2014 British Cycling Ride of the Year

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It has been another amazing year for the Great Britain Cycling Team as success on the world stage continues to inspire participation at all levels.

Ten of the team's great moments have made the shortlist for the 2014 British Cycling Ride of the Year award.

Vote for your favourite at the bottom of the page and we’ll announce the winner on Monday 22 December. Voting closes at 9pm on Sunday 21 December.

Cast your vote now

The nominations

Tre Whyte - UCI BMX World Championships
27 July, Rotterdam, Netherlands

At just 20 years old, Tre Whyte delivered the performance of his career to take bronze at the UCI BMX World Championships.

Whyte’s journey to the podium may have had a small dose of good fortune involved, but it was deserved after impeccable skill and technique took him to the final.

There the Peckham-born rider was involved in a five-man pile-up and all seemed lost.

But quick reactions and a show of composure gave Whyte the first major podium of his career.

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Joanna Rowsell - UCI Track Cycling World Championships
28 February, Cali, Colombia

Joanna Rowsell’s fifth world title, at the age of just 25, confirmed her as one of the great female track endurance cyclists of her generation.

The previous four titles had all come in the team format of the pursuit but the fifth would be an individual endeavour.

Having qualified second to defending champion Sarah Hammer of the USA, Rowsell turned the tables in the final to become a double world champion.

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Sir Bradley Wiggins - UCI Road World Championships
24 September, Ponferrada, Spain

A four-time Olympic champion and Britain’s first Tour de France winner, a time trial world title had eluded Wiggins, twice a silver medallist in 2011 and 2013.

The 34-year-old made that rainbow jersey his primary goal for 2014 in his last tilt at the championships before focusing on the track for Rio 2016.

Three-time champion Tony Martin could not match Wiggins, whose perfectly measured ride saw him win by 26 seconds and become Britain’s first elite men’s victor since Chris Boardman’s inaugural win in 1994.

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Mark Christian and Owain Doull - UCI Track Cycling World Cup
6 December, London, UK

Both Christian and Doull had gold from Friday’s team pursuit but on the Saturday in the Madison they exhilarated the sell-out crowd at the Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome.

Roared on as they fought to take a lap on the field, they then survived as Australia and New Zealand launched late bids to take a lap which would have denied the British duo victory.

Although a non-Olympic discipline, Christian and Doull delivered one of the moments of the three-day meeting.

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Dame Sarah Storey - UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships
31 August, Greenville, USA

Dame Sarah Storey with her gold medal in Greenville

No more evidence was needed to prove Dame Sarah Storey as the greatest British para-cyclist of all-time, but if any was she obliged in Greenville.

She had dominated the C5 time trial for a first gold of the championships but the road race was a much closer encounter as Storey won by a second.

It was the 37-year-old’s fourth world title of the year after winning two golds on the track in Mexico in April.

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Sophie Thornhill and Rachel James - UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships
14 April, Aguascalientes, Mexico

Stoker Thornhill, who is visually impaired, has only been racing since May 2013.

Thornhill and James, aged 18 and 25 respectively at the time, had only been cycling together on the tandem for seven months when they took the world championships by storm in Aguascalientes.

Gold in the tandem kilo, where they set a world record of 1:05.912, was followed by a second gold in the tandem sprint. Furthermore, the pair broke another world record in qualifying for the sprint with a flying lap of 10.854 seconds.

Stoker Thornhill, who is visually impaired, has only been racing since May 2013.

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Josh Bryceland - UCI Mountain Bike World Championships
7 September 2014, Hafjell, Norway

Josh Bryceland’s run at the 2014 downhill world championships will go down in history with the great near misses – Shaun Palmer (Are 1999), Steve Peat (Les Gets 2004) and Sam Hill (Val di Sole 2008).

Bryceland had already claimed the world cup title in 2014, but sheer bravado in his world championship final run - when he chose to risk everything by jumping the bridge in the final metres of the course - was the difference between the rainbow jersey and an ambulance ride home with a broken foot.

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Manon Carpenter - UCI Mountain Bike World Championships
7 September 2014, Hafjell, Norway

In 2011, Manon Carpenter matched Rachel Atherton’s junior downhill world title.

By 2014 she had not only equalled Atherton’s achievement of winning the world cup, but went on to win the world championships - deposing Atherton in the process - and proving that the lineage of great British women downhillers remains in great health.

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Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner - UCI Track Cycling World Cup
8 November, Guadalajara, Mexico

A UCI Track Cycling World Cup win in the team sprint was something that had evaded the Great Britain men’s squad for far too long.

The result they had been waiting for finally came at the Pan American Velodrome as Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner overcame Germany in 43.092 seconds with a stunning effort to take gold.

The British trio entered the finals second fastest from qualifying but turned the tables on their Teutonic rivals to end the world cup drought that had plagued them since their last win against New Zealand on 2 December 2010 in Melbourne, Australia.

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Gee Atherton - UCI Mountain Bike World Championships
7 September 2014, Hafjell, Norway

Bryceland misjudged the landing on the final jump into the finishing straight crowning Atherton the 2014 world champion.

After the unprecedented success of the Great Britain women’s downhill riders in the morning session it was the turn of the elite men to show their mettle on the slopes in Hafjell.

Gee Atherton recorded a time of 3:23.769 at the conclusion of his run putting him in first place with four riders still remaining.

Atherton remained in the hot seat right until team mate and final rider Josh Bryceland left the start gate. Although he was ahead after the first checkpoint, Bryceland misjudged the landing on the final jump into the finishing straight crowning Atherton the 2014 world champion, a second world title.

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Vote now (voting closes at 9pm on Sunday)