The winners and losers of the season so far – GCN Racing Show

With the Classics and the first part of the season done and dusted, and the Giro d’Italia right around the corner, this week feels like a good time to look back on the year so far, and think about how the spring has gone for the various teams and riders in the professional peloton.

In this week’s show, Dan Lloyd picks out his winners and losers of 2024 so far. However, it’s about a lot more than literal winning and losing. Which teams are over-performing, punching above their weight? And who is not quite meeting expectations?

That said, looking at the ranking of wins is a pretty good place to start, and it’s no surprise to see UAE Team Emirates topping the list on the men’s side, by a pretty hefty margin – 30 wins to Visma-Lease a Bike’s 18 in second place – and already better than they were doing at this point last year.

Another team who are outperforming their 2023 stats is Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, who have already surpassed their total win tally from last year, and it’s only April.

Read more: Eyes on the Giro d’Italia podium for Ben O’Connor: ‘It is a race that really suits me’

Just one team is languishing at the bottom of the table with zero wins, with every other WorldTour squad racking up at least four wins so far this year. Can you guess who it is? If not, watch the video to find out.

On the women’s side, despite some much closer racing than in 2023, SD Worx-Protime still top the current win rankings, thanks to their early-season victories in the UAE Tour and some key wins in the Classics, including Paris-Roubaix.

SD Worx are on 14 wins, and Lidl-Trek are just a handful behind on 10, so very much a closeable gap. Like on the men’s side, only one WorldTour team is yet to record a win this season, and that’s Fenix-Deceuninck, though Puck Pieterse’s heroics in the Classics must count for something.

A team who are really outdoing what was expected of them is the new EF Education-Cannondale team. They’re not a WorldTour team this season, due to this being their first year, but their eight wins so far puts them behind only SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek in the rankings.

Read more: Fire and hearts: EF Education-Cannondale are going to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

With promotion and relegation coming round again at the end of 2025, Dan also gives us an update on what the points so far might mean for the next round of licence renewals.

As well as the season so far, Dan has a round-up from the Tour de Romandie, which was won by Ineos Grenadiers’ Carlos Rodríguez, and is a key marker ahead of the Giro d’Italia. Watch the video for more, and to find out which Bora-Hansgrohe rider caught Dan’s eye in Switzerland.

Elsewhere, the Vuelta Femenina got underway on Sunday with a team time trial, won by Lidl-Trek despite a crash, whilst Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) took victory on Monday’s opening road stage. The Festival Elsy Jacobs also took place over the weekend, with Marta Lach picking up victory in both races – a nice points haul for her Ceratizit-WNT team.

At the Tour of Turkey, it was something of a sprint fest with dsm-firmenich PostNL dominating things with five out of seven stage wins, plus the general classification with Frank van den Broek. It wasn’t the best week for Mark Cavendish, who failed to take a victory, but his teammate Max Kanter did notch up his first pro win.

The racing continues this week with the Vuelta Femenina taking place until Sunday, whilst the Giro d’Italia will kick off on Saturday. We’ll have in-depth coverage of both races here on the website, and tune back in on Wednesday for the big Giro preview show.

For all the latest news, results and insights from the men's and women's professional pelotons, visit the Racing news section of the GCN website.