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Year End Awards 2017

Page 7 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Gigs_98 said:
I just want to mention that in the op the category was not called "best team of the year" but "team of the year". And just like I think it's reasonable to argue that Icelands football team was the team of the european championship 2016 although they didn't even win. Team sky had a great season but they weren't that much better than expected. Sunweb however went into this season as a team which was expected to be mediocre and ended up being one of the best teams in the world.
That's true, but it's understandable that for many team of the year is equal to best team of the year, just like climber of the year is equal to best climber of the year and sprinter of the year is equal to best sprinter of the year.
 
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Põhja Konn said:
Bardamu said:
Põhja Konn said:
The outstanding aspect about Landa was his recovery, not climbing. His climbing was consistently very good, but he certainly did not stand out among other top climbers. His climbing style (like that of Quintana) is deceptively fluent and smooth, meaning it is almost impossible to see he is struggling until he actually blows up. As he is also a fan favourite in this forum, it's inevitable that there are loads of posts claiming he would have crushed everyone had one thing or other not held him back.

Also the smoothness of riding style is partly to blame for the excessive amount of criticism Quintana receives here regularly for not attacking enough. As it is almost impossible to understand whether he is holding back and biding his time or actually struggling and about to blow up, even his fans grow frustrated let alone everyone else.
One of the coolest moments of the year was when you could see Landa dying in the last kilometre of Orope, just before Zakarin and Dumoulin started to sprint for the victory.

I guess you meant Quintana, as it was him who completely blew when they reached the cobbled stretch at the end of Oropa. Landa was relatively unremarkable that day.

But that really was one of the most memorable moments this season and a pivotal one at that. Imo Quintana lost the Giro and any chance at the double that day as he went far too deep trying to hold off Dumoulin and never really recovered from it.
It was Quintana who blew up more the last 500 metres, but the face of Landa is what stayed with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaGRESRtxMs From 1:40 -2:00 you can see Landa dying in the wheel of Zakarin and Dumoulin. Later also on the last straight line to the finish line.
 
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jaylew said:
Red Rick said:
Greg van Avermaet isn't even top 3 for me this year.
I don't know how you can say that. The guy even had some great 2nds, including in another monument.
Why not? Sure he had a great season, but one can easily say Froome, Kwiatkowski, Nibali and Dumoulin had atleast as good of a season or even better. Matter of perspective or what you deem important.
Valverde would have also been up there were it not for the crash. He had the best spring season of them all and people are rating GVA mainly based on his spring season.
 
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Hugo Koblet said:
I don't see any posts like that in this thread.

I've had some against me. While I've always been indifferent to Sky as they just dominate races I'm not watching. Usually I have the Sky haters against me because I'm not too radical in condemning their racing style and practice as a team. Now I have the Sky fans against me because I dare to claim that Van Avermaet achieved more than Froome, with the World Tour ranking as evidence to trigger a possible discussion but which apparently cannot be. There's no glory to gain in winning Paris-Roubaix. I'm hated by Sky haters equally as much as I'm hated by Sky fans. I know where my place is.
 
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Durden93 said:
LaFlorecita said:
So this thread is basically just Sky fans moaning about people not picking Sky for every category :rolleyes:

Flo, it's not about that. I'm not a sky fan, but I acknowledge their accomplishments. There are just as many posters who will find reasons to not like sky and to diminish their accomplishments as there are sky fanboys. You can disagree with their team, it's management, riding style etc. but it's certifiably insane to not acknowledge that they had an outstanding season. The best season? Maybe not, that's subjective. But for people to not even consider them as a great team is ludicrous.
but how can you conclude those people that picked another team/rider than Sky/Froome didn't consider them at all? Personally I considered Sky & Froome purely based on results but the way Sunweb and Dumo exceeded expectations made me pick them. Maybe Sky/Froome's results were better but it was exactly what I expected from them, so I was more impressed by Sunweb and Dumo and picked them as team/rider of the year.

ETA: Thinking about it, I suppose we tend to be more impressed by riders & teams we like and support because of all the emotions that come with their successes. Just be grateful I didn't pick Berto & his Vuelta team for rider & team of the year :p
 
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jaylew said:
Red Rick said:
Greg van Avermaet isn't even top 3 for me this year.
I don't know how you can say that. The guy even had some great 2nds, including in another monument.
And yet you don't have Kawasaki in your top-5. He won a monument, got 3rd in another. Won two other classics and got 2nd in another. And he was arguably the best teammate in the Tour. That's only marginally behind Greg, imo.
 
Aug 16, 2013
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Cyclist of the year: Froome
Sprinter of the year: Kittel
Classics rider of the year: Kwiat
Time-trialist of the year: Dumoulin
Climber of the year: Landa
Most improved rider of the year: Trentin, Matthews
Most versatile rider of the year: Kwiat, Dumoulin (winning a GT, World TT and top-5 in a classic)
U23 rider of the year: Bernal
Breakthrough rider of the year: Roglic, Moscon
Team of the year: Sunweb

Best race of the year: Angliru-stage Vuelta, last week Giro
Best race performance of the year: Phil's epic solo in Flanders, Froome's double
Craziest moment of the year: Tommie D's poopgate
Best race design of the year (no not in the thread ;)): New Amstel route, this year's Lombardia route
You could not believe your eyes, when Bala dropped Dawg and Berto on a proper summit finish.
 
