The UCI celebrated the winners and protagonists of the 2015 road season at the inaugural Cycling Gala and dinner in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, a few hours after the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Tour race, as the curtain fell on the long professional road season in northern Europe.
Riders, team representatives, members of the UCI Management Committee, local officials, sponsors and guests gathered in the du Forum near Yas Marina. The event was organised by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council.
All three Grand Tour winners were present at the event, with Alberto Contador and Chris Froome flying in to collect their awards, as did Nairo Quintana, who travelled from his home in Colombia to celebrate his third place in the final WorldTour ranking and Movistar's prize for topping the WorldTour team ranking for another year. Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) was also congratulated for winning the Abu Dhabi Tour.
ADVERTISEMENT
Peter Sagan stole the show by ignoring requests to wear a suit. He turned up in a red T-shirt, leather jacket and boots and punched the air as he collected a framed rainbow jersey from UCI President Brian Cookson. He later broke the glass to pull on the rainbow jersey for some final photographs but also wished Tom Boonen a rapid recovery after his nasty crash during stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour.
"I'm very proud of the rainbow jersey and I hope I can be a good world champion. This jersey is maybe a bit heavy but I will try to do my best," Sagan said sincerely.
Seventeen athletes were given awards for success on the road and in time trials during the evening, while Bradley Wiggins and Molly Shaffer Van Houweling were awarded special prizes for setting new men's and women's Hour Record. Surprisingly, Van Houweling was the only woman to collect an award. World champion Lizzie Armitstead was unable to attend and the Velocio-SRAM team was not given an award for its Team Time Trial victory in Richmond, even though the BMC men's team was.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/1LKfumx
No comments:
Post a Comment