One of the annual traditions of Cyclocross Magazine is reflecting back on a year filled with reviewing products and award those that struck us as the best of the best in the realms of cyclocross, gravel and cycling gear. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be releasing all of the awards one day at a time. Be sure to keep checking back to see what products are most worth your hard-earned dollars. Issue 28 also has the Editors’ Awards and the Readers’ Choice awards, so be sure to order your backcopy today, which is also available on Uberflip, in the App Store on iTunes, and on Google Play for Android.
Jeremy Powers started on the front row in Tabor, but within a few turns found himself in the mid 20s. © Matthew Lasala / Cyclocross Magazine
In our 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards, we polled our readers in four categories: Best Improved Male and Female Cyclocrosser as well as Best Overall Male and Female Cyclocrosser, and you can see the full results of the Readers’ Choice Awards here.
For our Editors’ Racer Awards, we instead awarded the best domestic and international riders who displayed the best overall performance during the 2014/2015 season. To be clear, this is a measurement of four to six months of results rather than a snapshot of end-of-the-year performance that is often seen on Power Ranking type lists. Our choices are as follows:
2014/2015 Racer Awards
Male Domestic: Jeremy Powers
Female Domestic: Katie Compton
Euro Male: Mathieu van der Poel
Euro Female: Sanne Cant
Jonathan Page may have excelled at Tabor, but Jeremy Powers quietly raised the bar for Americans in World Cup performances. He proved to be Mr. Consistency in Europe, knocking out a top-ten overall placing in the World Cup and earning a front-row call-up at Worlds. Powers domestic results are also hard to argue with as he won all C1 races on the Pro CX Calendar save one, being bested by Danny Summerhill in Louisville.
Katie Compton might have had a rougher end to her European campaign, but like Powers, her domestic results are impressive, which were capped off with an 11-in-a-row National Championship victory at Austin. This season also saw Compton take her 100 UCI win, and she still remains the only American in the top ten UCI world ranking.
Sanne Cant has had a successful season, winning the World Cup and earning silver in Tabor, despite her frustration with being so close to gold. © Mathew Lasala / Cyclocross Magazine
Wout van Aert had a jaw-dropping November and December, Kevin Pauwels rode his way to an overall World Cup win, but Mathieu van der Poel, who we interviewed for Issue 28, had a performance of the ages starting from Europe’s Holy Week. The young Dutchman is already at the top of the sport, and although we might regret putting this in writing, it’s difficult to imagine him being able to hit yet another level.
Sanne Cant might not have the rainbow jersey, but she battled against illness in the late season to an impressive second place at Tabor. Setting her comeback story behind, no one has more impressive accolades than Cant for the full range of the season. She holds the first overall UCI ranking for a good reason, and next year she may be hungrier than ever.
Be sure to keep checking back to our Readers’ and Editors’ Award Pages for day by day updates.
