The Vélo d’Or awards for 2024 will introduce a brand new prize honouring bike riders’ social dedication and named after the late Gino Mäder.
A gifted climber who died, aged 26, throughout the 2023 Tour de Suisse as the results of his accidents in a downhill crash, Mäder was a eager lifelong activist for humanitarian causes.
Mäder raised cash by way of his biking and racing for causes like Simply Diggit, the NGO working to regreen degraded landscapes by way of pure options. Within the 2021 Vuelta a España, Mäder raised 4,000 euros by donating 10 euros for each rider he beat on GC, whereas in 2022 he contributed 1 euro for each rider he beat on a stage.
This 12 months the Tour de Suisse additionally launched an award in Mäder’s identify, the #RideForGino Mountain Prize, given to the primary rider to cross the very best mountain of the race route.
The winner of the brand new award shall be introduced as a part of the Vélo d’Or awards ceremony on December 6 on the Pavillon Gabriel venue in Paris.
The Vélo d’Or prize-giving committee mentioned the brand new award “is in homage to Gino Mäder, the outstanding Swiss rider, whose profession was notable each for its sporting achievements, but in addition his dedication to social and atmosphere causes.”
The finalists for the opposite prizes on supply this 12 months within the 2024 Vélo d’Or have already been introduced, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates) a sizzling favorite to win the World Vélo d’Or males’s award.
Different finalists in that class embody Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty). Candidates for the equal womens’ prize embody Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez), Kirsten Faulkner (EF -Oatly-Cannondale) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime).
Final 12 months the World Vélo d’Or was gained by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime).
Different prizes on supply embody the Eddy Merckx Trophy for Finest Classics rider, the Bernard Hinault Trophy for Finest French male and and feminine riders, a trophy for the Finest French Para-Bicycle owner, and a trophy for the world’s greatest bicycle owner throughout all Olympic disciplines.
