2007 Year in Review & Awards

Season Review

2007, what a year it was for professional cycling. Fantastic racing which was sadly overshadowed by more drug scandals. The early season classics were a joy to behold, as was the Giro. The Dauphine Libere was a bit of a let down because, once again, the "big boys" decided to keep their powder dry for le Tour. Speaking of which, it was a fantastic race to watch. Despite the expulsions of Rasmussen (ex-Rabobank) and Vinokourov (ex-Astana), the Pyreneean stages were some of the most exciting cycling I saw last year. August and September showed once again how badly the calendar needs to be revamped. Too many races in too short of a time. Chapeau to Christophe Moreau (ag2r) and Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) for their great, attacking wins in the Dauphine and the GP Ouest France-Plouay, respectively. It would be great to see France make a renaissance in cycling; we haven't seen a Frenchman seriously challenge for a Grand Tour win since Richard Virenque (then Festina) in 1997. However, there don't seem to be any real up-and-coming French prospects in road cycling.

The latter part of the season was pretty interesting, although la Vuelta was more or less a wash for Denis
Menchov (Rabobank). Three stages combined for Peta' and Erik made this Milram fan happy. Serious props to Menchov for salvaging his season after working like an ox for Rasmussen in le Tour. Bennati's form over the latter part of the season should have merited a place in the Italian team for the Worlds, but the FCI Directeur Sportif Franco Ballerini built his team around Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step) and it paid off . Two World Championships in two years for Il Grillo and I can see him retiring this year if he wins another Olympic title. The late season classics were overshadowed by the polemics between Danilo di Luca (Liquigas) and the UCI. His involvement in the Oil for Drugs scandal resulted in a farcical 4-month ban, but, more importantly, the loss of his ProTour leaders' jersey to Cadel Evans. Evans certainly deserved the win for his form and tremendous grit over the course of the season, but he surely would rather have won it in a different way. Petacchi (Milram) took his first win in Paris-Tours while Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital) closed the season with his second win in the Giro di Lombardia after beating one of the revelations of the season, Ricardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) in the sprint.

The Six-Day season was once again dominated by the Swiss duo of Bruno Risi and Franco Marvulli. Although Erik Zabel & Leif Lampater gave them a good run in the early part of the campaign, their domination was finally broken by Iljo Keisse and Robert Bartko in Ghent. The British, Dutch and French reigned supreme in the first two Track World Cups and are surely expecting a big haul in the Worlds and Olympics this year. One of my favorite riders, Chris Hoy (GB) has done a fantastic job of transitioning from a World Champion in the 1 kilometer Time Trial to a challenger for the same in the Keirin; big ups to Chris for that, and I hope, as he does, that the UCI has the sense to bring back the "kilo" (although we must remember that this is the UCI we're talking about).

Cyclocross has once again been the personal domain of "King 'Cross", Sven Nys. Although he suffered a few defeats in the early part of the season, including Neils Alberts Superprestige win in Gieten, which ended Nys' streak of 13 consecutive Superprestige victories, his dominance over the Christmas/New Year's period has shown that he is still the best 'Cross rider in the world.

2007 Awards:

Best Cyclo-Cross Rider: Sven Nys (Rabobank), for his ability to seemingly win at will.

Best Track Rider: Tie between Chris Hoy (GB), because of his incredible ability to transition from the best "kilo" rider in the world to the best Keirin rider, and the duo of Risi (SUI) and Marvulli (SUI) for their domination of the Six-Days.

Best Stage Race: le Tour de France, for all of the drama that surrounded it and the cliff-hanger of an ending.

Best One-Day Race: Tie between Paris-Roubaix and de Ronde van Vlaanderen, for their gritty winners and great attacking cycling.

Best Grand Tour Route for 2008: Il Giro d'Italia, for the simple audacity of having a mountain time trial up the Kronplatz.

Best Moment: The final 10 kilometers of de Ronde, because of the fantastic suspense and Ballan's amazing come-from-behind win.

Bike of the Year: Cervelo SLC-SL, it is simply the fastest and most beautiful bike on the market today. I love the styling of the Pinarello Prince, but the SLC-SL's aerodynamics seal it for me.

Most Improved Rider: Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), for going from a Grand Tour also-ran to a serious challenger.

Most Underrated Rider: Alessandro Petacchi (Milram); for the last three years people have been predicting the fall of Ale-Jet, but once again it has failed to occur.

Most Underperforming Rider: Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital). I love the guy, he's a great attacking rider who can climb and sprint, but he hasn't showed up in the Giro since he won in 2004.

Worst Rider of the Year: Tie between Alexandre Vinokourov (ex-Astana) and Michael Rasmussen (ex-Rabobank), for obvious reasons.

Revelation of the Year: Andy Schleck (CSC); second in the Giro and the Best Young rider. Expect big things from this kid in the coming years.

Legend of Cycling: Peter van Petegem (Predictor-Lotto), who retired this year, was a fantastic rider in the early season classics, a great rival of Johan Museeuw, and one of few men to win de Ronde and Paris-Roubaix in the same season.

Best Female Road Rider: Tie between Marianne Vos (DSB Bank), for showing everyone why she deserved to be the World Champion last year and for her win in the World Cup, and Nicole Cooke (Raleigh-LifeForce), who would have won this award handily if she hadn't been injured for the latter part of the season and lost the World Cup as a result, in the final race.

Best Male Road Rider: Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel); although he only rode a few races, he won when it counted and was very exciting in the Pyrenees during the Tour. I think the 2010 Tour may be a duel between Contador and Andy Schleck, and what a race that will be!

Best Road Team: CSC barely squeaks this over Lampre-Fondital, who were very consistent and always threatening throughout the course of the season. The Danish-based team wins because of their better GC performances in the Grand Tours.

Rider of the Year: Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), for his amazing consistency and because he fought so hard for his high places in the Tour and Vuelta. He is one rider who I have no doubt is clean; he finished second in the Tour because of sheer determination in the Pyrenees and the final time trial.

Congratulations to all the winners and here's to a fantastic (and clean) season of racing in 2008!