13/12/11 Cyclists have named Belgian sportsman Philippe Gilbert as Rider of the Year in a poll conducted by the world’s biggest and most comprehensive cycling website, Cyclingnews.com.
More than 20,000 votes were cast by Cyclingnews readers in the poll, which honours world’s very best riders, teams, races, moments and equipment of the past 12 months.
Following an astounding number of victories in 2011, Philippe emerged as the clear winner for the highly coveted award, securing over 11,000 votes and beating Cadel Evans and Mark Cavendish to the top spot.
Cyclingnews.com has been running its annual reader-voted awards for the past decade, with previous Rider of the Year accolades going to Lance Armstrong and Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara.
Cyclingnews Rider of the Year, Philippe Gilbert, says: “First of all thanks to all of the team, my teammates, and to everybody involved. It’s a good prize and I’m very happy to have it! I’ve had a lot of nice successes this year.”
Talking about his late season success in North America, he says: “For me the win in Quebec was quite special. It’s a really nice race with good organisation, but it’s there that I also got back the number one position in the world ranking.”
Other high profile winners of 2011 include Britain’s Danny Hart, who was recognised as Best Male Mountain Biker after this year becoming the UCI Mountain Bike World Champion. Marianne Vos from the Netherlands scooped Best Female Road Rider for her outstanding performance, whilst Best Track Female went to Victoria Pendleton.
Best Team was awarded to Mark Cavendish’s team, HTC-Highroad, for their exceptional performance throughout the year and in recognition of their many wins since the team’s inception in 2008.
In a special award the Cyclingnews team gave the Legend of Cycling award to the late Wouter Weylandt and Xavier Tondo after their tragic deaths earlier this year.
Daniel Benson, Editor of Cyclingnews.com, says: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to our poll this year. Our annual awards give our readers the chance to say what they think about the year’s professional races and riders – from the Tour de France to the Giro d’Italia – and the awards are a great way to celebrate another fantastic year in cycling.”
For the full list of winners, including categories such as Best New Product, Best Team Bike, Best Stage Race and Best One Day Race, visit www.cyclingnews.com. Everyone who voted has been entered into a prize draw to win a Cervélo R3 race bike used by Tyler Farrar. The winner will be announced on Cyclingnews later in the week.
ENDS
For more information: please contact Amy Bullen on 01225 732269 or amy.bullen@futurenet.com. If required, we have expert spokespeople available from Cyclingnews available to comment on the winners and speak more widely about the 2011 season.
About Future’s Cycling Portfolio: Future’s depth and reach of content makes us the world’s number one cycling publisher across print, online and on the move. Online, our cycling websites now attract up to 4.8 million global visitors every month. Cyclingnews.com is the world’s biggest news and results service for professional cycling, whilst Bikeradar.com is a comprehensive resource for all cyclists, featuring the largest reviews and product information database in the world. Our print titles lead the market with PPA award-winning magazine Cycling Plus continuing to grow and Procycling remaining the world’s best road racing title. Off-road, Mountain Biking UK is Britain’s biggest selling mountain bike magazine and What Mountain Bike is the UK’s leading off-road buying title.
About Future: Future plc is an international special-interest media group, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating 200 special-interest publications, apps, websites and events. We hold market-leading positions in games, film, music, technology, cycling, automotive and crafts. Our biggest-selling magazines include T3, Total Film, Classic Rock, Guitar World and Official Xbox Magazine. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, musicradar.com and techradar.com (the UK’s no. 1 consumer technology website). Future sells 2.9 million magazines each month; we attract more than 34 million unique visitors to our websites; and we deliver over 100 digital editions and bespoke apps on tablet. Future exports or syndicates publications to 89 countries, making us the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of magazine content. We have just launched an online image library, Future MediaStore, providing rights managed photographs to licence from across our specialist magazine portfolios; www.futuremediastore.com. Future was named consumer digital publisher of the year at the Association of Online Publishers Awards 2011.
