Voting is now open for the prestigious 2016 BT Sport Action Woman of the Year award, with an abundance of cyclists on the shortlist.
Cycling provides four out of the ten nominees and, after an incredible year, Rachel Atherton, Kadeena Cox, Laura Kenny and Dame Sarah Storey are all vying for your vote.
Rachel Atherton
Atherton has recorded a ‘perfect’ year in 2016, making history by winning every single UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup – the first rider in history to do so – before going on to take the world title in September.
The seven world cup victories in 2016 mean that Atherton has now won 13 consecutive world cup races overall, and this year saw her break the previous record of nine successive wins.
At the World Championships in Val di Sole, the 28-year-old was the final rider down the start ramp and dealt with the pressure to deliver a superb run, her time of 4:20.187 three seconds quicker than France’s Myriam Nicole.
Kadeena Cox
The first Briton in 32 years to win Paralympic medals in two different sports in the same year, Cox has enjoyed an incredible year.
Two years after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Cox travelled to Rio as a medal contender in both cycling and athletics, and returned as a double Paralympic champion with a total of four medals to her name.
Her cycling triumph came in the velodrome, when she won the C4-5 500m time trial setting a new C4 world record in the process.
This added to the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships title which she won in the same event in Italy in March.
In recognition of her record-breaking efforts in Rio, Cox was selected to carry the flag for Great Britain at the closing ceremony.
Laura Kenny
Another stellar year has seen Kenny claim two world titles and two Olympic gold medals, the latter achievement making her Great Britain’s most successful ever female Olympian – at the age of just 24.
Following two world championship silver medals in 2015, Kenny returned to the top step of the podium in front of her home crowd at this year’s UCI Track World Championships by winning both the omnium and the scratch race in London, taking her career tally to seven world titles.
She carried this momentum on to Rio, firstly as part of the British team pursuit quartet. Kenny, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker smashed the world record on three occasions, including setting a time of 4:10:236 to beat the USA in the final.
Kenny returned to the track two days later for the start of her omnium campaign, putting herself in pole position with impressive performances in the scratch race, individual pursuit and elimination race. She consolidated this during day two, and took the title by a dominant 24 points.
The double success in Rio replicated Kenny’s achievements at London 2012, and ensured that she became the first ever British woman to win four Olympic gold medals.
Dame Sarah Storey
Storey again wrote her name into British sporting history books in 2016, surpassing Tanni Grey-Thompson to become Britain’s most successful female Paralympian.
Storey’s dominant victory over teammate Crystal Lane in the 3k individual pursuit on the track in Rio saw her break Grey-Thompson’s record, and she went on to add further golds on the road in the time-trial and road race, taking her career total to 14 Paralympic titles, leaving her behind only swimmer Mike Kenny in the all-time list of British medal winners.
Storey also won the pursuit at the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Italy in March as well as picking up silver medals in the 500 metre time trial and scratch race.
