MALE RIDER OF THE YEAR
5 JOHN ARCHIBALD
The Scot may only have ridden a handful of races this year, but he made them all count.
He began the season in January at the National Track Championships, plying the trade he is perhaps best known for. He won gold in the individual pursuit and in the team pursuit too, alongside his HUUB-Wattbike track team-mates.
After a six-month hiatus due to Covid-19, the 30-year-old pinned a number on again for some events against the clock. Again, top races including the National 25-mile Championship, the National Closed Circuit Championship at Thruxton, and the National Circuit Championship. He won them all. He also won the tough Velo Club Cumbria 50. In the only time trial he didn’t win he was beaten into a close second by Ribble-Weldtite team-mate Dan Bigham.
Archibald has made the most of a barren year for many domestic racing cyclists. With his girlfriend Emily Meakin also replete with time trial medals, between them they are probably going to need to find a bit more shelf space.
4 ADAM YATES
The UAE Tour in February was hit by the global spread of Covid-19. The last two stages were cancelled after two riders tested positive, while the rest were forced to self-isolate in their hotels, waiting to see if they were in the clear. It all rather overshadowed Adam Yates’s GC win – one of the biggest of his career. It included a solo stage win at Jebel Hafeet, where the runner up was a certain Tadej Pogačar.
Post lockdown the Mitchelton-Scott rider put in a workmanlike performance at the Criterium du Dauphine before starting the Tour de France with the ‘less GC-more stage wins’ approach. The Bury boy bared his climbing teeth as early as stage two, inserting himself into second place overall behind Julian Alaphilippe. It was a move that paid off as after the Frenchman
