Your 2018 Season Highlights

[Sestriere]

With all big races of the season behind us, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at highlights of the year. You can crown your personal heroes and your favourite races of the season!
You can copy-paste the following categories as a guideline:

• 
  - Best rider of the year:
  - Best team of the year:
  - Best climber of the year:
  - Best sprinter of the year:
  - Classics rider of the year:
  - Breakthrough of the year:
  - Newcomer of the year:
  
  - Best single day of racing:
  - Best stage race:
  - Best overall ride of the year:
  - Best climbing performance:
  - Best/most entertaining sprint:
  - Best designed race/stage:
  
  - Most emotional moment:
  - Most underrated performance:
  - Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded:
  - My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when ... happened
  - I literally laughed out loud when:
  
  - The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award":
  (You can name an individual rider, a group of riders, a team, a race or who/whatever you think fullfilled the spirit of this board the most during the year )
  

Feel free to answer the categories you find interesting and to add others if you like.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

MSR was pretty good

 

[Sestriere]

- Best rider of the year: Simon Yates
- Best team of the year: Quickstep
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Elia Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Niki Terpstra
- Breakthrough of the year: Enric Mas
- Newcomer of the year: Fabio Jakobsen

- Best single day of racing: Strade Bianche
- Best stage race: Paris-Nice
- Best overall ride of the year: You know who to Jafferau
- Best climbing performance: Quintana on the Col de Portet
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Alaphilippe vs the world up the Mur de Huy
- Best designed race/stage: Sappada in the Giro

- Most emotional moment: Nibali wins in Sanremo
- Most underrated performance: Terpstra's individual performance in Flanders
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Kruiswijk on the way to Alpe d'Huez
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when Cancellaru happened
- I literally laughed out loud when: Thomas sprinted away from rapidly nearing Froome on La Rosière

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Nibali and Pinot for attacking on a legendary climb in a monument with 50 km to go and showing that panache is not dead and can still be rewarded.

 

[Red Rick]

Rider of the year: Froome
Team of the year: Sky
Climber of the year: Simon Yates
Sprinter of the year: Viviani
Classics rider of the year: Nibali
Breakthrough of the year: Mas
Newcomer of the year: Bernal

Best day of racing: Il Lombardia
Best stage race: Il Giro
Best overall ride of the year: Froome Giro stage 18
Best climbing performance: Yates in the first 2.5 weeks of the Giro
Best/most entertaining sprint: implying there are entertaining sprints
Best designed race/stage: Il Giro

Most emotional moment: Nibali winning Milano Sanremo
Most underrated performance: Sagan PR? I feel like nobody is talking about that anymore
Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Simon Yates Giro d'Italia
My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when people were implying the 2019 Tour route has redeeming qualities
I literally laughed out loud when: Nibali grabbed 2nd at Il Lombardia

The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Richie Porte after the Tour represents my sentiment after the Alpe d'Huez broke back mountain saga

 

[Dazed and Confused]

To think QuickStep and Terpstra couldn't come to an agreement for 2019.....

 

[Koronin]

The most emotional moment for me was seeing El Bala win the Worlds. The one big race that had been missing from his palmares. Just to see his emotions after it, made it even that much sweeter. Yes, I cried when he won it.

For me Valverde is also the rider of the year. He wins it partly because of his incredible season after coming back from an injury that was careering threatening and for most any other 37 year old would have been career ending. For him to win the Worlds on top of that was the icing on the cake.

