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VeloNews's North American Awards

By The Editors
Published: Nov. 29, 2002
Dionne turned in the ride of the year.
Dionne turned in the ride of the year.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

VeloNews’s North American Awards are for performances on North American soil.

RIDE OF THE YEAR
As the lead group approached the jam-packed Taylor Street climb at the San Francisco Grand Prix, every spectator was waiting for the inevitable last-lap attack from one of Postal’s big guns, Lance Armstrong or Viatcheslav Ekimov. But when the Russian veteran Ekimov made the move, he was shadowed immediately by young French-Canadian CHARLES DIONNE. After his undermanned 7UP-Nutra Fig team had kept things in check in the first half of the race, Dionne took over late, marking every important move in the closing miles, and then capping off the dream day by executing a perfect sprint to beat Henk Vogels to the line on the windswept Embarcadero. A postcard day for the San Francisco Grand Prix, and a brilliant ride to win the race.

BEST DAY OF RACING
The SATURN CLASSIC, since its creation in 2000, has always lived up to the oft-overused term “epic.” However, this year, the beautiful but challenging route from Boulder, Colorado to Breckenridge, served only as a backdrop for an emotional race that reminded many of us why we love the sport. Just four days after his father died, Chris Wherry had every reason in the world not to ride the Saturn Classic this August. Instead, the Mercury man, known for his selfless work as a team rider, turned the 140-mile race, with its 14,000 feet of climbing, into a fitting and touching homage to his father, Steve. As an exhausted Wherry worked his way up the final climb of the day, he struggled to pull out that extra bit of power that would keep him away from an elite group of chasers. “I really can’t explain it, but I really felt like my dad was out there with me, especially over those last 30 miles,” he said. Wherry rode alone into Breckenridge, greeted by a crowd of thousands and a family whose members found reason to celebrate Steve Wherry’s life as well as to mourn his passing.

MOUNTAIN-BIKE RACE OF THE YEAR
Even if it hadn’t been the finals of the NORBA series, the DOWNHILL AT MOUNT SNOW, Vermont, would have been a big deal. Like road racing’s spring classics or the cross-country at Houffalize, this race has become one of the most prestigious in professional downhilling. The course, with its giant rock garden and sketchy steeps, is as hard as it gets, and the crowds are always the circuit’s biggest and most boisterous. Throw in the fact that both overall series’ titles were on the line and the theatre couldn’t have been better, unless of course your name was Chris Kovarik. For the second straight year the Aussie saw his title run derailed by a major mechanical.

The VeloNews Awards appear in the December 16 issue
The VeloNews Awards appear in the December 16 issue

BEST MEN'S ROAD TEAM
In its five years of existence, the MERCURY cycling team set the standard for performance on the U.S. road scene. Even as the car company’s sponsorship drew to a close this season, the squad just kept on winning, including major events such as the First Union Classic, the USPRO Criterium, the Saturn Cycling Classic, the Mount Washington Hill Climb, Tour of the Gila, Cascade Classic and Manhattan Beach Grand Prix. The team finished on top of the Pro Cycling Tour standings, and was the No. 1 team in the USCF’s National Racing Calendar for the fourth time in five years.

BEST WOMEN'S ROAD TEAM
The UCI’s top-ranked team once again showed the domestic scene just what women’s racing could be by dominating the National Racing Calendar, seemingly at will. Before taking a sabbatical from the SATURN team in May, Lyne Bessette took the Sea Otter Classic, while German Judith Arndt won multiple stage races (Redlands, Solano, and the HP Women’s Challenge) and Petra Rossner took a fifth straight win at the First Union Liberty Classic. Kimberly Bruckner won at Cascade in preparation to repeat as national time trial champion, and the young Jessica Philips surprised everyone by taking the stars and stripes at road nationals.

MALE ROADIE OF THE YEAR
It’s hard not to root for CHRIS HORNER. Calm, confident and candid, the 30-year-old from San Diego set the domestic scene ablaze early, sweeping the season-opening Redlands, Sea Otter and Solano stage races in consecutive weeks. A broken foot in May slowed him at the Tour of the Gila, but he rebounded in June with an overall win at Fitchburg and a second place at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Another injury — a broken collarbone in July — may have cost him in the late season, but not enough to keep him from securing the NRC’s top individual ranking by nearly 300 points over Prime Alliance teammate Danny Pate.

FEMALE ROADIE OF THE YEAR
It was a career year for LAURA VAN GILDER, who topped the National Racing Calendar standings and the Pro Cycling Tour, posted major wins at the Tour of Somerville, Chris Thater Memorial and San Rafael Cycling Classic, and finished second at the First Union Liberty Classic. Long known for her sprinting prowess, Van Gilder showed off her versatility through the season with an aggressive, attacking style that paid dividends. To top things off, Van Gilder was selected to the U.S. team at the world championships for the first time.

MOUNTAIN-BIKE MAN OF THE YEAR
Conjuring up images of Juli Furtado in the mid-1990s, ROLAND GREEN swept the NORBA cross-country series, winning all five races en route to his second consecutive overall title. Throw in a couple of NORBA short-track wins as well as the Sea Otter stage race and nobody came close to Green’s season-long dominance in North America.

MOUNTAIN-BIKE WOMAN OF THE YEAR
What a difference 12 months can make. While 2001 was a good year for the perky 30-year-old Argentinean, JIMENA FLORIT had a truly break-through season in 2002. While some dismissed her series-opener victory at Big Bear as an early-season fluke, 2002 continued to shine with three more National Cross-country victories culminating in her first National Cross-country Points Series Championship. Four second-place finishes in National Short-track events solidified her second place standing in the overall National Points standings. Not bad for a former bicycle journalist.

