Cyclingnews 2003 Reader Poll Results

Best photo

Lance Armstrong avoids the fallen Joseba Beloki
Photo: ©AFP

It's not, by any stretch of the imagination the most technically wonderful image we've ever published, but this AFP photo of Lance Armstrong avoiding a fallen Joseba Beloki captured the most dramatic moment of a drama-filled 2003 Tour de France.

Nobody, least of all Armstrong, knew that Beloki had sustained a broken hip in this fall during stage 9, taking him out of a Tour in which he looked like a serious threat to Armstrong's dominance.

Both runner-up images feature the rider who gace us so many great memories in 2003: Tyler Hamilton. The first shows Hamilton powering away from the field in stage 16 despite the pain from his broken collar bone, while the second again has Hamilton displaying mind over matter as he approaches Luz Ardiden in stage 15. Two images that capture sheer grinta!

Results

                                                                     Votes     %ge
 
1 Lance Armstrong avoids the fallen Joseba Beloki in the Tour           76    16.9
2 Tyler Hamilton climbs away from the bunch in stage 16 of the Tour     32     7.1
3 Hard man Tyler Hamilton comes through the 2km to go mark              28     6.2
4 Lance Armstrong ascends to his win at Luz Ardiden                     26     5.8
5 Jan Ullrich rides in stage 19 of the Tour                             21     4.7
6 Tyler Hamilton makes his move in Liège-Bastogne-Liège                 20     4.4
6 Lance Armstrong realises that he has all but won his fifth Tour       20     4.4
8 Arctic conditions in stage 4 of the Ringerike Grand Prix              13     2.9
9 Two of Beloki's teammates stop and wait for him following his crash   11     2.4
10 Blue skies and plenty of dust at Paris-Roubaix                        9     2.0
11 Lance Armstrong's brake lever catches on a spectator's bag            8     1.8
12 Nathan Rennie executes a backflip                                     7     1.6
13 The aggression that won Vino the Amstel Gold                          6     1.3
13 Stefano Garzelli & Marco Pantani battle on the Zoncolan               6     1.3
13 Tyler Hamilton goes hard in the Tour stage 19 time trial              6     1.3
16 George Hincapie punches the air as the USPS team wins the Tour TTT    4     0.9
17 Alexandre Vinokourov holds up a picture of Andrei Kivilev             3     0.7
17 Jan Ullrich avoids running into Lance Armstrong & Iban Mayo           3     0.7
17 Tyler Hamilton (CSC) rides away from his breakaway companions         3     0.7
17 The Tour finale; Cooke & McEwen battle it out for the green jersey    3     0.7
17 Lance Armstrong runs down the embankment after Beloki's crash         3     0.7
24 Others                                                              143

Total                                                                  451