After that I'll give out awards for the list:

-Best rider of the year: Alejandro Valverde
- Best team of the year: Quickstep
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Fernando Gaviria
- Classics rider of the year: Niki Terpstra
- Breakthrough of the year: I'm giving this as a co award: Egan Bernal and Marc Soler
- Newcomer of the year: Sepp Kuss

- Best single day of racing: Men's elite RR World Championship (honorable mention to Strade Bianche)
- Best stage race: Catalonia
- Best overall ride of the year: Marc Soler on the final stage of Paris-Nice
- Best climbing performance: most entertain climbing battle was Quintana/Bernal/Valverde at Catalonia, so that gets this award
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Valverde beating Sagan in stage 8 of la Vuelta
- Best designed race/stage: La Vuelta

- Most emotional moment: Valverde winning the Worlds
- Most underrated performance: Sepp Kuss at la Vuelta
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: since it didn't fit elsewhere for me Nibali at Milan-San Remo
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when ... happened Froome at the Giro
- Most terrifying moment: Philippe Gilbert's crash at the Tour
-Great moment of sportsmanship: This one is a co award: Alaphilippe and Valverde embracing on the podium after Alaphilippe won Fleche Wallone. Valverde and Sagan embracing on the World's podium after Sagan went out to presend Valverde with the gold medal.

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Rider of the year: Froome
Team of the year: Sky
Climber of the year: Simon Yates
Sprinter of the year: Viviani
Classics rider of the year: Nibali
Breakthrough of the year: Mas
Newcomer of the year: Bernal

Best day of racing: Il Lombardia
Best stage race: Il Giro
Best overall ride of the year: Froome Giro stage 18
Best climbing performance: Yates in the first 2.5 weeks of the Giro
Best/most entertaining sprint: implying there are entertaining sprints
Best designed race/stage: Il Giro

Most emotional moment: Nibali winning Milano Sanremo
Most underrated performance: Sagan PR? I feel like nobody is talking about that anymore
Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Simon Yates Giro d'Italia
My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when people were implying the 2019 Tour route has redeeming qualities
I literally laughed out loud when: Nibali grabbed 2nd at Il Lombardia

The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Richie Porte after the Tour represents my sentiment after the Alpe d'Huez broke back mountain saga

Jelle Wallays at la Vuelta

 

[tobydawq]

• 
  - Best rider of the year: Alejandro Valverde
  - Best team of the year: QuickStep
  - Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
  - Best time trialist of the year: Rohan Dennis
  - Best sprinter of the year: Dylan Groenewegen (he and Viviani had largely different schedules and only faced each other in Dubai and Paris-Nice, where the Dutchman won, and I had a feeling throughout the season that Viviani dodged his best rivals (probably through no intention of his own) and when he didn't, he only won because of his team).
  - Classics rider of the year: Peter Sagan (he and Terpstra are tied on big wins, so Sagan wins because he did it against QuickStep, not for them, even though Terpstra's win in E3 was much more impressive than Sagan's in GW).
  - Breakthrough of the year: Primoz Roglic (I will also make a mention of Matej Mohoric, Pascal Ackermann, Julian Alaphilippe (who of course has been a known entity for years, yet he had only won 6 pro races before 2018 in which he won 12), Michael Valgren, Enric Mas (my initial pick), Geraint Thomas (if a world class 32-year-old can have a breakthrough), Maximilian Schachmann, Wout Van Aert and Simon Yates).
  - Newcomer of the year: Egan Bernal (in front of Iván Sosa, Fabio Jakobsen and Sepp Kuss).
  
  - Best single day of racing: Giro stage to Bardonecchia. Simply a legendary day of cycling.
  - Best stage race: Il Giro d'Italia
  - Best overall ride of the year: Froome on the Finestre, Sestriere and Jafferau.
  - Best climbing performance: Simon Yates in the Giro
  - Best climbing performance relative to expectation: Magnus Cort on stage 14 in the Tour.
  - Best/most entertaining sprint: The Valverde-Bardet-Woods-Dumoulin showdown. It felt like the longest sprint I had ever watched. The Wallays-Bystrøm-Sagan sprint was also cool even though I hated the outcome.
  - Best designed race/stage: Giro d'Italia stage 19. They made it possible to open from far out. It could have been a let-down but the gamble paid off. It also kind of did so on stage 19 of the Tour. Stage 9 of the Tour was also brilliantly designed but didn't live up to the expectations.
  
