Up to 1.3 million followers: The best professional cyclists with the most Instagram followers
Thomas Huber
· 23.12.2023
20th Mattias Skjelmose - 30,300 followers
Mattias Skjelmose is ranked 13th in the UCI world rankings, but he has the fewest Instagram followers in the top 20. This is probably due to the fact that the 23-year-old Dane only made his big breakthrough last season. There, the climbing specialist not only won the Tour de Suisse in impressive fashion, but also helped his team-mate Giulio Ciccone to win the mountains jersey at the Tour de France.
19th Arnaud De Lie - 32,900 followers
Even younger than Mattias Skjelmose is top talent Arnaud De Lie, who even finished sixth in the UCI world rankings in 2022. Last season, he was also able to attract attention at World Tour level for the first time. The 21-year-old Belgian was particularly strong in one-day races and won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec in 2023.
18th Pello Bilbao - 35,500 followers
The 33-year-old Spaniard has been riding at the highest level for several years. In 2019, he won two stages at the Giro d'Italia - but last season he went one better. He finished sixth overall in the Tour de France and celebrated a stage win in the world's biggest cycling race. A short time later, he was only beaten by Remco Evenepoel in the Clasica San Sebastian.
17th Christophe Laporte - 69,000 followers
Although Frenchman Christophe Laporte is already 32 years old, he only celebrated his first successes at World Tour level in 2022, when he bagged a Tour de France stage win, among others. The classics rider with sprinter qualities won the Gent-Wevelgem and Dwaar door Vlaanderen classics in 2023, as well as two stages of the Criterium du Dauphine.
16. Matej Mohoric - 82,000 followers
29-year-old Matej Mohoric celebrated his big breakthrough at the 2021 Tour de France, where he won two stages. In 2022, he then won one of cycling's five monuments with Milan-San Remo. Last season, the versatile Slovenian won a Tour de France stage and took the overall classification of the Tour of Poland. He also dusted off the gold medal at the 2023 Gravel World Championships.
15 Marc Hirschi - 100,000 followers
Swiss rider Marc Hirschi is the first on this list to reach 100,000 Instagram followers. The youngster from UAE Team Emirates made a name for himself in smaller races in 2023, winning the Tour of Hungary and the Tour de Luxembourg, among others. Hirschi also made it clear in smaller one-day races that he is a force to be reckoned with in the future.
14th Mikel Landa - 114,000 followers
At 34, Mikel Landa is one of the more experienced riders in the peloton. Nevertheless, he is still good for top placings in stage race classifications. While he was fourth in the Tour de France classification in 2017 and 2020, he even finished third on the podium at the Giro d'Italia in 2022. In 2023, he was particularly strong in Spanish tours: he finished second in the Tour of the Basque Country and fifth in both the Tour of Catalonia and the Vuelta a Espana.
13th Joao Almeida - 119,000 followers
Joao Almeida has made it into the top ten in the UCI world rankings, but he hasn't quite reached this mark in terms of Instagram followers - despite strong performances at Tirreno-Adriatico and, above all, the Giro d'Italia. The 25-year-old Portuguese rider even made it onto the podium at the Tour of Italy with third place and was also named best young pro.
12. Simon Yates - 126,000 followers
The captain of the Jayco-AlUla team won the overall classification of the Vuelta a Espana in 2018 and also took numerous stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. In 2023, he finished fourth overall at the Tour de France and narrowly missed out on the podium behind his twin brother Adam. He is not only behind his brother in the Tour of France...
11th Adam Yates - 149,000 followers
... Adam is also just ahead of him in terms of Instagram followers. The UAE Team Emirates rider had an impressive 2023, not only finishing third in the Tour de France, but also winning a stage of the Tour of France. He also won the Tour de Romandie and the one-day Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal.
10th Mads Pedersen - 193,000 followers
Mads Pedersen, who even finished sixth in the 2023 UCI world rankings, just made it into the top ten. The classics rider with sprinter qualities became world champion in the road race in 2019, and last year he won a stage each at the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. He also achieved top results at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, where he finished third and fourth respectively.
9. Jasper Philipsen - 196,000 followers
Jasper Philipsen not only came out on top ahead of Pedersen in the Instagram ranking, the Belgian also proved to have better sprinter qualities in the points classification at the Tour de France. With a total of four stage wins, he clearly showed who is currently the best sprinter in the world. He also won the Classic Brugge-De Panne one-day race last season.
8th Sepp Kuss - 290,000 followers
The US American Sepp Kuss is actually a rider who tends to work in the background as an assistant to his stars around Jonas Vingegaard. In 2023, he stepped out of this shadow and won the Vuelta a Espana in impressive style. This seems to have brought the climber numerous followers - he is the first top rider to break the 200,000 follower mark.
7th Filippo Ganna - 333,000 followers
Filippo Ganna is not only a time trial specialist and won a stage at the Vuelta a Espana and Tirreno-Adriatico 2023, he is also the current holder of the world hour record. The Italian set this in October 2022. Ganna is also a regular contender on the track. He is a multiple world champion in the single pursuit and won gold in the team pursuit at the 2021 Olympics.
6. Jonas Vingegaard - 681,000 followers
The 2022 and 2023 Tour de France winner is only in sixth place in the Instagram ranking. Yet he won Jonas Vingegaard last year not only won the Tour, but also the Tour of the Basque Country, the Criterium du Dauphine and finished second in the Vuelta a Espana behind team-mate Sepp Kuss.
5th Primoz Roglic - 700,000 followers
Primoz Roglic is a three-time winner of the Vuelta a Espana and finished third in the Tour of Spain in 2023. Instead, he won another Grand Tour: in the final time trial, he overtook Geraint Thomas at the last second to win the Giro d'Italia. Roglic, who will be racing for the German team Bora-Hansgrohe next season, also won Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Catalonia.
4. Remco Evenepoel - 757,000 followers
Missed out with over 750,000 Instagram followers Remco Evenepoel a podium finish - the same was also the case in the Grand Tours last season. He had to abandon the Giro d'Italia in the lead due to a COVID-19 infection and collapsed at the Vuelta, where he had to settle for the mountain jersey. Nevertheless, he won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège cycling monument, as in the previous year, and was also the overall winner of the Vuelta and world road race champion in 2022.
2. Mathieu van der Poel - 1 million followers
In a shared second place with around one million followers is Mathieu van der Poel. Last season, the classics specialist not only won the two cycling monuments Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo, he also won the Road World Championships. The Dutchman is also a successful mountain biker and cyclocross racer.
2. Wout van Aert - 1 million followers
Mathieu van der Poel shares second place with his big rival: Wout van Aert. The Belgian is also a classics specialist and won the E3 Saxo Classic one-day race in 2023. He also helped his team-mate Jonas Vingegaard to overall victory in the last two editions of the Tour de France and took the points classification in the 2022 Tour of France. Like van der Poel, van Aert also feels at home off the road in cyclocross - they are the all-rounders in the cycling circus.
1. Tadej Pogacar - 1.3 million followers
The most Instagram followers of all professional cyclists in the top 20 of the UCI world rankings is Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian is a double Tour de France winner from 2020 and 2021 and is currently ranked first in the UCI world rankings. In 2023, he won numerous classics with the Tour of Flanders, the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and the Tour of Lombardy, while the UAE Team Emirates rider also performed strongly in tours. He won Paris-Nice and finished second in the Tour de France.
