Domestique Awards 2025: Most Entertaining Rider Men - Ayuso, Healy, Pedersen or Scaroni?

The inaugural Domestique Awards are about more than just winning. Breaking from the usual mould of best rider, best team, best race and so on, we are looking at what brings us joy in this wonderful sport. Why we sit down in front of the TV and watch for hours to see riders battle it out to throw their arms in the air. Beyond the search for who has won the most races, or scored the most points, we wanted to reward the individuals who have brought us joy and excitement, and kept us glued to our screens all year long.

For today's category, we are choosing the most entertaining riders in the peloton - first up, the men.

There is definitely a case to be made for all four riders in the list to take the crown, but who will you choose?

Cast your vote on X or Instagram.

Would it be fair to call Juan Ayuso cycling’s ‘bad boy’? Well, he has certainly ruffled some feathers both at his current team of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and at his future squad of Lidl-Trek. I’m sure he has polarised opinions already with the fans, but whatever you think of his character, there's no doubt he has been one of the best riders to watch across the 2025 season. 

There is something about Ayuso that is so unpredictable. You never know what you’ll get. There is a classic cliché in rugby union about the French national team, ‘you never know which team will turn up.’ It seems that Ayuso is the cycling version of this. One day he will be absolutely unbeatable and the next he will be dropped on the first climb of the day and lose half an hour. The entertainment extends beyond his time on the bike, too. He has been quite entertaining off it as well with various interviews and quotes about life at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, his riding and more.

What a year it has been for the former world champion, Mads Pedersen. He has been consistent across the season with top displays in the Classics, including a win at Gent-Wevelgem, as well as multiple Grand Tour stages and point jersey wins at the Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta a España. 

Furthermore, he has been a star teammate for the likes of Mattias Skjelmose, Jonathan Milan, Giulio Ciccone and others as well as going on amazing breakaway moves in races like Paris-Nice where he showed exceptional climbing ability and at the Tour of Denmark when he went very long and destroyed the rest of the field. His sense of humour and no-nonsense style in interviews ensures the entertainment continues with Mads long after the racing is over, and has earnt him a place as one of our nominees.

One thing you can almost completely rely on when Ben Healy is racing is that he will try to attack at least once. A breakaway master of the current peloton, the Irishman has had another top year - undoubtedly his best to date.

From the very start of the season it was clear that his strength and fortitude would lead to big results. A fourth place at Strade Bianche behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was the first showing of his promise, ahead of the year to come. 

More solid results came with a stage win at the Tour of the Basque Country and then steady progress up the top 10s in the Ardennes with a tenth, fifth and third there. It was then on to the Tour de France and an unexpected day where Healy not only won stage 9 but also took yellow.

He held on for two days before eventually finishing a creditable ninth on GC with a few more exceptional rides along the way. It was all nicely capped off with a bronze medal at the world championships in Kigali behind Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

Right from the very start of this season, Christian Scaroni has been bringing his XDS Astana team key UCI points in their fight to stay in the WorldTour. He has been incredibly consistent across the year but he hasn’t scored so highly for his team simply through sitting in and snatching points in sprints. He has been flamboyant and expressive with his riding. 

In his first ten races he did not once finish outside of the top 20, and he took several wins across the year including the Classic Var; stage and overall at Tour de Alpes-Maritimes; a stage at the Giro d’Italia and the Giro della Romagna, as well as being in the top 10 of stages and overall classifications 24 times across the year from 50 days of racing. Top 10s in almost half of the days he’s raced this season is extremely impressive. 

Also have a look at the other categories of the Domestique Awards!

Most Entertaining Race Men
Most Entertaining Race Women
Most Entertaining Rider Women