Philippe Gilbert has won the prestigious Velo d’Or award after dominating the one-day calendar and claiming 18 victories in 2011.
The destination of the trophy is decided by an annual poll of international journalists organised by the French Vélo magazine, with Gilbert comfortably winning with 89 points, ahead of Tour de France champion Cadel Evans (73 points) and world road race champion Mark Cavendish (54).
Gilbert, who finished the year number one in the UCI’s WorldTour rankings, claimed wins in every month he raced, bar October, with highlights including a hat-trick of Ardennes Classics wins (Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège) and the opening stage of the Tour de France, wear he also wore the yellow jersey.
Despite overall victories in the Tour of Belgium and Ster ZLM Toer, Gilbert will continue to target one-day races, and has set his sights on winning Milan-San Remo in 2012.
“Milan-San Remo is a very historic race, with a route that is practically always the same,” he told Vélo. “Eddy Merckx won it seven times, and I have the chance to ride the same route as he did thirty years ago. It’s good to be able to identify with the exploits of other generations, to superimpose the images. That’s what’s beautiful.”
He added: “I’ve never tried to win stage races, it’s something to be explored. But for now, I’m dreaming of one-day races. It’s one or the other, and I don’t want to make that choice yet.”
Gilbert, who will ride for BMC Racing in 2012, joins past winners like Miguel Indurain, Marco Pantani, Lance Armstrong, Mario Cipollini, Tom Boonen, Alberto Contado and Fabian Cancellara in being crowned the 19th Velo d’Or.
Thomas Voeckler won the Vélo d’Or Français for best French rider for the second successive year, having led the Tour de France for more than a week and eventually finishing fourth. His Europcar team-mate Pierre Rolland finish second, with track sprint world champion Grégory Baugé third.
Czech rider Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), winner of three stages of the Vuelta a Espana and the overall in the Tour of Poland, took the prize for best young rider, ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) and Matt Goss (HTC-Highroad).
Velo d’Or winners
1992 – Miguel Indurain (Spain)
1993 – Miguel Indurain (Spain)
1994 – Tony Rominger (Switzerland)
1995 – Laurent Jalabert (France)
1996 – Johan Museeuw (Belgium)
1997 – Jan Ullrich (Germany)
1998 – Marco Pantani (Italy)
1999 – Lance Armstrong (USA)
2000 – Lance Armstrong (USA)
2001 – Lance Armstrong (USA)
2002 – Mario Cipollini (Italy)
2003 – Lance Armstrong (USA)
2004 – Lance Armstrong (USA)
2005 – Tom Boonen (Belgium)
2006 – Paolo Bettini (Italy)
2007 – Alberto Contador (Spain)
2008 – Alberto Contador (Spain)
2009 – Alberto Contador (Spain)
2010 – Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)
