World champion Lizzie Armitstead and Tour de France winner Chris Froome are among 12 nominees for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
The two British cyclists are joined by the likes of Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, new world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury and Davis Cup hero Andy Murray.
They have been nominated after each enjoying phenomenal years on the bike, with Armitstead having also won the UCI Women’s Road World Cup courtesy of three victories.
In addition, the Yorkshire-born ace won the final two stages of the Tour of Qatar to seal overall victory, the 1.1-classified Boels Rental Hill Classic and the first stage of the Aviva Women’s Tour.
After crashing into photographers after the finish line at the latter, she then recovered from injury to win the national road race just 12 days later, before crowning a superb year with her world championship win in Richmond, USA.
She is one of three women nominated for the coveted BBC award, with fellow Yorkshirewoman Jessica Ennis-Hill, who made a winning return to the heptathlon after the birth of her son, also nominated after claiming world championship gold.
Manchester City Women’s footballer Lucy Bronze is the other female nominee, after playing a starring role as England finished third in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
They are joined on the shortlist by nine men, with Tour champion Froome among the nominees for the second time.
Froome was nominated after his 2013 Tour victory, finishing sixth in the voting, and is up for the award again after re-claiming the yellow jersey.
Having also won the Ruta del Sol and Criterium du Dauphine – the latter thanks to back-to-back stage wins on the final weekend – Froome then blasted to victory at the Tour.
His consistent performances in the tricky first week handed him the yellow jersey, before he powered to what proved to be an unassailable lead on La Pierre-Saint-Martin.
A resilient ride in the final weeks, as Nairo Quintana piled the pressure on, ensured a second Tour de France win in three years – the first Brit to win cycling’s most prestigious prize twice.
Athlete Mo Farah is also nominated, thanks to his double success at the Beijing World Championships – his 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals making him the first man to win two athletics event at two World Championships and an Olympics.
Fury, who beat Wladimir Klitschko at the weekend to become Britain’s first world heavyweight boxing champion for six years is another nominee, while last year’s winner Hamilton is up for the award again after winning his third Formula One title.
Murray, who won the award in 2013, is also nominated again after winning all 11 of his Davis Cup matches in the year as Great Britain won for the first time in 79 years.
Rugby League legend Kevin Sinfield, who ended his rugby league career by leading Leeds Rhinos to the treble, and swimmer Adam Peaty, a three-time world champion, also join Froome and Armitstead among the nominees.
And gymnast Max Whitlock – the first man to win World Gymnastics gold for Great Britain – and long jumper Greg Rutherford, the reigning world, European, Commonwealth and Olympic champion, complete the shortlist.
If Froome or Armitstead were to win, it would be the fifth time a cyclist has been crowned Sports Personality of the Year, after Tom Simpson (1965), Sir Chris Hoy (2008), Mark Cavendish (2011) and Sir Bradley Wiggins (2012).
Lizzie Armitstead (cycling)
Chris Froome (cycling)
Lucy Bronze (football)
Jessica Ennis-Hill (athletics)
Tyson Fury (boxing)
Andy Murray (tennis)
Kevin Sinfield (rugby league)
Lewis Hamilton (Formula One)
Adam Peaty (swimming)
Max Whitlock (gymnastics)
Greg Rutherford (athletics)
Mo Farah (athletics)
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