Cyclingnews 2006 Reader Poll Results

Best female cyclo-cross rider

Marianne Vos (Ned) wins
Photo ©: Roberto Bettini

She's young, she's won two world championships in a single year, and she's stood atop podiums in three different disciplines in her short career. Now, 19 year old Marianne Vos stands high on the podium of the 2006 Cyclingnews reader poll as best female cyclo-cross racer. The reigning world champion in both 'cross and road won the title by just 102 points over American Katie Compton. The two will meet on the mud for the first time at this month's world championships in Hoogelde-Gits, Belgium, and it will be interesting to see if Compton's poll numbers can translate to results when she goes up against the best in the world.

Meanwhile, UCI leader and former world champion Hanka Kupfernagel got no love from our reader poll. The winner of three world cup races - Kalmthout, Pijnacker and Hofstade - has been solidly churning out podium results all season, but couldn't crack the top three in our poll. The honours for the final step went instead to perennial North American favourite Lyne Bessette, who had an excellent season, winning the USGP series and dominating most of the US races she entered.

British racer Helen Wyman, currently third in UCI rankings, took fifth, while Dutch racer Daphny Van Den Brand, winner of four races this season, could only manage sixth place. Popular Cyclingnews diarist Barb Howe took seventh despite the fact that she didn't race this season, but was elected on merit of last season's participation in the world championships in Zeddam. She finished our poll ahead of German Birgit Hollmann and 2004 world champion and veteran French racer Laurence Leboucher. Reza Hormes-Ravenstijn of the Netherlands rounded out our top ten.

Results

                           Votes     %ge
1 Marianne Vos              2281    24.4
2 Katie Compton             2179    23.3
3 Lyne Bessette             1698    18.1
4 Hanka Kupfernagel          836     8.9
5 Helen Wyman                593     6.3
6 Daphny Van Den Brand       568     6.1
7 Barbara Howe               551     5.9
8 Birgit Hollmann            296     3.2
9 Laurence Leboucher         241     2.6
10 Reza Hormes Ravenstijn    122     1.3


                 Total:     9365