  - Most emotional moment: Watching Valverde after having won the Worlds.
  - Most underrated performance: Mads Pedersen's second place in Flanders. Not that it's rated lowly, but the guy had been on the attack long before van Baarle and Langeveld got up to him, and he left them for dead anyway on the Kwaremont in his first ever participation as a 22-year-old after which he kept the same pace as Terpstra on the final part.
  - Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Dylan Teuns in the Vuelta. Five top 5's from breaks but no cigar. If you count non-victories in monuments as not rewarded, Pedersen must be mentioned again as well as Silvan Dillier in Roubaix. Oh, and I completely forgot the duo of Yates and Pinot in the Giro.
  - My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when Óscar Rodríguez of whom I had never heard before got up to and went past Majka and Teuns on la Camperona.
  - I literally laughed out loud when: Michal Kwiatkowski won the Dauphiné prologue because it again happened at the expense of Geraint Thomas who had crashed and also previously relinquished both the Volta ao Algarve and the Tirreno to Kwiato because of either weird tactics or accidents.
  - Most frustrating moment: Watching the Izagirre brothers crash on the final descent of Paris-Nice when it looked like one of them would finally win a non-Polish WT stage race. Also watching Valverde crack on the Vuelta stage 19 was saddening.
  
  The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award" - I don't know - probably some rider who rode up a few climbs in a wrong succession on too short a ride and then only had a few kilometres (too few!!) to time trial home afterwards.
  

 

[42x16ss]

Best rider of the year: Simon Yates
- Best team of the year: Quickstep
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Elia Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Vincenzo Nibali
- Breakthrough of the year: Enric Mas
- Newcomer of the year: Fabio Jakobsen

- Best single day of racing: Lombardia
- Best stage race: Paris-Nice
- Best overall ride of the year: Rohan Dennis Worlds TT
- Best climbing performance: S Yates at Sappada
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Alaphilippe at the Mur de Huy
- Best designed race/stage: Sappada in the Giro

- Most emotional moment: Nibali wins in Sanremo
- Most underrated performance: Matthews winning the Romandie prologue
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Kruiswijk on the way to Alpe d'Huez - go big or go home!
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when: That ride to Jafferau happened, finding out Nibali chased on at
Alpe d’Huez with a damaged vertebrae
- I literally laughed out loud when: Froome rode to Jafferau

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Nibali and Pinot for riding with some real guts at Lombardia

 

[tobydawq]

How could I forget about Kruijswijk's Alpe d'Huez ride?!?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

How could I forget about Kruijswijk's Alpe d'Huez ride?!?

Emotional suppression cause right after Nibali got taken out by a spectator and the stage was won by a Sky rider?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Best rider of the year: El Don, obviously
- Best team of the year: Quickstep
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Elia Viviani. Can't deny those wins
- Classics rider of the year: Hard one. Sagan? Dont know.
- Breakthrough of the year: Enrico Mas
- Newcomer of the year: Richie Carapaz

- Best single day of racing: Flanders, best race of the calendar.
- Best stage race: Paris-Nice or Pais Vasco as one week, Il Giro as GT
- Best overall ride of the year: Froomey, Bardonecchia
- Best climbing performance: Froome again, I also liked Quintana in the stage he won in TdF.
- Best/most entertaining sprint: No clue
- Best designed race/stage: Bardonecchia-stage, brilliant to mix the use of Finestre up, Il Lombardia has recently been designed very well, Pais Vasco much better than recently this year.

