A great honour and achievement for Sam Bennett who made the nomination list (final 15) this year. The Vélo d’Or (French for “Golden Bicycle”) is a cycle racing award, created in 1992 by the French cycling magazine Vélo Magazine. The award is given annually to the rider considered to have performed the best over the year. Last year Julian Alaphilippe took the title, Bernal (2nd) and Roglic (3rd) were allowed on the podium of the Vélo d’Or. The only Belgian in the top 10 was Remco Evenepoel in 9th place. This season there are 2 Belgians among the 15 nominees: again Remco Evenepoel and (of course) Wout van Aert. Evenepoel won all stage races in 2020 in which he participated: the Tour of San Juan, the Tour of Algarve, the Tour of Burgos, and the Tour of Poland. In the Tour of Lombardy, his season ended abruptly due to a fall over a wall. This year Van Aert won Milan-Sanremo, Strade Bianche, 2 Tour stages, 1 stage in the Dauphiné, and the Belgian time trial. He also collected second places at the World Championship time trial, the World Championship on the road, and the Tour of Flanders. The last Belgian to win the Vélo d’Or was Philippe Gilbert in 2011. Tom Boonen (2005) and Johan Museeuw (1996) also won the prestigious prize.
The 15 nominee’s
Julian Alaphilippe (Fra)
Sam Bennett (Ier)
Remco Evenepoel
Caleb Ewan (Aus)
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra)
Jakob Fuglsang (Den)
Filippo Ganna (Ita)
Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr)
Marc Hirschi (Zwi)
Daniel Felipe Martinez (Col)
Tadej Pogacar (Svn)
Primoz Roglic (Svn)
Wout van Aert
Anna van der Breggen (Ned)
Mathieu van der Poel (Ned)
The podium’s of the Velo-D’or since 1992
