SAM DANSIE
Best male rider of the year
Guess. Initials are PS. No, not Peter Stetina.
Best female rider of the year
Anna Van Der Breggen for her consistency and the steeliness and composure she showed in the race that really mattered this year: the Rio Olympics Road Race. Who else impressed you?
Esteban Chaves above all. Two Grand Tour podiums and the Lombardy win look like the beginnings of a golden period for the Colombian. There’s an inventiveness there that’s Contador-esque and a lightness of heart that is unmatched in the peloton.
Richie Porte was the best climber at the Tour but won’t get the recognition.
Bauke Mollema was also stellar and answered his heart-breaking Tour in the best way with the San Sebastián win. Finally,
Stephen Cummings. Each of his four WorldTour stage wins and the Tour of Britain GC were peaches.
Best one- day race of the year
Roubaix was pulsating and sits in the same bracket as the 2011 Flanders and the 2009 Milan-San Remo.
Best stage race of the year.
The Giro did it for me this year. The narrative arc of Nibali’s triumph and Steven Kruijswijk’s calamity was classic corsa rosa drama. The quality of the subplots that supported them were great, too, in particular the bristling arsenal EtixxQuick Step took to the race: Kittel, Brambilla, Jungels, and Matteo Trentin’s memorable stage win in Pinerolo. The 210km stage through the Dolomites was majestic: great drama on a staggeringly beautiful route added up to an unforgettable stage. A lawless day of cycling.
Team of the year
Orica-BikeExchange. They’ve got a thriving young team, the winning formula at the moment and they make it look like fun without seeming like life-stylers.
Up- and- coming rider of the year
Stretching the de inition to breaking point, Kasia
Niewiadoma is going to cause all sorts of headaches to her rivals next year. She’s the future.
Fernando Gaviria’s irst year as a pro was interrupted by the Olympics but give him a couple of years to igure out what he’s doing in the Classics and the Paris-Tours winner will be a killer.
Cock- up of the year
From a sporting point of view (there were many, many non-sporting ones)
Sky on the stage to Formigal might have been the one. Sky’s worst mishandling of a race situation in a Grand Tour? I reckon that a case could be made. From a nonsporting point of view the rati ication of the 2017 WorldTour is up there, too.