I had hoped to get this site up and live around the turn of the new year but unfortunately time, among other things, conspired against me and so we find ourselves into the middle of the first month of the new year, but before the year of our Lord twenty-hundred and eleven disappears too far into our rear views, let’s hand out some awards for the year that was…

Awards and Gongs

The gong for The Cycle Seen’s most outstanding cyclist of the year
Philippe Gilbert. Was there ever anyone who truly came close? The Belgian dominated the spring classcis season before taking a stage win in the Tour de France. He even rode high up the overall well into the big mountains before finally sucumming to the little men. There’s a belief that if Gilbert trained for it he could win a Grand Tour and while that would be something to see, it’s still fun to enjoy the aggressive riding style he current entertains us with.

The Steve Bauer Canadian cyclist of the year award
Ryder Hesjedal. Not quite at the level of 2010 but still Canada’s biggest hope.

The Sean Yates British cyclist of the year award
Mark Cavendish. This doesn’t need much explination though Chris Froome deserves a mention for his second in the Vuelta.

The ‘I swear it was a bad dose of meat’ award for best excuse
Ricardo Ricco. Having already been suspended for a doping violation at the 2008 Tour de France, in February of 2011 he was fired by his team, Vacansoleil-DMC, after taking seriously ill through what was believed to be a self-administered autologous blood transfusion with 25 day old blood. Ricco tried to deny it, blaming his girlfriend though later admitted it was a transfusion for himself before his lawyer retracted it. The case is still open but don’t expect to see him in a professional peloton before his 40′s.

The Thomas Voeckler award for most Thomas Voeckler like effort
Thomas Voeckler. If you watched the Tour de France you will know exactly what I mean.

The Graham Obree award for best time-trial of the year
Cadel Evans to secure the Tour de France crown.

The Jens Voight hard man of the year award
Johnny Hoogerland. Who would have thought anyone could have taken this gong other than Jens himself while still active?

The bonehead of the year award
The driver of the French TV car that wiped out Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha on the 9th stage of the Tour de France. It did however lead to the following award…

Crash of the year
See above. (And below).

The Bradley Wiggins gong for coming from nowhere to be a contender award
Chris Froome at the Vuelta a Espana.

The most tedious story of the year award
Alberto Contador’s CAS hearing which absurdly is still not resolved a year and a half after the incident. I’d hate to see the legal process if the UCI/CAS et al. were involved in criminal hearings.

The Lance Armstrong award for refusing to just admit it
Alejandro Valverde who has served a suspension for his roll in Operation Puerto but still denies any involvement given he never physically tested positive. He has since served his time and will be back racing this month at the Tour Down Under.

The inagural Floyd Landis award for humour on Twitter
Floyd Landis @GreyManrod

The ‘This guy is the new generation and has to be a clean cyclist’ award
A prestigeous award with such past winners (if I’d been doing this in the past) as Richard Virenque, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Alberto Contador and Riccardo Ricco, goes to Pierre Rolland. He won a-top of Alp d’Huez and scooped the young riders prize at Le Tour. The French (as well as myself) are all hoping he’s for real.

The revelation of the year award
Tyler Hamilton. There was nothing that shocked anyone but it was still a bit crazy to hear.

The Cedric Vasseur memorial award for best loan attack of the year
Movistar’s Vasili Kiryienka who in honour of his recently killed teammate Xavier Tondo, rode to solo victory in the 20th stage of the Giro d’Italia, winning by over four-and-a-half minutes. He spent just over 200km of the 242km race on the attack, first with a group of riders, before taking off on his own on the first of the days two big climbs to Sestriere.

The Mario Cippolini award for best sprinter — and he knows it, award
Mark Cavendish, of course.

The mountain goat climber of the year award
David Moncoutie for winning his forth mountains classification title in the Vuelta a Espana.

The Cycle Seen’s best result of the year
Yes Cav winning all those Tour stages, the green jersey and the World Championships were monumental for British cycling, and yes Philippe Gilbert dominating the one day races was great to watch, but I’m going with Chris Froome coming from nowhere to win a stage and finish second overall in the Vuelta a’Espana — the best finish ever by a British rider in a Grand Tour.

The Cycle Seen’s moment of the year
The grimmace on the face of Thomas Voeckler as he fought tooth and nail to hang onto his Yellow Jersey. When people say “The Yellow Jersey brings that little bit extra out of you and makes you go that little bit further” we consider it a bit of a cliche, but men like Voeckler put weight behind such cliches.

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