Away from the headlines – the Cycling Weekly team's alternative riders of 2025

It is easy to declare that Tadej Pogačar or Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is the rider of the year, or Lorena Wiebes, or another big name. Well, what about those people who get less attention, or have done something a bit different in 2025?

We thought it was high time some less heralded names – although some of the people below are pretty heralded, to be fair, whatever heralded means – some praise. Whether that's because they're a good teammate, or they've done something mad, here are the team's alternative riders of the year.

This is the fourth in a series of pieces where we have compiled thoughts from across the CW staff about 2025, after our riders of the year, moments of the year and our favourite places to ride. Please let us know your thoughts!

Ben Healy – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer

For the front cover of our Review of the Year magazine earlier this month, our designers put together a collage of all the riders who have left their impact on 2025. Tadej Pogačar was there, front and centre, of course. As were Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Mathieu van der Poel.

One rider who may not have won as much as them, but deserved their place on the cover all the same was Ben Healy. Riding in his fourth year with EF Education-EasyPost, the Irishman continues to be the fearless, swash-buckling racer he always promised to be. In 2025, his breakaway antics brought him the sport’s biggest prize: two days in the Tour de France’s yellow jersey.

Not content with that, he then went on to finish second on the stage to Mont Ventoux, before scoring a bronze medal at the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda. Is Healy a breakaway artist? A puncheur? A climber? Who cares, just enjoy the show.

Justine Ghekiere – Adam Becket, news editor

Domestiques are often invisible, doing their work before the television coverage begins, or lugging bottles about. However, this year, Justine Ghekiere showed her skill in full at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The Belgian champion was on hand to help her AG Insurance-Soudal teammate Sarah Gigante catch up with the lead group on stage seven, a move that helped the Australian to second on the stage. The help was visible, even audible at times, and is well worth recognising.

Alec Briggs – Andy Carr, tech editor

Alec Briggs brings an energy to the races he attends that teams like EF Education get close to, but he nails it with more authenticity than any big-brand team could. Whenever I think back over a year in cycling, something Briggs has done stands out.

This year, it’s his race car style pro-team kit collaboration with Rapha and his Subaru Impreza WRC-style custom bikes. Tekkerz, his race team, which develops youth talent in East London, where Briggs is from, has gone from strength to strength.

It is the perfect antidote to the corporate side of cycling that so often dominates the discourse. Briggs proves time and time again that the grassroots needs heroes to look up to and shows everyone else how it’s done.

Molly Weaver - Hannah Bussey, tech writer

Molly Weaver's lap of the British Coast in the fastest ever time recorded by a supported cyclist was awe-inspiring. It started with just the occasional check-in on her progress, but by the end, we were glued to our screens, dot-watching her, with others lining the road to cheer her on in her epic attempt.

Weaver spent three weeks in mostly torrential rain and high winds and even beat a previous record, set by Nick Sanders in 1984, by a whopping 17 hours. Riding the 7,730 kilometers/4,803 miles in less than 22 days, meaning she covered around 370 km/ 230miles a day over 18 hours. It's an incomprehensible feat, one that we mere mortals couldn't even dream of doing.

Ben Healy – Simon Richardson, magazine editor

Healy’s diminutive size makes him look out of place against many other riders in the bunch, while his all-over aero approach to kit doesn’t win him many, if any, style marks. But his approach to racing is a joy to watch. What’s more, I love the fact that despite his attacks looking like foolish attempts made out of desperation, they are, in fact some of the most carefully calculated race plans you’ll see enacted all season. Can’t wait for more in 2026.

Robin Gemperle – James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer

You may not have heard of Robin Gemperle, but it's very likely you'll have heard of the Tour Divide – the 4,400km ultra-distance bikepacking race that traces a north-south line through the Rocky Mountains from the Canadian border to the Mexican one.

This year the Swiss rider broke the 'unbeatable' 12-day barrier for the event, riding almost 360 kilometres per day to do so and listing thunderstorms, snakes and tarantulas among the obstacles he was faced with along the way.

Gemperle is one of the best ultra-distance riders in the world right now; he was third in Unbound XL and won the Transcontinental Race last year.

His time of 11 days, 19hrs, 14min record was not allowed to stand as an official record , because he was forced to reroute due to wild fires and ultimately missed 225km of the course. But there are few in the ultra-riding community who don't count his ride as a major achievement.

Ffion Drake – Meg Elliot, news and features writer

Ffion Drake has this season become the best British cyclo-cross rider at the National Trophy Series. She opened the series with four back-to-back wins, amassing enough points to take the overall from then, despite a crash in the Flamanville World Cup which saw her suffer through the next few races (she still managed to finish in 18th in the Belgian race, though).

Drake, a trained doctor turned cyclo-crosser, is acutely aware of the reduced field she’s competing in, with Zoe Backstedt and others absent from domestic races. But she sees these races as “stepping stones” to the rider she’s aiming to become, while revelling in her - very deserved - success.

Lorena Wiebes - Anne-Marije Rook, North American Editor

25 wins. Many professional riders would be thrilled to end their career with such a palmarès, yet Lorena Wiebes hit that number in a single season. And that's not even counting her world title in gravel or her dominance on the track.

Wiebes is not only the fastest sprinter in the women’s peloton; she is a multi-discipline phenomenon. She wins with brute power, but also with timing, positioning and raw instinct. Race after race, she turns chaotic finales into inevitabilities, making victories look almost routine. And I mentioned her on this list instead of our Riders of the Year feature because I think her performances don't get enough credit.

Grand Tour winners get two-to-three weeks of legend-making; climbers get dramatic monologues on mountain roads; even male sprinters with fewer wins are elevated by exposure. Wiebes, meanwhile, exists in a strange space where her palmarès screams generational talent while her public profile lags far behind. And that's an injustice.

Valterri Bottas and Tiffany Cromwell - Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer

Having someone as prominent as Valterri Bottas ride his bike for fun and post about it regularly (more often than his day job, sometimes) is brilliant for our sport and gravel cycling. I mustn’t forget to mention that a large chunk of this is, of course, in collaboration with his partner, one of the pioneers of the ‘Alt’ calendar and Unbound winner, Tiffany Cromwell.

Together, through their social media, events, and brands, they are given cycling a global platform that even Tour winners cannot match (Valterri has twice Tadej's Instagram following).