Ryder Hesjedal for the men and Catharine Pendrel for the women won the award of the Canadian cyclist of the year 2009. The voting was hosted by CanadianCyclist.com. In addition, Hesjedal took the Rider of the Decade award. His triumph was completed by the top Individual Performance of 2009, for his stage win at the Vuelta a España this year.
Hesjedal was moved by his win. “It is good to see that recognition about my consistency. I’ve been going pretty hard the last ten years, and this [award] is a tribute to that,” he said to CanadianCyclist.com. The cycling magazine gives out the award since 13 years and it is considered the premier cycling awards in Canada.
Hesjedal took 49.5% of the first place votes, clearly beating former award winner Geoff Kabush (22.3%) and Zach Bell (5.9%). Hesjedal is currently training on Hawaii to prepare the season. “It was great news to hear when I got up this morning. To receive an award like this from the public and Canadian Cyclist is very special, and made me reflect on the past year again. It was definitely a big year for me,” he said.
Kabush won his first-ever World Cup race this season, in Bromont, Quebec. He also became National mountain bike Champion and finished fifth at the World Championships. Bell received the silver medal at the Track World Championships in the Omnium event.
Mountain biker Pendrel won for the second time in a row. She topped her stellar 2008 season by winning her first national title. She also took the World Cup race in Mont Ste Anne (Quebec) and finished third overall in the 2009 World Cup series. Pendrel received 35.5% of first place votes. Emily Batty finished second with 24.9% of first place votes. She was second overall in the Under-23 Mountain Bike World Cup and won two Under-23 World Cup races. Marie-Hélène Premont received 11.2% of first place ballots and came in third.
The order for the Canadian Cyclist of the Decade was Hesjedal was (31.4%) ahead of Premont (16.6%) and two-time mountain bike world champion Roland Green (14.6%). Columbia-HTC’s Michael Barry (8.0%) was fourth and Lori-Ann Muenzer (6.3%) fifth.