The last World Tour Race is finished and the 2024 season is officially over now. So it’s time to look back and reflect on it. Let’s start with some facts: I had 52 race days in 8 different countries (Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Great Britain) including 6 stage races and 21 one day races. I competed in 4 TTs and two TTTs (Mixed Relay) and made it into the break of the day in 6 races. It was so far my season with the most race days. In 2022 I only had one race day less, but nevertheless I ended the season a lot “fresher” this year compared to 2022.
This year was a special year in many ways. I started my season early with racing in Australia. It was fun and I think racing Australia is good if you have some solid winter training beforehand. It’s nice to race early if you’ve gained some solid shape early in the winter.
My classics season wasn’t bad, but nothing outstanding personally. I stayed healthy, didn’t crash and had a good balance of racing and recovering. This allowed me to come fresh and motivated into a big block of training. I thought having such a big gap without racing wouldn’t be great since I love racing, but in the end, it worked well for me. The race program is sometimes hard to influence, but I would really try to have clear blocks of racing and training again next year.
One of my highlights was for sure taking the German national title. It was a dream that came true and at the same time it made a second dream turn into reality: getting selected for the Olympic Games. But before the Olympics I raced the Giro d’Italia. My highlight was the last stage, which was a quite hard day with over 2300m of elevation. I didn’t expect to survive all the climbing, but I surprised myself and was able to hang on. I managed to get into the winning breakaway of 3 riders after the main climbs. In then end, I “only” took 3rd, but nevertheless I am personally really proud of this race. It showed me that you should never stop believing.
The Olympics were an amazing experience. The race didn’t turn out as I hoped, but being part of the Olympic Games was a special experience and something I will never forget. After the Games, there wasn’t much time to breathe. Already a week later it was time for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Have a look to my last blog if you want to read more about the Tour, but in short: I was really proud being part of taking yellow and winning a second stage in yellow with Charlotte Kool. But also finishing the Tour was, for me personally, a great result. I OTL in my first Tour de France and seeing now that I didn’t have to fight against the time cut was a very nice experience.
It’s already a long list with highlights, but the year ended on a pretty good note as well. I was selected again for the Mixed Team Relay for the European and World Championships. We won silver in both races. But at Worlds it was bittersweet, as we lost gold by only 0.8 seconds.
After winning the National title, and being at the Olympics, two Grand Tours and European and World Championships, my season was already quite big and personally I was really happy with how I raced this season. But it wasn’t over yet. My last race was the Simac Ladies Tour and I got the chance to ride for the GC. I put in a solid time trial and on stage 3 I managed to take the GC lead due to a breakaway. It was my very first time wearing a GC leader’s jersey and it was the first time the team was riding for me. I really appreciated the trust my teammates gave me and all the work they did for me. I lost the jersey on the last stage by only 2 seconds against Kopecky, but I am proud that I was in a position to fight for the win. And finishing my season with a second place in a World Tour GC is also something amazing.
It’s been a long season, but it was full of fun and new experiences. I made some progress this year and that already gets me dreaming ahead for the next season. But before it’s time to get back to work, I’ll be enjoying a few weeks of holiday and some time off the bike.
I hope you enjoyed my review of 2024, and see you on the road again next year!
Franzi
