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Cycling Weekly has opened its reader vote for the 2026 International Rider of the Year, with six riders shortlisted after standout seasons. Voting closes on Nov. 15, and the publication says it will announce the result in its Dec. 3 edition.
Cycling Weekly has opened its 2026 International Rider of the Year vote, asking readers to choose among six shortlisted cyclists whose seasons included major wins, championships and significant progress. The poll closes on Nov. 15, and the magazine says the winner will be revealed in its Dec. 3 edition.
The shortlist comprises Demi Vollering, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar, Marlen Reusser, Paul Seixas and Lorena Wiebes. Cycling Weekly’s report provides a season summary for each candidate and says the award is decided by readers voting in its poll. It does not publish a vote count or identify a current front-runner in the supplied material.
The publication’s case for the nominees considers more than total victories. It says some riders dominated, while others reached a new level or produced a notably consistent season. The summaries cite results ranging from Grand Tour and world titles to one-day races, stage wins and time-trial performances. Those descriptions and the selection rationale are Cycling Weekly’s assessments; the eventual winner will be determined by the reader poll.
The candidates span different disciplines and types of achievement. Vollering and Pogačar are credited with major stage-race and one-day successes; Reusser with world and European time-trial titles; and Wiebes with a high number of victories. Evenepoel’s season includes a Tour de France runner-up finish, while Seixas’s results mark a breakthrough first full year as a professional, according to the report.
Six Seasons Compete for One Award
The vote gives readers a say in how a season of elite road racing is remembered, while bringing together achievements that are not directly comparable. A Grand Tour victory, a world title against the clock, a sprint-heavy win tally and a young rider’s rapid rise each offer different measures of a successful season. The shortlist makes that judgment part of the award rather than reducing it to a simple ranking of wins.
For the riders, the selection recognizes performances across the men’s and women’s pelotons and across stage races, classics and time trials. For readers, the poll is a chance to weigh those results against one another. The outcome reflects the voters’ choice, not an official cycling governing body’s ranking or a claim that one rider was objectively best by every measure.
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The Shortlist and Its Results
Vollering is credited with winning the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France Femmes and road world championship, alongside the Tour of Flanders and other major races. Cycling Weekly says she entered races as a leading favourite and describes her season as exceptionally successful. Its listed UCI ranking for her is No. 1.
Pogačar won the Tour de France for a fifth time, according to the report, and also took victories including Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Flanders and Milan–San Remo. Evenepoel finished second at the Tour de France and won the world individual time trial championship and Amstel Gold Race. The report lists Pogačar at No. 1 and Evenepoel at No. 2 in the UCI rankings.
Reusser won the world and European individual time-trial titles and the Tour de Suisse, while Seixas, aged 19 in the report, won Il Lombardia and finished fourth on his Tour de France debut. Wiebes won 25 races, as counted by Cycling Weekly, and took two Tour de France Femmes stages and the green jersey. These records are the publication’s summaries of the nominees’ 2026 seasons.
“The winner of our 2026 International Rider of the Year award will be decided by you, the Cycling Weekly reader.”
— Cycling Weekly
Vote Count and Eligibility Details
The supplied report does not state how many votes have been cast, whether interim results will be published, or whether readers can vote more than once. It also gives no further information about the poll’s eligibility rules or how the publication will handle a tie. No candidate can be identified as leading on the available information.
The season records and rankings in the shortlist are presented in Cycling Weekly’s report, but the source material does not provide independent verification for every result or explain a scoring system for comparing riders. The award’s result should be understood as the outcome of the publication’s reader poll.
Poll Closes Before December Result
Readers can cast a vote through the poll linked from Cycling Weekly’s award report. The stated closing date is Nov. 15, 2026. Cycling Weekly plans to publish the result in its Dec. 3 edition; the supplied material does not give an exact publication time or say whether results will appear online earlier.
Until voting closes, the shortlist remains unchanged in the report and the winner is not known. The next confirmed milestone is the poll deadline, followed by the magazine’s planned announcement.
Key Questions
Who is shortlisted for the 2026 International Rider of the Year award?
The six nominees are Demi Vollering, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar, Marlen Reusser, Paul Seixas and Lorena Wiebes.
How can readers vote?
Cycling Weekly directs readers to select their preferred rider in the poll linked from its award report. The supplied material does not specify additional voting rules.
When does voting close?
The poll closes on Nov. 15, 2026, according to Cycling Weekly.
When will the winner be announced?
Cycling Weekly says the result will be revealed in its Dec. 3 edition. The source does not give an exact release time.
Is the award based only on the number of wins?
No. Cycling Weekly says the award is not simply about win totals and points to a range of achievements, including consistency, major titles and progress to a higher level.
Source: cyclingweekly.com