- Most emotional moment: Valv in Innsbruck
- Most underrated performance: How Bernal easily controlled the best climbers in the entire world
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: I would soon like Oliver Naesen to win some big races.
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when: Mads Pedersen was x10 better than I had anticipated in Flanders
- I literally laughed out loud when: Richie Porte got dropped super early in La Vuelta on the first stage and I realized for the 10th time that he is a joke of a bike rider.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

- Best rider of the year: Primož Roglič
- Best team of the year: Quick Step Floors
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Elia Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Niki Terpstra
- Breakthrough of the year: Egan Bernal
- Newcomer of the year: Eduard Prades or Dmitry Strakhov

- Best single day of racing: Paris-Nice stage 8
- Best stage race: Paris-Nice perhaps? Not really sure.
- Best overall ride of the year: Anna van der Breggen in Innsbruck. There's authoritative and there's authoritative.
- Best climbing performance: Raúl Alarcón, Volta a Portugal, or Sepp Kuss, Tour of Utah
- Best/most entertaining sprint: La Flèche Wallonne
- Best designed race/stage: Maybe Tirreno-Adriatico?

- Most emotional moment: Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig on the tarmac after La Course
- Most underrated performance: Lucinda Brand in the Giro - didn't think she had that level of climbing in her!
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Anna van der Breggen at La Course
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when ... happened: Aqua Blue disintegrated in a matter of hours from "will not continue next year because the owner has thrown a tantrum about not getting it as surprisingly easy as he did in the first year" to "these riders are without a home effective immediately"
- I literally laughed out loud when: I was talking to a colleague at work during stage 19 of the Giro, they asked me who I thought would win. I, only semi-seriously, said that I wouldn't write Froome off just yet, I feared he'd be let back into the race like Hesjedal was in 2012. Then we checked the live ticker.

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Gonzalo Najár

 

[Red Rick]

OMG LIBERTINE CHOSE A STAGE RACE WITH TTT AS BEST DESIGNED

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes, the TTT is precisely why the 'maybe' is there, because I'm loath to accept that, but with the Sassotetto and Filottrano stages and the finishing ITT being the right length to differentiate people but not long enough that it affects earlier action, it was otherwise a well-paced and structured event. And there was a paucity of races that really excelled themselves on that front this year. Paris-Nice was decent, Itzulia experimented but I'm not too sure I am in favour of how they did it, Dauphiné is back to trying to have no defining characteristics other than a Tour recce, none of the GTs grabbed the bull by the horns and there was no true standout small race. I quite liked the change of pace at the Volta though, with Senhora da Graça at the end and the Torre + Penhas da Saúde stage earlier.

 

[Rollthedice]

Best rider of the year: Dawg
- Best team of the year: Lefevere
- Best climber of the year: Yates S
- Best sprinter of the year: Vivi
- Classics rider of the year: Nibali
- Breakthrough of the year: Thomas
- Newcomer of the year: Mas

- Best single day of racing: Lombardia
- Best stage race: Giro
- Best overall ride of the year: Pinot, Lombardia
- Best climbing performance: Yates S
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Milano Sanremo
- Best designed race/stage: Giro

- Most emotional moment: Nibali MSR
- Most underrated performance: Nibali Alpe dHuez
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Krushweak on countless ocasions
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity whenever Yates dropped everybody in the Giro
- I literally laughed out loud - didn't all this year.

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award":
(You can name an individual rider, a group of riders, a team, a race or who/whatever you think fullfilled the spirit of this board the most during the year )

Richie Porte, always on the brink of glory never quite there.

 

[Parker]

I'm keeping this just to the Men for simplicity's sake (and we don't get to see much women's cycling). AVV and La Course may have figured otherwise

- Best rider of the year: Tom Dumoulin
- Best team of the year: Quick Step
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Tempted to say Nibali, but I'll go for Terpstra
- Breakthrough of the year: Primoz Roglic, although you can make a case for Geraint Thomas who's been around for ages
- Newcomer of the year: Sepp Kuss is the one I hadn't heard of pre-season. Also Mads Pedersen

- Best single day of racing: Giro Stage 19
- Best stage race: Giro
- Best overall ride of the year: Froome Giro stage 19 (probably the best ride of the decade)
- Best climbing performance: Froome Giro stage 19
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Sam Bennett's 1500m effort in the Tour of Turkey
- Best designed race/stage: (Broken record) Giro stage 19 - late in the race a stage with a huge climb in the middle followed by smaller climbs gave a platform for someone to try something special.