TRACK MAN OF THE YEAR
Always among the top U.S. track riders for the last decade, JAME CARNEY had one of his best years ever in 2002. At track nationals, he took home three gold medals — in the points race, Madison and team pursuit — and one silver, in the 10-mile scratch race.

TRACK WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Following another stellar campaign, TANYA LINDENMUTH cemented her standing as America’s top female track racer. The 23-year-old won two national titles, the match sprint and 500-meter time trial, and added a TT gold at the World Cup race in Sydney.

CYCLO-CROSS WOMAN OF THE YEAR
At the national championships in Baltimore, ALISON DUNLAP romped to a fifth straight national title and won the SuperCup race the following day. (She also narrowly missed the podium at the world championships, finishing fourth.) Dunlap keeps a low profile early in the U.S. ’cross season, but in recent years she has been unbeatable when it counts.

CYCLO-CROSS MAN OF THE YEAR
At this time last year, VeloNews voted TODD WELLS’s 2001 mountain-bike season as the “Comeback of the Year.” Well, turns out he wasn’t quite done, because he kept on rolling all the way to the national cyclo-cross title. And at the start of the 2002-03 ’cross season, he has continued to make his mark with big UCI wins in Seattle and New England.

MALE JUNIOR OF THE YEAR
American TYLER FARRAR joined an elite group when he won the only UCI junior world cup race in North America, the Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada. He finished the year ranked 12th in the UCI’s world rankings, and had two top-20 finishes at the road world’s in Zolder, Belgium. A crash and broken collarbone dashed his hopes at junior road nationals, but he collected gold medals in the individual pursuit, team pursuit and Olympic sprint at junior track nationals.

FEMALE JUNIOR OF THE YEAR
Junior women across the country will breathe a collective sigh of relief in 2003, when the 18-year-old MAGEN LONG will graduate into the world of elite-category racing, where it seems she has belonged for years. Last year’s VeloNews Junior of the Year gave us no reason to change our minds, as she was the top American junior at both the world mountain-bike cross-country race, where she placed 12th, and the worlds road race, where she took fifth. Here in the states, the Specialized rider took cyclo-cross nationals by nearly two minutes and dominated junior road nationals, winning both the criterium and road race and placing second in the time trial.

AMATEUR ROAD RACER OF THE YEAR
For the 24-year-old TOM DANIELSON, 2002 truly was a breakthrough season. A student at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, the SoBe-HeadShok mountain biker began the year racing on the road as a Cat. III looking for condition. After studying Danielson’s power-to-weight ratios, Fort Lewis coach Rick Crawford had other ideas, and encouraged Danielson to enter the Tour of the Gila road race, where he impressed with a third-place on the 100-mile second stage, behind Mercury’s Scott Moninger and Chris Wherry. He ended the final stage with an impressive counterattack against Prime Alliance’s Chris Horner— whom he eventually placed ahead of in the final GC— and earned a pro contract from Mercury.

COLLEGIATE TEAM OF THE YEAR
The UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO pulled off one of its most successful seasons in history in 2002. The Buffaloes followed up a second-place team showing at road nationals with a team omnium victory at mountain-bike nationals. The team proved itself to be the strongest and most versatile in the U.S., with standout riders Darby Thomas and Kathy King dominating the road, and Steve Wentz and Jennifer Gersbach ruling the off-road scene. CU faced stiff competition from road champion UC Berkeley and mountain-bike runner-up Fort Lewis, but proved to be the more well-rounded team.

COLLEGIATE MAN OF THE YEAR
For the first time the award goes to a Banana Slug, although the UC Santa Cruz cycling team often consisted solely of BEN JACQUES-MAYNES. In between studying and racing for the Sierra Nevada road team, Jacques-Maynes took third in the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference individual omnium on the strength of his solo efforts. At the NCCA road nationals in Burlington, Vermont, he narrowly took the Division I omnium title over identical twin brother Andy (UC Berkeley) by placing second in the criterium and third in the road race.

COLLEGIATE WOMAN OF THE YEAR
UC Berkeley’s KATE MAHER wins this award for the second year in a row. But while last year’s honor was based largely on her mountain-bike performance, this year it was Maher’s near-sweep at road nationals that set her apart from the field: 1st road race, 1st criterium, 3rd team time trial, 1st individual omnium. And to top things off, Maher helped propel Berkeley to its first national team championship.

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
When DUSTIN ADAMS crossed the line in third place at the NORBA season opener, few people had heard the young Canadian downhiller’s name. Indeed, Adams had missed the better part of the previous two seasons with a slew of injuries (a broken wrist and separated shoulder among them) and all but dropping off the pro mountain biking radar. But after finally getting — and staying — healthy in 2002, Adams had a breakout year, finishing third in the final NORBA downhill standings, missing the podium just once. Adams was also the top North American in the World Cup series and at the world championships, proving two things: Americans have slipped even further down the downhill ladder, and not all Canadians want to grow up and be free-ride film stars.

MASTERS RACERS OF THE YEAR
It’s hard to believe KENT BOSTICK is 47 years old. The 1996 Olympian is no longer the dinosaur of the pro circuit, but he’s doing much damage in the masters ranks. You need all your fingers and some of your toes to count the number of elite national titles Bostick has, and he scored a few masters medals this year when he swept the 45-49 time trial, road race and criterium events at road nationals. On the track, Bostick demolished the 45-49 world record in the pursuit with a time of 3:21.065, shaving 15 seconds off the previous best time.

In July, SUZIE TIGNOR took fourth in the criterium at masters road nationals. In August, she swept the women’s 35-39 age group at masters track nationals, winning the 500-meter time trial, the match sprints, the points race and the 2000-meter time trial. A month later, she won the best rider award in her age group at the world masters track championships after taking two golds (match sprint, 500m time trial) and a bronze (2000m pursuit.)


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