Olympic Road Race champion Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) has been awarded the Flandrien of the Year title at a ceremony this evening in the Casino of Ostend, which is the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time in total that he has won the award.
Van Avermaet was up against Tom Boonen, Thomas de Gendt, Timothy Dupont and Tim Wellens for the award. However, it was hard to see anybody but Van Avermaet winning.
In addition to winning the Olympic Road Race, the rider from Lokeren also won the GP de Montréal, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Tirreno-Adriatico and a stage of the Tour de France in addition to wearing the yellow jersey for three days.
The Flandrien of the Year is an annual award presented by the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad to the best Belgian cyclist of the year.
The prize has been awarded since 2003 and was originally awarded based on a vote by the public, and open to any nationality. Since 2008, people from within the world of cycling choose the winner from a jury’s list of nominees, with only Belgian riders eligible to win the award.
Other winners were Jolien D’hoore who won Flandrienne of the Year, Peter Sagan who won International Flandrien of the Year and Wout van Aert who won Flandrien of the Field. In addition, the recently-retired Fabian Cancellara won a Lifetime Achievement award.
