Cycling News Best of 2012

A summary of reader votes

CyclingNews.com conducted a readers poll of the best in cycling from 2012. Sure you probably received tweets or facebook posts or updates on who was nominated for the best of 2012, but we all know nomination is far from winning. So who did win the BEST OF for 2012 - here is a list. Do you agree? I have to admit - I do.

 2012 

The best of cycling 2012
[read more about the runners up under each link below]

Best Team: Team SKY
Best Stage race: 2012 Tour de France
Best one-day race: 2012 Paris-Roubaix
Legend of Cycling: Oscar Freire
Best team bike: Specialized S-Works
Best Tech Invention: Disc brakes for road and cyclocross bikes
Biggest story of the year: USADA vs Lance Armstrong
Best female road biker: World Champion and Olympic gold medalist Marianne Vos of the Nederlands
Best male road biker: Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins from the UK
Best female mountain biker: Olympic gold medalist Julie Bressett from France
Best male mountain biker: World Champion Nino Schurter from Swizterland
Best cyclo-cross rider: Sven Nys of Belgium
Best track cyclist: Sir Chris Hoy

Other Best ofs:

• CyclingRanking.com lists Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver as the best overall road rider in 2012, if we want facts and not opinion.
• Photographer Brian Hodes of CyclingIllustrated shares his best cycling photos from 2012
• Andrew Hood of VeloNews.com brings us back to the top 6 sprints of 2012 
• USACycling.org awarded the best 2012 clubs of the year
• PezCycling offers their The PEZ Best And Worst Of 2012. I always enjoy reading their annual holiday greetings from the Pez correspondents. 
• Bicycling.com offers their top 50 bike-friendly cities in the USA of 2012.
• This year Bicycling.com also came out with their list of the 1 best bicycle ride in every state. 
• One of my favorite photographers Darrell Parks has compiled his 2013 Cycling Calendar
• CyclingNews.com Gallery: Season 2012 - The cycling year in photographs

This year I appreciated this photo taken by James Startt (of Bicycling) at the start of the Tour of Flanders in Bruges. I personally found the true meaning of being a cycling fan in Belgium this past spring. James (the Cultural Artist) compiled his other favorite photos taken at various races, while his side-kick Frankie Andreu (the Pragmatic Analyzer) adds additional comments to each photo. 2012 Pro Peloton in Pictures

Popular cycling video of 2012 - receiving 6,536,881 hits on YouTube: Martyn Ashton - Road Bike Party    

I am sure there will be more Best of lists in the coming week. For me, my best of 2012 was a hard list to create in a year full of many great experiences, but here they are:

PEDAL DANCER TOP 10 MOMENTS AS A TRAVELING CYCLE TOURIST IN 2012

1. Being with my family in the Rabobank VIP tent at the finish of the 2012 Tour of California in Los Angeles.
2. Being on the Kwaremont watching the 2012 Tour of Flanders.
3. Watching Tom Boonen ride through the Arenberg forest and win the 2012 Paris-Roubaix.
4. Having beers in Bruges Belgium with a brew master and my niece.
5. Discovering a new special bed and breakfast in Provence with impeccable French hospitality.
6. Having an incredible 4-course lunch with my friend Monica in Lastelle-Bétharram, France, and later riding up to the mountain top finish on Peyregudes for Stage 17 of the Tour de France.
7. Riding up and being on Mt Baldy with my brother and friend/photographer Willie at the 2012 Tour of California.
8. Discovering the beautiful Rhone River Valley between stages of the 2012 Tour de France.
9. Hanging out with Team SKY and BMC in Kortrijk, Belgium, as well as other stories from Belgium.
10. Meeting so many new fans, new friends, and seeing old friends again on travels and at races! 

Creating this list makes me realize there were so many travel stories I never got around to writing up in 2012, including some of these top 10 moments of 2012. I guess I was busy living it!

Happy New Year from me and my labradoodle Jack Denny! I hope 2013 is a great year for all of you.

Karen of PedalDancer.com at State Championships cyclo-cross in Colorado    
Photo by Photographer Annette Hayden

 2013 ... what adventures lie ahead ?? 

Details on 2012 Tour of California route

More details about the route  for 2012 

Tour of California adds more mountains and coastline to 2012 route By VeloNation

Read all the details on the Amgen Tour of California website: Specific Route Details Announced For 2012 Amgen Tour of California
  

2012 Stages:
May 13th – stage 1: Santa Rosa to Santa Rosa, 186.5km (115.9 miles)
May 14th – stage 2: San Francisco to Santa Cruz County, 188.5km (117.1 miles)
May 15th – stage 3: San José to Livermore, 185.5km (115.3 miles)
May 16th – stage 4: Sonora to Clovis, 209.6km (130.2 miles)
May 17th – stage 5: Bakersfield ITT, 29.7km (18.4 miles)
May 18th – stage 6: Palmdale to Big Bear Lake, 186.3km (115.7 miles)
May 19th – stage 7: Ontario to Mount Baldy, 126km (78.3 miles)
May 20th – stage 8: Beverly Hills to Los Angeles, 72km (44.7 miles)

 

Pedal Dancer Images from the 2011 Amgen Tour of California: some images I may not have used before in earlier posts - what it feels like to be a fan at the race. All ©Photos by PedalDancer™

Modesto, CA

Livermore, CA

San Jose, CA

Paso Robles, CA

Solvang, CA - Individual Time Trial

Claremont, CA

Santa Clarita, CA

Thousand Oaks, CA

 

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More photos from Stage 8 - start

A morning at the start of Stage 8 - Santa Clarita, CA

Roaming from bus to bus at a stage start results in all sorts of surprises ...

all Photos by PedalDancer.com           please click any to enlarge

Starting the morning off with Leopard Trek and a good healthy breakfast

Chris Horner (GC leader) enjoying another interview

Chris Horner (Radio Shack) signing more autographs

Tejay van Garderen (HTC) giving a lot of thought to his interview answers

Dario Mariuzzo Directeur Sportif (Diretorre Sportivo) (Liquigas-Cannondale) Italy

Allan Peiper Directeur Sportif ( HTC Highroad) Australia, nice guy

Rory Sutherland (United Healthcare) Australia

I am assuming he is an American, this BMC fan was at a number of the stages

Coen Vermeltfoort (Rabobank) Nederlands

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) Spain

Johan Vansummeren (Garmin Cervelo) Belgium

Matthew Busche (Radio Shack) USA

Matthew Hayman (Team Sky) Australia

Amaël Moinard (BMC) France

Chris Horner rolls to sign-in

At the Sign-in Area:

The scene at the sign-in stage

Svein Tuft, Andy Schleck, Jeffry Louder, and others

George signing autographs at the Sign-in area

Taylor Phinney

George Hincapie

Christian Van deVelde

Steve Morabito (BMC) Switzerland

Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) Luxembourg

And the final call up for the last stage of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California

Chris Horner rolls to the final start line

The riders waiting for the start

Another great day as a fan of pro cycling!
Read about the finish of the start at Final Stage of 2011 Amgen Tour of California Tuesday, May 24, 2011. I also met another fan mentioned in this blog post who blogs at Men in Spandex.  

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