Irish cycling enjoyed many high points though 2024, with Grand Tour stage wins, World Championships and Europeans medals and a range of victories, and swashbuckling performances, from one end of the season to the other.
Stickybottle has picked out the biggest moments - from seniors to juniors, road and track - and set them out here in all their glory.
Eddie Dunbar | Picón Blanco Vuelta win
Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) still has years stretched out ahead of him in his career and it's very likely the best is yet to come. However, his victory on Picón Blanco at La Vuelta in September is one that any pure climber would find it hard to eclipse. Perhaps only a Tour de France stage win - a big one - would do it. Dunbar looked supreme, like Stephen Roche at his best, in leaving the top riders in La Vuelta in the dust for a huge win on a beast of a climb, 20 stages into a Grand Tour. It was Dunbar's second win of the race - after also claiming stage 11. It meant he emerged from the Spanish Grand Tour having finally realised his potential; a trend he will look to continue in 2025. (Photo by Unipublic-Cxcling)
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Dunlevy-Kelly | Paralympic Gold
Katie George Dunlevy and her tandem pilot, Linda Kelly, topped the podium at the Paralympic Games, winning gold for Ireland in the TT. They also took silver in the road race. Dunlevy, and pilot Eve McCrystal, also teamed up for silver in individual pursuit on the track, bringing the curtain down on their long and successful partnership. The medal haul from Paris means Dunlevy now has eight Paralympic medals; four golds and four silvers. She is now in 'confirmed legend' territory and was fitting she and Kelly won 'Team of the Year' at the RTÉ Sport Awards to round off another incredible year.
Lara Gillespie | UCI World Track Championships bronze
Having gone to the Olympics and made huge strides on the road this year, Gillespie's hunger for more was clear to see at the UCI World Track Championships in Denmark in October. She claimed bronze in the points race, behind Julie Leth (Denmark) and road race world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium). It was Gillespie's first medal at an elite Worlds having enjoyed Worlds and Europeans success as a junior and U23.
Ben Healy & Ryan Mullen | Olympic Road Race
It's rare - unprecedented in the modern era - to see two Irish riders race off the front of an Olympic Games road race as well as Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Ryan Mullen (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) did in Paris this year. They clearly decided to attack the race - rather than wait for the big guns to rip it up in the final. Mullen got up the road first and when Healy got across to him, Mullen pulled their group clear until he had nothing more to give. Healy ended the day 10th, the best result ever by an Irish rider at an Olympics. But it was the way the two-man team combined so well, and their willingness to take it on, that impressed the most. (Photo by Brendan Moran-Sportsfile)
Dunlevy-Kelly | World champions
The dust was yet to settle after the Paralympic Games in Paris when Katie George Dunlevy and her tandem pilot, Linda Kelly, went in hunt of more medals at the UCI World Road Championships in Zurich. They blasted to double gold, again, by winning the road race and TT titles. Dunlevy now has 13 Worlds medals, eight of them golds and spanning a decade. The Irish cycling community will be hoping Dunlevy, with Kelly, can keep it going until the LA Olympics in 2028, which would be phenomenal.
Ben Healy | World Road Championships
Again, as was the case at the Olympics, Healy rode like a lion in the Worlds road race in Zurich. He got up the road and, with Toms Skujiņš (Latvia), chased lone leader Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) for much of the final. They were eventually caught and Healy took 7th. On another day he and Skujiņš would have hung on for silver and bronze. It wasn't to be, but Healy's day will come.
Team Pursuit | Olympic Games
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It was always going to be hard for the Irish team pursuiters to threaten for a medal at the Olympics. And the reality is that a medal-based narrative misses the significance of what was achieved by Kelly Murphy, Mia Griffin, Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie in Paris. They became the first team pursuit line-up to qualify for an Olympics. But not only did they blaze their own trail to the Games, they smashed their national record when they got there. These are four women - with young Erin Creighton as reserve - have lit a torch for future generations.
Archie Ryan | Coppi e Bartali
Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) has been one of the most exciting Irish riders this year and has become compulsory viewing any time he races and the road kicks up. His aggression this year, with a bit more luck, might have brought bigger rewards. His stage win at Coppi e Bartali in March was hist first as a pro rider. It was a huge win, not only because it was delivered with trade-mark aggression in the final, but because it was the first big result in a career likely to be filled with them. (Photo by Massimo Fulgenzi-Cor Vos)
Lara Gillespie | Antwerp Port Epic Ladies
Gillespie had an incredible year in 2024 with an Olympic debut, a contract at World Tour level with UAE Team ADQ and a medal at the elite track Worlds. But her win in Antwerp Port Epic Ladies was very exciting, confirming her status as a top tier road racer. The 140km race featured plenty of cobble sections and split to pieces; Gillespie to the fore throughout and then winning it from a small group with her sprint.
Sam Bennett | Four Days of Dunkirk
Bennett's stage 5 win was a thing of beauty. He already had two stages in the bag and looked certain to win the overall, but that wasn't enough for the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale man. With riders off the front in the final, on an undulating circuit with cobbles, Bennett simply charged to the head of affairs, caught the leaders and won the day into Cassel. He also claimed the final stage the following day. It was a shame Bennett couldn't quite crack on from his performance in France. However, his results, and the manner they were achieved, was a reminder of what he still has under the bonnet. (Photo by Elias Rom)
Darren Rafferty | National Road Championships
A bit like his EF Education-EasyPost team mate, Archie Ryan's, win in Italy this year, Darren Rafferty's victory in the elite men's race in Limerick was a red letter day for Irish cycling because of what it signals for the future. New to the World Tour in 2024, Rafferty did not need much time to find his legs; putting in multiple strong breakaway rides. He also showed strength and maturity beyond his years in Critérium du Dauphiné and La Vuelta. In June on home roads he got away from most of our best riders to come of age with his first senior title win. Expect another shift up the gears in 2025.
Fiona Mangan | Double Irish champion
Fiona Mangan, riding for Cynisca Cycling, claimed both the TT and road race crowns in the elite events at the National Road Championships in her native Limerick in June. A relatively late-comer to cycling, her championship weekend was confirmation of the rider she has become in a short space of time. And having signed for French team, Winspace Orange Seal, for 2025 she will carry the national champion's colours into major races in Europe. (Photo by Sean Rowe)
Seth Dunwoody | E3 Saxo Classic (1.1)
Dunwoody (Cannibal B Victorious) claimed victory in the 118km UCI 1.1-ranked race from a bunch sprint; after a series of bergs reduced that bunch to just 45 riders. If he can replicate that in the U23 ranks – and hopefully as a pro – he has a long a prosperous road ahead. Dunwoody hits the international U23 scene next year and, though it would be unfair to pressure him, the good times should roll again very soon.
Lucy Bénézet Minns | European Track Championships
Bénézet Minns (Tofauti Everyone Active) followed in the footsteps of riders like Lara Gillespie and Sam Bennett in winning gold at the junior Europeans, taking the points race title in July; an outstanding achievement. She is also a very exciting prospect on the road with her climbing and TT abilities; an exciting prospect now that she will compete for Lotto Ladies in 2025.
