatively new to the calendar but it’s already one of my favorites. The sterrato sections — loose, dusty gravel roads winding through Tuscan hills — make for incredible racing and even better TV. Bike handling matters here as much as raw power.

The finish in Siena’s Piazza del Campo, up that brutal final ramp, is one of the most dramatic finishes in all of cycling. Short race, massive entertainment value.

Tour de Suisse

Nine days starting June 15 through Switzerland. Alpine passes, lakeside roads, time trials. Another race that doubles as Tour de France prep but is absolutely worth watching on its own merits. Swiss scenery on a bike is hard to beat.

Tour of Flanders

April 6. This Belgian classic is cobbles and short, steep climbs — the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg, names that send a shiver down any cyclist’s spine. The racing is aggressive, the fans are everywhere, and positioning through the narrow Flemish lanes is everything. Belgium basically shuts down to watch this race, and I completely understand why.

UCI Mountain Bike World Championships

September 4 through 8 for the off-road crowd. Downhill, cross-country, short track — the mountain bike worlds bring together the best dirt riders on the planet. The courses are always gnarly, and the racing is way more accessible to watch than people think. If you’ve never tuned into MTB racing, this is a great entry point.

La Fleche Wallonne

April 24 in Belgium. The entire race comes down to one climb: the Mur de Huy. Gradients north of 20%, less than two minutes of pure agony, and whoever has the most explosive legs at the top wins. It’s short, dramatic, and never boring.

Tour de Romandie

April 30 to May 5 in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Time trials, mountain stages, flat roads — this race has it all and serves as a solid form guide for the Giro d’Italia. It’s under the radar but the racing is consistently high quality.

Milan-San Remo

March 23. La Classicissima. The longest one-day race on the calendar at nearly 300 kilometers. Riders spend hours just getting to the business end of the race, and then the Cipressa and Poggio climbs blow things wide open. Usually finishes in a sprint, but the sheer length of the race means anything can happen. I love how it rewards patience and punishes anyone who goes too early.

L’Etape du Tour

This one’s for the rest of us. An amateur event in July that lets regular cyclists ride an actual Tour de France stage. People fly in from all over the world for this. The 2024 route should have some spectacular French countryside and mountain riding. If it’s on your bucket list, I’d say stop thinking about it and sign up already.

Tour of Utah

August 12 through 18. They call it America’s Toughest Stage Race and they’re not exaggerating. High altitude, steep climbs, and stunning landscapes across Utah. It’s gaining prestige every year and the course profiles are genuinely scary. Perfect if you want hard racing in a gorgeous setting.

Volta a Catalunya

March 25 through 31 in the Catalonia region of Spain. One of Europe’s oldest stage races, with a good mix of mountain and sprint stages. The 2024 edition should deliver tight general classification battles and some exciting finishes.

Paris-Nice

March 10 to 17. The Race to the Sun runs from Paris down to the French Riviera over eight days. It’s a perfect early-season stage race with a bit of everything — flat stages for the sprinters, mountains for the climbers, and a beautiful finish on the Cote d’Azur. Great way to kick off the European racing season in earnest.

Tour de Yorkshire

May 3 through 6 in northern England. Yorkshire’s rolling countryside makes for genuinely tough racing, and the local fans are incredibly passionate. The mix of sprint and hill stages keeps things interesting, and the region’s beauty speaks for itself. A race that punches well above its weight on the calendar.

That’s the 2024 lineup in a nutshell. Between the grand tours, the cobbled classics, the gravel racing, and the mountain bike worlds, there’s essentially something worth watching every single week from January to October. Grab your snacks, park yourself on the couch (or better yet, on your trainer), and enjoy the show.