For the rider who has captured our imagination, had us on the edge of our seats, and made us reel with admiration it’s the coveted VeloVoices Rider of the Year. Women’s cycling goes from strength to strength and this year we have two current World Champions, a cycling legend (and former World Champion), plus a Classics firebrand!

Voting ends on 14 December 2019 at 11.59PM, GMT. If you think there’s someone who should be on the list, there’s a write-in option on the poll at the bottom of the post! 

Annemiek van Vleuten

Both Lukas and Sheree have picked Annemiek van Vleuten 

Lukas: Strade Bianche. Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Dutch ITT champs. The Giro Rosa (general, points and mountains) plus two stages. The prologue in the Boels Ladies Tour. Finally, the World Road Race Championships. That’s the races Van Vleuten won, every time (when it was a road stage) with an impressive, often long-distance solo. Her pièce de résistance came in Yorkshire where she attacked on the second climb of the day, over 100km from the finish, and … just … kept … going. Four days earlier, she had lost ‘her’ rainbow jersey – the ITT one -, now she had it back. Oh, and she also finished second in Flanders, Amstel, and Flèche, and drilled the pace on the last Giro Rosa mountain stage to put her teammate Amanda Spratt on the podium.

Sheree: What can you say about the 37-year-old Annemiek that hasn’t already been said? Her impressive win at the World Championships might have filled a gap in her impressive palmares but the way she won that rainbow jersey will go down in history …

Chloe Dygert

Luke: After sustaining a concussion last May, 2019 marked a triumphant return to fitness for Chloe Dygert. She took victories at Joe Martin Stage Race, Tour of the Gila, the and Pan American Games. She went on to dominate at the Colorado Classic in August, winning all stages and jersey classifications. When Worlds came knocking late September, Dygert was a time triallist in a world of her own. With a winning margin of more than one and a half minutes over Anna Van der Breggen, Chloe stamped her authority on the world stage and solidified her place as a top Olympic competitor come 2020.

Marianne Vos

Kathi: Ending the road racing season in second place in the UCI Rankings, the Dutch legend won three stage races: Tour …. de l’Ardeche, incl the points jersey, second in QOM and taking five out of the seven stages; Tour of Norway (her third consecutive win here) including three out of the four stages; Tour of Yorkshire, including one stage, plus second in points jersey. She also won La Course for the second time; Trofeo Alfrdo Binda for the fourth time; won four stages of the Giro Rosa (increasing her total stage wins for this race to a whopping 25). Vos is a truly magnificent competitor and a great ambassador for women’s cycling. She was also voted into the Rouleur Cycling Hall of Fame and won the UCI Women’s World Tour 2019 Best Rider.

Marta Bastianelli

Midge: There is nothing I enjoy more than those feisty spring and autumn classics and Marta Bastianelli has ticked all those boxes this season. The Italian rider had a blitzing spring finishing top 10 in every race she started. Fourth at Strade Bianche and Gent-Wevelgem, second in Omloop het Nieuwsblad and Dwars door Vlaanderen, first at Ronde van Drenthe before sprinting her way to Tour of Flanders glory. She finished her season on the top step of the podium at the GP Beghelli. Don’t be fooled into thinking the summer was a barren wateland though. Oh no, my favourite Marta performance came when she beat Marianne Vos at her own game with a swift ,smart sprint to claim Vagarda West Sweden – the first Italian to do so and while wearing her new Italian road race champion’s jersey.