VeloVoices Awards 2015: Best Social Media User

Twitter is brilliant, is it not? You can engage with cyclists, see pictures of their weddings, of their road rash, of their tattoos. Plus we have some of the best and funniest commentators as well. Here’s a hearty mix of both in the nominee list for Best Social Media User. (I need to think of a catchier name for this award!)

Previous winner: 2014 – Taylor Phinney.

This year’s nominees are:

Ted King: @iamtedking The Maple Syrup King might have retired, but he’s still tweeting strong! Ted’s tweets during his last season as a pro rider gave us the opportunity to live all those great moments with him before he retired. That he is always happy to engage with fans on Twitter is icing on the cake.

Team FDJ: @EquipeFDJ For their racing emoji tweets, the juxtaposition of the Madiot vs Tinkov blogs on Cycling News, the jaw-dropping moment when we found out Madiot knows how to WhatsApp(!) and let’s not forget the pictures from the team bus! The French team have really upped their game and engaged with all their fans this year. More next year and not just the Tour de France, please.

Dan Wuori: @dwuori Time magazine’s Man of the Year*, Dan Wuori rules the Twittersphere during the cycling season (*this isn’t really true). His race tweets are a joy to behold and he’s a dab hand with PhotoShop – he’s my go-to guy for Tweets of the Week. Most importantly, he’s funny without being vicious – or in other words, he’s just on the right side of not being a dick, a phrase that is going on his business cards.

InnerRing: @inrng When Twitter goes into a screaming tantrum, it is InnerRing who calmly and objectively gets to the heart of the matter. Balanced, knowledgeable, and willing to answer stupid questions with patience (all three quite rare on Twitter most days!), when you want to know the facts, ma’am, he’s your man.

Pippo Pozzato: @PippoPozzato Tattoos. Emojis. Nakedness. No, it’s not a pornbot, it’s Pippo Pozzato. His tweets might be strange combinations of symbols and Italian, but they’re so primal, you catch the meaning rather quickly.