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Cyclingnews 2005 Reader Poll Results
Best Male road rider
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Tom Boonen just keeps getting better. In his 25th year, the Belgian racked up wins in 14 races, ending the season as World Road Champion in Madrid. That, combined with his classy double at the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix might have been enough on its own to give him Male Road Rider of the Year, but he didn't stop there. In the Tour de France, he won two stages and wore the green jersey for a time until a crash forced him to abandon. He also won the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, one of Belgium's top semi-classics, the Tour of Belgium, and two stages in Paris-Nice.
In our poll, Boonen scored nearly double the votes of Lance Armstrong, who finished his career this year with a victory in the Tour de France. The Tour is always worth a lot of kudos, and Armstrong has stood atop the podium in Paris on seven consecutive occasions. Along the way, he won the final stage time trial, his only other victory in 2005.
In third place, on 921 votes, is Danilo Di Luca. The Killer from Spoltore won the first ProTour this year with a strong performance in the spring races, backed up by a fourth overall in the Giro d'Italia and a solid late season. His victories included the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and two stages in the Giro, a race that he intends to target in 2006.
Honourable mentions in our poll go to Ivan Basso, who was second in the Tour de France, rode a great Giro d'Italia, and won four stages and the overall of the Post Danmark Rundt; and George Hincapie, who had his best season to win five races, including a stage in the Tour de France, two stages in the Dauphiné Libéré, the GP Ouest France Plouay, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, and second in Paris-Roubaix.
Results
Votes %ge 1 Tom Boonen 2696 37.2 2 Lance Armstrong 1478 20.4 3 Danilo Di Luca 921 12.7 4 Ivan Basso 473 6.5 5 George Hincapie 405 5.6 6 Paolo Bettini 361 5.0 7 Alessandro Petacchi 120 1.7 8 Alejandro Valverde 119 1.6 9 Jan Ullrich 118 1.6 10 Dave Zabriskie 109 1.5 11 Paolo Savoldelli 103 1.4 12 Please select one 100 1.4 13 Robbie McEwen 99 1.4 14 Michael Rasmussen 54 0.7 15 Levi Leipheimer 30 0.4 16 Thor Hushovd 21 0.3 17 Denis Menchov 19 0.3 18 Jose Rujano 17 0.2 Total 7243