Nov 12, 2015
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Cyclist of the year: No contest - Froome - completed first Tour/Vuelta combo in nearly 40 years!
Sprinter of the year: Froome - proving he could mix it with the best sprinters in Vuelta Stage 21
Classics rider of the year: Like most cycling enthusiasts i don't watch them - they're largely for second raters out of their depth in cycling's Champions League: the GT''s
Time-trialist of the year: Froome - outstanding TT results during two very tough GT's.
Climber of the year: Froome - you cant Tour/Vuelta back to back without being the best and most consistent climber
Most improved rider of the year: Froome - won Tour without being at his best, then completely dominated Vuelta(second and third in Tour were more than half an hour behind Froome in Vuelta!)
Most versatile rider of the year: Froome - two GT's back to back speaks for itself
Team of the year: No Contest - Sky
Best race performance of the year: Vuelta Stage 9 - Froome taking care of unfinished business
Craziest moment of the year: Froome re-catching the flat out leaders after mechanical at foot of climb in Tour
Best race design of the year: Vuelta - most of the top ten places changed repeatedly in week 1, 2 and 3.
You could not believe your eyes: Froome getting World ITT and TTT medals straight after Tour/Vuelta double
My favourite moments of the year: Froome gaining all time great status by joining French legends Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as only the third man in history to do the Tour/Vuelta double, and first in the modern era when Vuelta was moved to straight after Tour.
Best betting odds of the year: Froome and Skytrain at even money today to utterly destroy young Tom(4/1) in the mountains next year by winning his fifth tour, or what may well be his sixth by then, when Wiggins finally sees sense and bows to the inevitable, by electing to hand back his 2012 Tour win for behaviour outside the spirit of the rules.
 
Cyclist of the year: Valverde He raced half a season and dominated it.
Sprinter of the year: Kittle
Classics rider of the year: Gilbert
Time-trialist of the year: Dumoulin
Climber of the year: Landa
Most improved rider of the year: Trentin
Most versatile rider of the year: Valverde (He is competitive in anything he enters from one day races to Grand Tours)
U23 rider of the year: Gaviria
Breakthrough rider of the year: Moscon
Team of the year: Quickstep

Best race of the year: Paris-Roubiax (itsn't it always?)
Best race performance of the year: Valverde at Catalonia where he put on a cycling clinic.
Craziest moment of the year: Officials changing their minds several times before coming to a final conclusions both at Catalonia (TTT ruling) and Tour (Sagan/Cav ruling)
Best race design of the year (no not in the thread ;)): this year's Lombardia
You could not believe your eyes, when ... happened...: Valverde's crash at the Tour.
 
Cyclist of the year: Froome
Sprinter of the year: Kittel
Classics rider of the year: Van Avermaet
Time-trialist of the year: Dumoulin
Climber of the year: Landa
Most improved rider of the year: Moscon
Most versatile rider of the year: Kwia
U23 rider of the year: Gaviria
Breakthrough rider of the year: Roglic
Team of the year: Sunweb

Best race of the year: Giro
Best race performance of the year: Contador - Angliru
Best race design of the year: Mont du Chat 2x
You could not believe your eyes, when propagate
 
Most improved and no one mentioned Betancur...I'm surprised. Hero to zero to something, I give him props. He showed something in '17.

Bardet wins the French Velo d'Or...why not, but one month doesn't make a year. .87 second away from disaster, that's an Evel Knievel stunt :eek: . Warren deserved it if a month is it. Pinot if a season matters.
 
Can I suggest a new category?
The Courage Prize; given to riders to battled on despite difficult circumstances.

I'd like to nominate the Astana riders at Tour of Croatia (stage 5). That can't have been easy; setting yourself up to race mere hours after learning that your teammate has died.







(Of course other riders at that race who were close to Scarponi also counts. Nibali springs to mind.)
 
Courage Award to Edward Theuns for racing the classics with a hardware in his spine and still finish 8th at Paris-Roubaix and undergoing a surgery to remove it right after. And then for finishing a Dauphiné libéré stage out of time limit without retiring. Only back in form at the Lowland Tour and now at the Tour of Turkey late in the season.


Sportsmanship Award to Tim Wellens for retiring from the Tour of France after refusing TUE. :)
 
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RedheadDane said:
Can I suggest a new category?
The Courage Prize; given to riders to battled on despite difficult circumstances.

I'd like to nominate the Astana riders at Tour of Croatia (stage 5). That can't have been easy; setting yourself up to race mere hours after learning that your teammate has died.







(Of course other riders at that race who were close to Scarponi also counts. Nibali springs to mind.)


I think I would add the riders at Liege to that as well, although they did have more time to process it before that race started.