Six of the most kick-ass riders of 2018 all nominated by the rather wonderful Lukas Knöfler. And yes, I’m sorry but you can only choose one of them! Vote now, or let us know in the comments if you have another name to throw in the hat.

Previous winners: 2016 – Megan Guarnier; 2017 – Annemiek van Vleuten

Annemiek van Vleuten

Annemiek van Vleuten had a spring campaign with a lot of near misses, but no victory. At the Bira, she gave her teammates carte blanche while she herself was watched, and Amanda Spratt won the thing. The Giro Rosa became an AvV triumph with three stage wins in the last four days and an unthreatened GC victory, and at La Course, she just pipped van der Breggen to the line after a 15km downhill chase. She repeated the three stage wins + GC at the Boels Ladies Tour, then became the World ITT Champion.

Anna van der Breggen

Before the 2018 season, there were two big scalps missing from Anna van der Breggen’s palmarès: The Ronde van Vlaanderen, and the World Championships. All her competitors knew that she would go for those two. Yet, they couldn’t respond when she went on her race-winning solos with 27 and 40km to go, respectively. That’s how good she was. Oh, and she also won Strade Bianche, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Durango-Durango. And in between her two peaks (spring and Worlds), she did a bit of mountain biking, taking silver in the Dutch championships.

Marianne Vos

Marianne Vos wasn’t as all-conquering this year as she has been in previous seasons. Or so we thought. Her first victory only came in July when she won the Giro Rosa stage to Breganze – but from there, she was firing on all cylinders. Vos won the BeNe Ladies Tour, she took two second places in the UK – RideLondon Classique and the European Championships – and then she went to Scandinavia. Vårgårda RR? Victory. Ladies Tour of Norway stage 1? Victory. Stage 2? Victory. Stage 3? You guessed it. The overall classification too, of course. A second place in Plouay finished off her season. Her road season, that is. Now she’s concentrating on cyclo-cross!

Amanda Spratt

2018 was Amanda Spratt’s breakthrough season. From January to October, she was up there with the very best. Top ten in Strade Bianche, Trofeo Binda and all three Ardennes races. Her biggest scalp came on stage 4 of the Bira where she launched a long-range attack on the famous Urkiola climb and soloed to stage and overall victory. At the Giro Rosa, she was an excellent lieutenant to Annemiek van Vleuten, winning a stage and the mountain jersey herself and placing third overall. Further top tens included La Course, Plouay, and the Boels Ladies Tour, and in Innsbruck she won the Worlds silver medal.

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio got her arms in the air twice on one fantastic weekend in Brittany for La Classique Morbihan and the GP de Plumelec-Morbihan Dames. The South African started her season with a second step on the podium and has been a mistress of top ten consistency all year. Second at Fleche Wallonne. Second overall at the Giro Rosa. Third at La Course after a gutsy solo breakaway. She’s a classy rider and teams up with Marianne Vos next year – now that’ll be a duo to watch!

Coryn Rivera

The American pocket rocket was our breakthrough rider of the year in 2017 and has kept the momentum going in 2018. She warmed up with a brace of stage victories at the Internationale Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour and then really hit her stride by taking another at the OVO Energy Women’s Tour on her way to top step of the overall podium. A battle royale at the US National Championships saw her parade the stars-and-stripes jersey on the podiums at the Ladies Tour of Norway, GP Plouay and the Madrid Challenge.

VOTE NOW!

Poll is open until 11.59pm on 14 December – after which, stay alert for our Awards podcast!