- Most emotional moment: Adrien Costa back on a bike and having fun
- Most underrated performance: Soler mugging Yates for Paris-Nice. (Also Puccio and Elissonde setting up Froome in the Giro)
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Pinot's Giro - like Yates but without the stage wins and jerseys
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when ... happened
Wallays held on to win his Vuelta stage - not least because I had predicted him to win the stage that day
- I literally laughed out loud when:
Froome got cleared. The outrage from the self appointed social media guardians of the sport was hilarious



I'll add my own category: Biggest let down - the cobbles stage of the Tour.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

- Best rider of the year: Bala
- Best team of the year: Quickstep
- Best climber of the year: S. Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Sagan
- Breakthrough of the year: E. Mas
- Newcomer of the year: Mohoric
- Best single day of racing: Lombardia
- Best stage race: Romandie was fun..
- Best overall ride of the year: Froome Giro
- Best climbing performance: Pinot x Nibali
- Best/most entertaining sprint: stage 5 Tour(Sagan x Bala x Gilbert x Ala x D Martin x GVA).. a rare top 10
- Best designed race/stage: Giro
- Most emotional moment: Bala Worlds
- Most underrated performance: Bardet year(Strade-2, L-B-L 3, World-2)
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: any of De Gendt solos..
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when ... Movistar announced 3 captains Tour..!?.. that went well..
- Most terrifying moment: M Goolaerts
-Great moment of sportsmanship: Also P-R, Turgis brothers saga...

 

[WheelofGear]

- Best rider of the year: Simon Yates
- Best team of the year: Quick Step
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Vivani by several bike lengths
- Classics rider of the year: Nibali
- Breakthrough of the year: Mas
- Newcomer of the year: Bernal

- Best single day of racing: Il Lombardia
- Best stage race: The Giro
- Best overall ride of the year: Froome, Bardonecchia
- Best climbing performance: Froome, Bardonecchia
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Valverde beating Sagan in the Vuelta
- Best designed race/stage: The Giro

- Most emotional moment: Nibali still geting 2nd in Lombardia after getting caught by the chasers.
- Most underrated performance: Carapaz in the Giro.
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Bernal in Lombardia.
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when ... happened: Nibali attacked again after getting caught in Lombardia.
- I literally laughed out loud when: Aru's time trial in the Giro.

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Nibali for caring on the spirit of Contador. True winners have a lot of flaws, ups and downs.
(You can name an individual rider, a group of riders, a team, a race or who/whatever you think fullfilled the spirit of this board the most during the year )

 

[Gigs_98]

Best rider of the year: Tom Dumoulin (maybe not the most successful rider of the season but the consistency he had over tour and giro was incredible)
Best team of the year: quickstep (easy one)
Best climber of the year: Simon Yates (there isn't really another pick that comes to my mind. Yates' peak climbing was obviously better than the climbing of anyone at the giro or the vuelta so I guess the only one who could challange him might be geraint Thomas and I just can't call freakin geraint thomas the climber of the year)
Best sprinter of the year: Viviani (? Not really an obvious pick for this category either)
Best classics rider: sagan (it feels like this category belongs to terpstra but at the end of the day Sagan simply won the bigger races)
Breakthrough rider: can't decide between Mas and Bernal
Rider who performed way better than expected: I just had to invent a category to somehow get Roglic into this list. The guy was incredible this year and showed potential I never thought he had.
Newcomer of the year: he hasn't even ridden an U23 race but evenepoel's burst onto the scene simply was one of a kind

Best single day of racing: Strade Bianche was absolutely incredible
Best stage race: Il Giro
Best ride of the season: Froome to Jafferau (absolutely unreal ride)
Best sprint: bala vs ala on the mur de huy
Best designed race: I honestly can't think of a single really well designed race this year but if I had to give it to some race it would be pais vasco


Most emotional performance of the year: Nibali winning MSR easily for me
Most underrated performance: Nobody is talking about wellens' incredible brabantse pijl solo. That was one hell of a win
Best unrewarded ride: so many options. Kruijswijk to alpe d'huez, schachmann almost stealing the win at the fleche wallone, ewan's incredible sprint in MSR
My jaw dropped when Oscar Rodriguez dropped the top climbers on la camperona
I literally laughed out loud when Nibali attacked right after being caught in Il lombardia

The true spirit of the cn forum award goes to...a forum member. Thanks to Red Rick for all the times his sarcastic posts made me laugh when I was actually completely pissed off by the whole cycling world

 

[Tonton]

Best rider: Simon Yates. Great Giro, redemption at the Vuelta, good for him.
Best disappointment: Nairo Quintana.
Valverde. He can win Wimbledon too.
Best breaking the curse: Benoot.
Best one-day race, sportsmanship award, Nibali and Pinot.

 

[Koronin]

Best rider: Simon Yates. Great Giro, redemption at the Vuelta, good for him.
Best disappointment: Nairo Quintana.
Valverde. He can win Wimbledon too.
Best breaking the curse: Benoot.
Best one-day race, sportsmanship award, Nibali and Pinot.

LOL, I think Valverde is more likely to race Paris-Roubiax (which he said the only way he'll be in that race is in the team car) than he is to participate in Wimbledon. :lol: :lol:

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Some of this is going to be rather predictable...

- Best rider of the year: Alejandro Valverde
- Best team of the year: Quickstep
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Elia Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Michael Valgren
- Breakthrough of the year: Pascal Ackermann
- Newcomer of the year: Wout van Aert (I'm not really sure if it qualifies, but seeing him in the big classics he's a newcomer)

- Best single day of racing: Ronde van Vlaanderen
- Best stage race: Giro d'Italia
- Best overall ride of the year: Froome to Bardonecchia
- Best climbing performance: Quintana to Arosa
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Tour de France stage 2 (Sagan beating Sonny Crockett the first of two times)
- Best designed race/stage: Giro d'Italia

- Most emotional moment: I really don't know. Nothing quite like last year or the years before.
- Most underrated performance: Nibali's win in MSR.
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Mads Pedersen in RVV. Ridiculous amount of time he was out on the front, and he was so close to holding on to Terpstra's wheel.
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when Froome's comeback happened.
- I literally laughed out loud when: Froome's comeback happened.

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Kruijswijk's solo attack on Col de la Croix de Fer

 

[Laplaz]

- Best rider of the year: Primoz Roglic
- Best team of the year: Quick-Step
- Best climber of the year: Simon Yates
- Best sprinter of the year: Elia Viviani
- Classics rider of the year: Vincenzo Nibali
- Breakthrough of the year: Matej Mohoric
- Newcomer of the year: Egan Bernal

- Best single day of racing: Il Lombardia
- Best stage race: Giro d'Italia
- Best overall ride of the year: Froome in Finestre stage
- Best climbing performance: Froome - Colle delle Finestre
- Best/most entertaining sprint: Fleche Vallone
- Best designed race/stage: Giro d'Italia

- Most emotional moment: Nibali in MSR
- Most underrated performance: Kruijswijk in Alpe d'Huez stage
- Most spirited ride that wasn't rewarded: Same as above
- My jaw dropped at orbital velocity when Froome attacked on Finestre
- I literally laughed out loud when: I never laugh

- The "True Spirit of the Cyclingnews Forum Award": Nibali & Pinot - Il Lombardia

 

[RedheadDane]

Best rider: Simon Yates. Great Giro, redemption at the Vuelta, good for him.
Best disappointment: Nairo Quintana.
Valverde. He can win Wimbledon too.
Best breaking the curse: Benoot.
Best one-day race, sportsmanship award, Nibali and Pinot.

LOL, I think Valverde is more likely to race Paris-Roubiax (which he said the only way he'll be in that race is in the team car) than he is to participate in Wimbledon. :lol: :lol:

Never say never.